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Sky News

12-05-2025

'We release them and they come back': Officers acting as 'agony aunts' for inmates
Prison officers act as "agony aunts" for inmates, with young offenders being returned to the same prison time and time again.
That's according to Sophie Lynch, who has worked at HMP Preston for seven-and-a-half years.
She tells Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge she has become "used to seeing some faces" as prisoners become trapped in a cycle of serving short sentences, being released, only to be convicted again going back to jail.
She says: "The prisoners that we're releasing, they're coming back in weeks later, and we're having to start all over again to try to get things in place for them when they do get out."
'They've not got their wits about them'
Sophie works in a department that aims to manage those at risk of self-harm or suicide, making her work less about "locking doors" and more about caring for inmates.
She compares her work to that of an agony aunt. "I think there's a general misunderstanding of what a prison officer does," she adds.
She also says that "nine out of 10" prisoners she sees are men aged 25 or younger, who have spent time in care.
"They are kids", she says. "They're coming in at 18, [it's their] first time in custody, not really got their wits about them, and you'll see how they get almost ingratiated in those groups.
"And then they come back, and then they're 19, then they're 20, and then they're 21.
"And each time they're getting different, sometimes longer sentences."
'Overstretched and under-resourced'
She also believes sometimes prison is "not a suitable environment" for these young men, as many have had "adverse childhood experiences or enduring mental illness".
Pushed on what those behaviours are, Sophie says this can mean self-harm or violence.
Sophie also tells us that some prisoners at HMP Preston are waiting for a bed at a secure unit or hospital, and were not supposed to be in a conventional prison at all.
She believes "something needs to be done" and says her years of experience shows prisons are "overstretched, under-resourced, and people are constantly just coming back into custody".