The Ministry of Justice has launched its first ever national TV and radio advertising campaign showing the “reality of life” as a prison officer as part of a major recruitment drive.
Featuring the voices of serving prison and probation officers, the campaign follows in the footsteps of previous recruitment drives for the armed forces, telling the stories of prisoners and staff and showing the reality of working in these “extraordinary” jobs.
The ‘An extraordinary job. Done by someone like you’ campaign was developed in response to research commissioned by the Ministry of Justice which showed that almost half of the British public (47%) don’t know much about the service.
It aims to stop ‘sugar coating’ roles and take the viewer behind the scenes of the work carried out by those on the frontline as it “challenges the misconceptions” associated with working within prisons and the probation office.
The adverts will run across selected regions of England and Wales on catch-up TV, digital audio and social media throughout the autumn.
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“This ambitious campaign aims – for the first time – to accurately portray the realities of working on the landings and shine a light on the people who do these challenging, but invaluable roles,” said prisons minister Damian Hinds.
“From helping to improve the literacy skills of prisoners to supporting the rehabilitation of some of the hardest-to-reach members of society, our prison and probation staff do extraordinary work every single day.”
One of the officers who took part in the advert, custodial manager Sarah Berry, said she was “really happy” to see a more authentic advert for recruitment.
“It’s important that new recruits know that working in a prison is noisy and busy and at times can be very hard, both emotionally and physically.
“I wanted to be part of the advert so I could help bring the next generation of officers through the door.”
Although the first TV campaign, this not the first recruitment advert from the Ministry of Justice, which had a Facebook ad banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) last year for negative racial stereotyping.
