Scottish Prisons Assessment and Review of Outcomes for Women (SPAROW): executive summary

SPS Officers working in the CCUs (see Chapter 8 in the full report)

Officers working in the CCUs have varied lengths of experience and different career trajectories. For the most part, they have limited experience of working with women in the prison estate. There was a feeling of unpreparedness for working in the CCUs, which was intensified by the changes that officers perceived in the profile of women moved to the CCUs. The training they were provided with was not seen as particularly useful, nor had it equipped them for working in the CCUs. Improving officer training around working with women will likely help the SPS prisons to retain staff, and enable them to feel more confident and assured in their work. Raising more awareness of the CCUs across the women’s estate, including in closed establishments to provide clear and accurate explanations about the realities of life in the CCU for both women and for staff can only help with setting and managing expectations.

Yet running through the officer accounts of the work that they do, and aspire to do, in the CCUs, is a sense of concern for the women and a desire to ‘do things differently.’ This can be considered an important outcome for staff, although there are some concerning views about how working with women should be done. In line with other research^[3] about staff working with women in prison, gender performativity in male (and female) establishments appears to have shaped officer views, attitudes and expectations of women in prison, leading to some stereotypical views and presumptions about the women and differences between women and men. This was evident in the language used by many officers to describe the women.

Officers raised several challenges that hindered their work. Key amongst these were what they considered inconsistent messages about the application of rules, and what was and was not allowed in the CCUs. Officers saw this as a source of tension and frustration both for themselves and for the women. Other challenges related to a lack of flexibility, for example around the wearing of prison uniforms. Whilst, for the most part, strong support was provided to officers from managers at a local level in the CCUs, there was a widespread feeling of being unsupported and not listened to by SPS senior management.