A forensic psychologist is helping manage some of the UK\u2019s most high-risk offenders.<\/p>\n
Keely Perham, 34, works at HMP Manchester and is the clinical lead for the Close Supervision Centre (CSC), a facility designed for prisoners whose behaviour is so dangerous that they cannot be managed elsewhere.<\/p>\n
Ms Perham\u2019s interest in criminal psychology began at an early age, shaped in part by her mother\u2019s work as a prison governor at HMP Brixton and HMP Wormwood Scrubs, and her father\u2019s later service as a Detective Inspector with the Metropolitan Police.<\/p>\n
Ms Perham said: “I was always interested in why people do things.<\/p>\n
“I loved watching criminal documentaries, was interested in crime, and I knew for a long time that I wanted to be a forensic psychologist.<\/p>\n
“I had insight because my mum\u2019s career.<\/p>\n
“I knew what the job was \u2013 which is rare.”<\/p>\n
After university, she began volunteering at the former prison in Reading before starting formal training at HMP Erlestoke, despite a lengthy daily commute of 70 miles each way.<\/p>\n
She said: “It was long, long hours.<\/p>\n
“But worth it for the chance to get into the field.<\/p>\n
“The service pays for your training, I felt lucky to get it.”<\/p>\n
Ms Perham later moved to HMP Bullingdon before transferring to the high-security estate at HMP Manchester.<\/p>\n
There, she joined the CSC, which works with a small group of prisoners judged to pose the highest security risks.<\/p>\n
She said: “Working in this job is intellectually nourishing.<\/p>\n
“We assess individuals serving the most serious sentences, give expert evidence at parole hearings and work daily to reduce and contain extreme risk.<\/p>\n
“The aim is to get them into the general prison population.”<\/p>\n
While she describes the work as intense, complex, demanding and highly specialist, she says it is exactly where she wants to be.<\/p>\n
Women like Ms Perham now make up 41 per cent of all staff inside prisons, in roles ranging from frontline officers to psychologists, educators, and operational specialists.<\/p>\n
The Ministry of Justice is currently running its ‘Extraordinary Jobs’ campaign to highlight the range of roles available in prison and probation services and the impact staff can have.<\/p>\n
Many positions require no previous qualifications and come with full training.<\/p>\n
Prisons are looking for applicants who can communicate well, remain calm under pressure, make sound decisions and are genuinely interested in helping people change their lives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A forensic psychologist is helping manage some of the UK\u2019s most high-risk offenders. Keely Perham, 34, works at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6332,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13,3420,3423,3414,3419,3422,3417,3416,3415,3421,996,3418],"class_list":{"0":"post-6331","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-close-supervision-centre","10":"tag-criminal-psychology","11":"tag-forensic-psychologist","12":"tag-hmp-brixton","13":"tag-hmp-bullingdon","14":"tag-hmp-manchester","15":"tag-hmp-wormwood-scrubs","16":"tag-keely-perham","17":"tag-ms-perham","18":"tag-prison","19":"tag-prison-governor"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116350247330358118","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}