THE ROLE OF A PRISON OFFICER

The Prison Service expect you to be yourself and deal with the simulations in the same way you would deal with similar situations you meet in everyday life. However, there are a number of things that you can do to improve your chances of success on the day. During the assessment simulations, you will be assessed on 6 core behaviours. Let’s take a look at the first two to get you started in your preparation for the prison officer role play.

CORE BEHAVIOUR

NON-VERBAL LISTENING SKILLS (HOW YOU SHOW THAT YOU ARE LISTENING)

This is your ability to demonstrate, through your body language, facial expressions and general demeanour that you can effectively listen to what other people are saying. In all of the simulations you will be required to listen effectively to what people are saying and demonstrate that you are doing this through a number of ways.

Listening is rarely taught in schools because the teachers or education authorities (along with almost everyone else) assume listening is automatic. But effective listening is a skill. Like any other skill, competency in listening is achieved through learning and practice. The scarcity of good listeners is self-perpetuating; if you didn’t have good listeners to learn from and (especially) models to emulate, you probably didn’t master this form of effective communication.

10 top effective listening tips for the prison officer role play simulations

1. Face the role play actor and maintain eye contact.
2. Use facial expressions and simple body language to show the role play actor that you are listening to them.
3. Keep an open mind when dealing with each scenario.
4. Listen to the words and try to picture what the role play actor is saying.
5. Don’t interrupt and don’t impose your solutions.
6. Wait for the role play actor to pause before asking clarifying questions, unless of course they use inappropriate language or behaviour.
7. Ask questions only to ensure understanding of something that has been said (avoiding questions that disrupt the role play actor’s train of thought).
8. Try to feel what the role play actor is feeling.
9. Give the role play actor regular feedback, e.g. summarise, reflect feelings, or simply say “uh huh”.
10. Pay attention to what isn’t said – to feelings, facial expressions, gestures, posture and other non-verbal cues.

CORE BEHAVIOUR

SUSPENDING JUDGEMENT (HOW AND WHEN TO MAKE JUDGEMENTS)

This is all about the timing of your decisions or judgements. How far do you let something go or carry on for before making your judgement? You will need to listen to the information that you are receiving from the simulation and make a decision about when you interact.

For example, if you were witnessing a simulation that involved a bullying or harassment situation, then you would want to make your judgement quickly. However, if you were confronted in the simulation with a situation that involved somebody making a complaint, then you would need to use your effective listening skills for making any judgements. In other words, you need to decide how much information you want to gather before you make a decision or intervene.

The prison officer role play video training will teach you how to effectively demonstrate all of the six core behavioural skills and pass the Recruitment Assessment day.