Bernie Mayall is deputy director of offender health at IC24.As a natural early riser I usually get up between 4.30am and 5am which gives me time, before too many other people are around, to prepare for the day, meditate and get some work done. I have breakfast with tea at around 5.15am and a midmorning triple espresso at about 7am. I drive to work, whether that is in the prisons, at conference, or elsewhere, to the sound of Radio4 or Radio3.
I have a fascinating job. IC24, a not for profit social enterprise, delivers primary care services across the UK. We currently deliver healthcare at four custodial sites including three prisons housing category B, C and D prisoners and an immigration removal centre, so on a standard day I can be travelling between very different sites. Every prison is a functioning community in itself, and has all the things you would find outside: educational facilities, library, place of worship, clinic, catering and laundry.
Part of the service that prisons provide is to reduce reoffending. If we really are to reduce re-offending we have to look at the whole person coming into custody, their circles of support and their communities.
To create fresh options for people – to empower people to choose not to re-offend – we have to see past the offence and look directly at the offender. By doing this we will see a human being not an offender, someone who quite often is unable to see – or feel – that there are other choices available.
I feel that this should start much earlier than prison; it should begin as soon as young people start to come to the attention of statutory services. It is sad to think that the first opportunity many disadvantaged or abused youngsters have to realise that other options are available to them, is when they enter the youth custody services. At this point, there is a rare opportunity to support people onto a new path, to demonstrate that there are other options available and that life does not have to be as it has been so far.
I fell into working in prisons by chance about four years ago: my background is mental health nursing and learning disabilities. A friend knew that a health care consultant was needed in Essex prisons – this was when the Bradley Report was published – and I stayed for two years rather than the original six months because I found it fascinating work. What I met on the inside was a revelation, a truly diverse population of prisoners and prison staff. Prison officers, who historically get a bad press, work incredibly hard in often difficult and dangerous circumstances and do so, by and large, with charm and humour. The prisoners cope with an almost surreal existence, some of them shocked and on remand or a first sentence, some fighting deportation, some inside for a life sentence, all of them trying to find ways to survive.
I have met some terrific people who made me laugh and made me think. In addition the interface of organisations impacting custodial services is unique. Developments politically have led to a more diverse set of organisations competing to deliver services and this has changed the landscape. But the challenge is to harness the available resources to create integrated delivery, and it is possible. It was because I wanted to support that collaborative vision that I joined the advisory board of No Offence, an award-winning community interest company whose mission is to support and encourage the criminal justice sector to exchange information, collaborate and promote wider societal understanding of the solutions needed to effect positive change. With over 10,000 members and followers in over 25 countries, No Offence brings together the largest group of criminal justice expertise all in one place and promotes wider understanding of complex criminal justice issues across society.
So, a day in my life is never dull, never the same as any other day, always busy and always full of opportunities to make a difference. I wouldn't have it any other way.
Bernie Mayall is deputy director of offender health at Integrated Care 24.
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