Annetta Bennett
Position:
Prison play area and volunteer co-ordinator; training and support officer; NVQ assessor in childcare and education
Employer:
HMP Brixton, KIDS VIP charity and Croydon College
Monday
Travel from London to a prison in Lancashire to look at the facilities for visiting children and deliver on-site training to the play area co-ordinator. People tend to forget that children will be affected when a parent is imprisoned and my role is to explain to prison staff how their needs can be met. Back home by 9.30pm - trains on time!
Tuesday
Visit HMP Brixton. Report to gate, book in and collect staff ID. The children's play area is staffed by volunteers and has been located in the social visits room since 1993, to provide a safe and stimulating environment for children visiting imprisoned male relatives. The main purpose of a child's visit is to maintain family ties, so children divide their time between the play area and their relatives.
Check the play area notice board. There's a comment from volunteers describing the Saturday afternoon session as noisy, but fun, adding, 'No 1 Governor popped in and asked how everyone was.'
Pop over to cashiers to drop off travel expenses claims for volunteers and get typing services to write letters to organisations who support prisoner families.
Wednesday
Out at 9am to travel to prison in Sheerness, Kent, for one-to-one training with a new co-ordinator. We closely examine good practice guidelines and focus on advertising, recruitment and induction of volunteers. Arrangements are made for her to visit other prisons and network with other co-ordinators.
Thursday
Travel to Streatham Vale to assess NVQ candidate at work. Do paperwork from home in afternoon.
Friday Talk to visitors with children at Brixton about their needs. Run through the locked door routine and check out at least half a stone lighter and with biceps that Popeye would die for, having opened and closed so many doors.
Saturday
This is my afternoon on volunteer rota at Brixton prison. Five children use the play area, including three who visit their father every weekend - a boy aged four and two girls aged seven and nine. The two girls and my colleague play with the football table, while I play a game of Connect 4 with the boy. He then asks to draw a picture of a Pokemon character for his dad, When he returns with it he asks me to display it on the wall. A seven-year-old girl, who hasn't visited before, asks for a book to read with her granddad who is in prison.
I have a good chat with a grandmother who books in a 12-month-old boy and a girl aged four. While the mother sees her partner on her own, the grandmother holds the baby in her arms and the girl plays with dolls. She takes the children to join their mum and dad, but the girl returns on her own to draw a picture. She asks for help to write a message - 'I love you dad' - and takes the picture to her father.
Volunteers for prison play areas can write to Annetta at HMP Brixton, PO Box 369, Jebb Avenue, London SW2 5XF.
