I'm hopefully going to start a degree at university in September. But it's just occurred to me that one of the more likely jobs I would get after my degree could involve spending a fair amount of time working in prisons. I wouldn't come out to them as that simply wouldn't make sense, professionally - but I'm quite obviously gay. I'm just wondering if there is anyone on here, especially gay men, who have worked in prisons before - and does homosexuality cause any issues with it?
Shouldn't. Given the people you'll be working with (who can't even learn to respect each others' races), you can be out to your colleagues at least, who will probably instruct you not to tell the prisoners.
I've been a criminal justice major for the last three years and I've spent time in a maximum security drug rehabilitation center for the last seven months as part of an internship, so I can help a little bit, at least. Prison culture is really just perverse and demented. On one hand, homosexuality and gay sex is expected and coerced among the prison population, and then on the other, it's hated and despised and ridiculed. If you really want to work in institutions, I think it's important to realize that you are literally walking into a battlezone. Inmates will try to break you down and play games with you, and you have to be able to take that, day-in and day-out. I do think that you will eventually have problems because of your sexuality, I think it will make you a target to some, not just from inmates, but possibly from your coworkers too. I don't want to discourage you or anything, but openly LGBT people in law enforcement is a trail that hasn't really been blazed before now. As messed up as it is, you and I both are going to have to prove ourselves in a way that heterosexual men won't have to. Respect is earned, and as long as you know that up front, I think you'll be fine in the end.
This is speculation, since I have no experience, but I'd guess that in a really male-dominated environment like that (esp. if it's a male prison, but even female ones) there's probably bound to be some strife. If you mean between you and your coworkers, well... I think there's about as much chance as there's being issues in any other job. Presumably after your degree you aren't the one behind bars, so I think since you're relatively in "a position of power", so long as you own who you are and act confident, even if someone does give you shit for it you can just brush it off. I'm just gonna say though that I wouldn't let your sexuality combined with a potential future job from your future degree obtained from this school dictate what you decide to go study... if you got the gist from that long-winded sentence, it's too early to tell exactly where you'll end up, unless that's where you specifically do want to end up. And hell, in 4/5 years, a lot can change, things could be a lot more accepting then.
Thanks for your responses guys I would definitely not come out to prisoners as that just seems like a silly thing to do - but just to clarify I wouldn't be a prison guard or anything like that. Also attaining the qualifications would take 5 years in itself, so I think I would probably have to wait and see.
I spent two years in prison and two choices: pair up with a member of a white gang and basically become his property or constantly fight and probably eventually get overpowered anyway. I decided to pair up. Even though I was straight, I was considered the gay guy and the man who got hard from looking at me naked and fucked me everyday was considered straight. As far as the guards, most of us were more scared of them than any inmate. If you don't come off as gay and don't tell anyone, you won't have a problem from inmates. If I were you, I'd worry about the guards.
I would just like to point out that US prisons can in no way be compared to European prisons (OP lives in England.. though admittedly, I don't know a whole lot about England). The horror stories you hear about US prisons are pretty much nothing like the quiet, relaxed prisons in most parts of Europe. For example in the Netherlands they almost never pair up prisoners -- everyone has their own cell. Every prisoner can work to earn money and pay for stuff in their cells. So almost every prisoner has a tv, playstation, dvd player, fridge and what not. There is no real gang forming, and there's virtually never violence. Yeah, very different from the hostile environment US prisons are known for. So I don't think it's gonna be that much of an issue as it would be in the US. But again, I don't know that much about English prisons so if I'm wrong don't blame me.
