Monday Morning – A day in the life of a Prison Based Champion.
Another rainy day on arrival at the Prison, I check in through security and then I make my way to the Link Centre.
A cup of coffee later and after a chat with the Prison officers finding out what’s being going on over the weekend it’s time to open my PR2 and get on with some work.
First thing I need to do is check and see who has come back through the big revolving door to update their community mentors with the appropriate information. I then update individual Prisoner records with all prisoner referrals which have been allocated to a mentor.
I run a report and make a list to see prisoners in order of Court appearances and Liberation Dates. I then pass the list onto the Prisoner Runner who goes over to the various wings and brings the women over to the Link centre where I carry out an induction of Shine Women’s Mentoring Project, informing them of what support we can provide and also the offer of continuous support once liberated back into the community.
I have 3 prisoners who are interested in working with Shine and I speak with them on a 1-2-1 basis recording their personal details and all the information needed to complete the Prisoner Referral.
I speak with 3 very different women with various support needs on liberation. On having a 1-2-1 with Prisoner A she informs me that she had been under the impression that as she was working with Through Care Support within the Prison she was unable to work with Shine as well. She realised during the induction that this wasn’t the case and she was glad to engage with all support available to her. Prisoner A is happy to share her emotional issues with me during our chat and it becomes very clear that the support that Shine can offer, alongside Through Care Support within the Prison, would be really helpful to her once released.
After a hectic busy day in Prison it’s time to head back to the office and send the referrals to the Service Managers who will then allocate them to mentors covering the areas across Scotland that the ladies will liberate to.