Pia Sinha joined the Prison Service as a psychologist at Wandsworth, and having moved over to the operational side, has since
governed Thorn Cross, Risley, and Liverpool. She also served for five years on the Awarding Panel for the Butler Trust Awards for staff.
Quick to laugh off their achievements, and often reluctant to take the limelight,
prison officers are a unique and special group of individuals. I have worked in eight
different prisons in my 20 year career and feel privileged to have worked with some
incredibly inspiring people who change lives every day by ‘just doing their jobs’ in
a thoroughly decent way.
Behind the high walls, razor wire, noise and austere surroundings, lives a prison
community. Hidden from the outside world, what happens inside to make this a
community and a place of hope, opportunity, safety and reflection is all down to
the staff who work there.
They provide safety to the most vulnerable, direction to the most challenging,
and inspiration to those without hope. They say they are ‘just doing their job’
but they truly are unsung heroes.