Alexander Maconochie Centre prison guard on what life is working inside the ... trends now
When Damien Veal tells people what he does for a living the reaction is either one of fascination or horror.
The former teacher works as a correctional officer at Canberra's Alexander Maconochie Centre, Australia's newest major adult prison, which has repeatedly been in the news for all the wrong reasons.
Although it was designed to be a state-of-the-art model prison that focused on rehabilitation rather than punishment, the jail has been dogged almost from inception by reports of violence, drug use and failure to reform inmates.
Corrections Officer Damien Veal has been working for three years at the Alexander Maconochie Centre
CO Veal admits when he started at the jail 'morale was pretty low comparatively'.
'Working with people in the last six months there has been a real effort to bring everyone together and lift everyone up a little bit,' he said.
In terms of his unusual career shift, the 46-year-old says being a prison guard is not 'dissimilar in a lot of ways' to being a teacher.
He admits some are surprised to find out his occupation because he doesn't match the expectations of the tyrannical, perhaps even sadistic, prison guard as so often portrayed by Hollywood.
'The reaction I get is quite mixed,' he said.
'Some people are quite fascinated about what it's like.
CO Veal (pictured left) says the job of being a prison officer is very challenging because of th unexpected nature of the occupation
'Some people are pretty horrified because they base it on the stereotypes that are out there but generally it's "that's very interesting" and wanting to find out more kind of response.'
For CO Veal the most challenging aspect is the unexpected nature of the job.
'We are always living under the threat of incident - that's the nature of the beast,' he said.
'Coming out of that is the camaraderie among staff, there are fantastic here and we all get on really well.
'We all support each other really effectively.'
CO Veal said he had never been threatened or targeted but sometimes had to step in to break up fights and been in situations where he thought it could 'turn bad'.
CO Veal says that people who meet him are often surprised that he doesn't fit the 'stereotype' of a prison guard
Perhaps the most harrowing
