Ex-prison officer Gen Glaister writes memoir for Transworld

Transworld has acquired The Prison Officer, “a shockingly revealing memoir” from former prison officer Gen Glaister who now advocates for prison reform.

Kate Fox, Transworld’s former deputy publishing director, bought UK and Commonwealth rights from Katie Fulford at Bell Lomax Moreton. The Prison Officer will be published in paperback original, e-book and audiobook on 9th May 2024. 

The blurb for what Transworld dubbed “a shockingly revealing memoir”, reads: “Becoming a prison officer was Gen’s burning ambition despite, or perhaps because of her background. At 23, full of hopes and dreams of helping those who needed it most within the prison system, she discovered the reality of life behind bars that no training could possibly have prepared her for. In this searing account of her years as a prison officer, Gen shares how she learned to use her heart, her humour and sheer bloody-mindedness to make a difference to the men who lived by a different set of rules, finding her place amongst gangsters, killers and traffickers. 

“Gen Glaister had her heart set on being a prison officer since she was 15. Just three months after leaving university she finally got the keys to one of London’s largest male prisons, where she learned more about humans than she could ever have imagined. Since leaving the prison service, Gen has remained determined to change the public’s perception of people in prison and advocate for justice reform.”

Glaister said: “I wrote The Prison Officer because I wanted to share the privilege I had of getting to know the men I met in prison. In an age where we are fed two dimensional villains and threatening headlines about yet more people to fear on a daily basis, I want this book to lift the gloomy shroud which obscures the population of our prisons and instead generate an open and informed conversation about what we can really do to create a justice system we are proud of and which ultimately keeps us safer.”

Editor Steph Duncan said: “As the UK’s prison population continues to increase at an alarming rate and prisons are crumbling under the pressure, Gen’s personal experience as a prison officer gives real insight into the lives of the men inside, the challenges they face and the need to do something to break this cycle of crime and repeated incarceration.”