Wednesday 9 October 2024

Contact 1800 772 679

Contact 1800 772 679

The magazine of the Public Service Association of NSW and the Community and Public Sector Union (NSW Branch)

Inside Job

Inside Job

Treating murderers and sex offenders. The life of a prison psychologist

Rebecca Myers
$22.99
Harper Collins

Few would envy the role played by Rebecca Myers in the British correctives system: working with sex offenders to see what drove them to commit horrendous crimes, sometimes against children.

For more than 20 years, Psychologist Dr Myers has worked with sex offenders and murderers whose crimes have a sexual bent to them.

The book starts with her first visit into a British men’s prison, where she is required to assess whether inmates are eligible for parole and reintegration into society. The program she uses, the Sex Offender Treatment Program (SOTP) involves inmates taking the viewpoint of the victims of their crimes, even to the point of recreating the offence. More importantly, attendees are forced to acknowledge they have committed the crime in the first place.

Inside Job ends with Dr Myers being called in to negotiate when an inmate takes a female Officer hostage.

PSA members in the correctives system will identify with the struggles Dr Myers has with often difficult inmates and other readers will find her tough job fascinating.

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