lolabobs | He's just a bit crabby

Today I got a request to complete an assessment for an offender to see whether he was suitable to move to an open prison. Quite a significant issue therefore as granting the move would see him in open conditions, able to leave the prison, go into town etc.

So I called the current prison to get info as to what he's done since his sentence, any adjudications for bad behaviour, what offence focussed work he's done, his attitude to the offence, his conduct etc etc ie essential things to assess whether he has made any changes, what risk he presents and so on.

I introduced myself, explained my purpose and sat, poised, pen at the ready...

... to hear the prison officer launch into a furious rant all about how FED UP he is of havng to answer calls form Probation Officers, all wanting information. Why do they even bother to call him, WHAT IS THE POINT?. How is he supposed to do his job if all he is doing is answering the bloody phone and looking up information. He has HAD ENOUGH and it's driving him up the wall. What do we need the info for anyway, all they want is a decision from us, not all this bother. He just gets into the screen he wants and then he has to answer the 'phone and answer more questions...

It was quite astonishing!

He did start to give me the info (which is a strong part of his role btw) but paused to chunter on a bit more between each snippet.

Then he apologised if he'd been a bit crabby...