Laura Day, 47, is only the second female governor of HMP Sudbury, a Category D prison near Ashbourne in Derbyshire, since it first opened in 1948. She wants to build a positive reputation with the community of the Derbyshire prison. She said: "Throughout my career, people have made assumptions – I’m female and didn’t fit the mold of most people’s idea of a typical prison officer. “Even now, if I walk around the prison, people assume I’m a psychologist or educator and are shocked when I tell them I’m the Governor. I’m happy to be changing perceptions. “As a woman, you’re encouraged to get a career and have a family. This job enabled me to do both. It’s a great career option for people, and can be challenging, but there are lots of women making a positive difference in the service.”
Alongside other hard-working prison staff at HMP Sudbury, Laura is playing a crucial role in supporting the prison system through challenging times, with prisons until recently close to full. Staff will play a key role in rebuilding the prison system so that it is more effective at cutting reoffending rates among those leaving prison. Laura’s journey from joining the service in an administrative role, to becoming a governor, has been a long one. She joined in 2000 in an administrative role at Newbold Revel, the prison officers’ training college in Warwickshire, after completing a degree in social studies and psychology at Aston University. This helped her decide that a career in the prison service was for her.
Laura then became a prison officer and progressed quickly through the ranks. She’s worked in eight different prisons and was most recently a deputy governor, a role she’d done since 2008. Laura added: “I read once about when, during a visit to NASA in the 1960s, President Kennedy spoke to a janitor and asked what their job was and he said ‘I help get people on the moon.’ That’s kind of what I want us to have at HMP Sudbury - an ethos of everyone understanding their role and how they fit. “We’re an open site and it’s a nice environment to work. We’re sending prisoners out to do real jobs, and we have the Secret Diner, a restaurant staffed by prisoners in the grounds of the prison, which is open to the public, and gives a sense of the great work we’re doing here. “If you come and work at HMP Sudbury, you will feel you can really make a difference – reducing the risk of reoffending and helping people to not come back. You can see a tangible difference you’re making to their lives.”
HMP Sudbury recently increased its capacity. Each day, around one third of the prison’s population goes out to work, a third is in training or education in the prison, and another third is doing jobs inside the prison, like working in the kitchen or cleaning.
As governor, Laura’s priorities are for HMP Sudbury to be a positive rehabilitative environment, providing prisoners with the opportunity to fulfil their potential, to get them in the best place to maintain positive ties with their families and significant others, and to secure accommodation and meaningful employment on release. You do not need qualifications to become a prison officer or to join in a support staff role. Those who would like to take the first step towards a rewarding new career can apply or find out more by visiting Prison and Probation Jobs.