A former prison psychologist, Lara Bulut, who previously worked at Her Majesty’s category B prison, has dealt with many high-risk offenders and speaks on her experiences as a woman, working in a notoriously intimidating environment and the impact of an underfunded prison system.
According to Lara Bulut, 31, a clinical psychologist – she was first offered a job at HMP not long after she had graduated with a Masters degree in Psychology and was in quick need of employment.
“There weren’t many other women working there, I was the only woman at times, it was very intimidating and you have to remember they’re not your peers and to always keep boundaries”, said Ms Bulut.
“Last month the total length of service among prison employees plummeted by a quarter since 2010, dropping from 330,000 to 250,000 in 2018.”
According to May Bulman, Journalist, The Independent
From these statistics, HMP has had staffing cuts that could obstruct the rehabilitation of prisoners and enormously decrease prison safety standards.
“There are definitely funding cuts, very little time to work with prisoners and realistically 8 weeks was not long enough for me to rehabilitate an individual. Not many outcomes are successful, it isn’t set up well enough”, said Bulut.
Working in class B prisons, Ms Bulut was exposed to violent, sexual offenders and blue-collar criminals – all of which Bulut had said really needed help and rehabilitation, in a prison system that failed to provide this to any of its inmates in her time working there.
“In order to stop people coming out of prison and becoming repeat offenders, they really need to be given the chance to do that, they need real support, skills, education and planning”, said Bulut.
Ms Bulut has since left her role at HMP, deciding against pursuing a career in the prison system. Ms Bulut currently works in education.