Rosette Kandi PCO

Behind the scenes at HMP & YOI Bronzefield

Published on : 10/30/19
  • Rosette Kandi joined HMP & YOI Bronzefield straight after graduating from the University of Southampton. A long-founded interest in criminal justice led to her role as a prison custody officer. But, as she tells us, she doesn’t plan to stop there… 

    At 23 Rosette Kandi has already been working as a prison custody officer (PCO) for two years: she joined HMP & YOI Bronzefield just after receiving her 2:1 in Criminology. Despite harbouring ambitions to be a policy maker for prisons, it was a surprise to friends and family when Rosette told them her plans: “People were quite shocked and a bit worried when I told them I was going to work in a prison,” says Rosette, “but once they saw me settled into my role – and took a tour of Bronzefield themselves at my PCO graduation – they realised it’s actually a pretty safe environment.” 

    And it’s an environment Rosette has got to know incredibly well since joining the Sodexo-run prison in 2017. Spending most of her time on the house blocks, Rosette works directly with Bronzefield’s residents ensuring they follow the prison regime and helping them to adjust to prison life where needed: “It can be quite demanding being on the house blocks, some residents need a lot of support. But there’s a great team on my block and we work together to handle incidents and support each other. When you’re coming to work, it’s good to know that people have your back. Sometimes it’s even the ladies who look out for you and correct other residents if they are trying to tell you the wrong thing!”

    Contact with residents is the part of the job that Rosette likes most. So much so, that she is now part of the new Key Worker Programme. As part of this scheme, residents are allocated a PCO to act as their mentor during their time in prison. The same key worker meets the resident every week discussing with them everything from family relationships to their sentence and progression towards release. This support helps many ladies in the journey to rehabilitation. Rosette says: “I’ve been a key worker for about five months now. Some of the residents under our care are used to being let down by people in life, so for them to experience the consistency of seeing the same officer every week without fail, allows them to build trust and confidence in us.”

    “Genuinely, it is the most rewarding part of my job: as an officer our day to day duties do not always allow us time to sit down and have quality, meaningful conversations with residents. The key worker scheme allows us to meet with the same eight ladies every week, observe their progression, and provide quality care. It reminds me why I joined the prison service.”

    Rosette has, in fact, progressed to become a key worker champion which means that she trains her peers on the scheme ensuring even more residents can receive this one-to-one support. But she isn’t stopping at this one opportunity to develop and grow her Sodexo career. Rosette recently passed an assessment board for promotion to a Senior Prison Custody Officer. While she waits for a senior position to become available, Rosette is spending her time wisely: “I’m regularly cross-deployed which is always good for learning. My house block is generally for ladies on remand so I enjoy the chance to see things from a slightly different perspective. I’ve also volunteered to ‘act up’ as a senior when managers have been out on leave; it’s given me the chance to see what it takes to run a house block. I hope a senior position will be available soon and when it is, I want to be ready to put myself forward.” 

    But working in a prison isn’t always a bed of roses and the role of PCO can bring challenges with it. Rosette says new PCOs will have to learn to enforce the prison’s rules consistently and fairly, “It can be hard when you’re a new officer to be the one insisting residents do what you say but you have to be confident, not nervous, because you are the authority figure. My advice? Just own it!”

    With that in mind, we ask Rosette whether she thinks her role – and the work of the prison as a whole – can reduce reoffending among residents.

    Bronzefield definitely has a rehabilitative culture, we’re not about residents staying in their cells all day, we’re trying to mirror the working life outside and prepare residents for that.

    "We have a strict schedule and ladies are expected to follow it, there are penalties for not going to work, just like in the real world. At first, I was surprised by how pleasant most residents could be but I think that’s because they know we’re here to support them.”

    While the mutual respect between residents and PCOs could be surprising, Rosette says that this understanding can make everyone’s day a little easier: “We do try to interact with the residents and not just be the ones giving out orders. We play rounders all together sometimes in the hot weather and at Christmas we have games afternoons and a Christmas play. I really enjoy working with these ladies, sometimes just people valuing them can be the change that they need.” 

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