Why did Helen join the prison service? why this job, of all jobs in the world?

I have a few thoughts but wanted to hear what other people had to say first. Thank you.

That's a pretty broad question. I could make an argument for why she went into a helping-type profession (social work, drug rehabilitation work etc), but figuring out why the prison service specifically? That's a tough one.

Generally speaking, I think she wanted to do work which would help people, help them make their lives better and become better people. I think many who gravitate towards this type of career have something in themselves which they want to improve, or some way in which they never quite felt good enough or accepted. So they are drawn to work with other marginal populations and help those people be good enough, projecting themselves and their self-acceptance onto the people they help, and how much those people are accepted by society at large. All of this would play into Helen's family background with her critical, disapproving father.

I think there is also a culture of service in the various Protestant religions, of working to help those most in need. Many evangelical churches in the US are involved with fighting poverty in Africa, and I think Helen's impulse to work with such a disadvantaged population comes from that same culture. She just picked the group that was most needy within her own country.

Then again, maybe she just wanted to meet some hot lesbian babes.

I have to say I'm with you across the board here, basically. It occurs to me people are perhaps more used to working for the government over there because--well, it's everywhere. So there wouldn't be any onus from that angle, like there might here for certain types of jobs. (Am vaguely curious about what percent of total UK pop is directly or indirectly [like through BBC] employed by HMG, as compared to the US. God knows where you'd get those sorts of stats....)

I just found myself thinking, well, we know why Nikki's in jail: doh. (And we still get plenty of backstory for that.) But why isn't Helen a lawyer or doctor or architect? isn't this a slightly odd choice to make? I mean, what, is she not smart enough to be a lawyer? she's certainly enough of a grind. Well then: so it's deliberate, the choice, she didn't simply fall sideways into it one drunken night.

I agree with all your ideas on helping-type professions in a general way; as well, that if we assume her background is as Shed put it in the book (I know, but I have this bug about material outside the text, see... and there's nowhere in the show proper where her father's profession is made explicit, so this makes me a bit squirmy, that's all), ie that her father's some type of religious guy, a Scottish Presbyterian minister by rough guess--then she'd be situationally familiar with helping inside the helping professions, that is your 'culture of service' idea.

I know, it's a joke--but not entirely. I mean looked at from--well, anyone's pov, actually--who in their right mind wouldn't want to take a more active interest in Nikki Wade's um, case. File. Situation, right.


...I thought by choosing this helping profession, specifically, perhaps Helen believes she can make a real change for the better in some women's lives. Women who w/o question need help. And yeah, maybe it's an unconscious code-word for I Want To Meet Hot Lesbian Babes, but um, I wouldn't suggest it to the character myself: we know feminism is passe but she still seems to think it's a viable concept: fancy that!

As for her father, I took a slightly different view there: I don't believe Helen has major self-esteem issues, that it's anything so direct: that she helps others to feel better about herself. That's a little puerile, motivationally, don't you think, a little shabby? I mean, ok, everyone jokes about those who can't, teach, & how the most effed-up people you'll meet are therapists & so forth... but really, where can you go with that, yknow??

I think working with this population allows her to fulfill her role vis-a-vis her father & fulfill his expectations on both sides. It is blameless, it is entirely a worthy endeavor, and he will totally disapprove regardless (we have been told that explicitly through the script). In other words it allows her to fulfill expectations & rebel against them *at the same time*.

If that's a reasonable guess, it would make sense then in another way: it means the type of job Helen was able to choose according to that set of internal dictates was actually very narrow, very specific, not anything generic in the known universe at all. Which is true of most of us, really.

Oooh, nice one. You've really captured the specific essence of working in a prison, haven't you? And I think you're completely right about Helen. She gets to be in a service, helping profession, but still in a rebellious way. I'm sure her father wondered "Why can't she just help the poor, or underpriveleged children or something like that?" Because from HIS perspective, of course, it's not really a worthy endeavor at all.

Well, I don't think we have to go outside the text for evidence on this one. It's not like the US when a person could be practically any religion. And I think it's pretty clear she's not Catholic. So it doesn't really matter whether her father was a minister or not. I'd say the fact that she even chose this profession is all the evidence we need that she had some sort of religion, values-based upbringing.

Omigod, am I the only real life person who still thinks that? I would have been SO much happier in the 1970s. <sigh> Now I just seem like I have a chip on my shoulder when I get annoyed that the CEO of my company comes up and wants to kiss me rather than shake my hand.

Oh, not at all! Sorry if it came across that way. And I think it's entirely unconscious motivation. I just think many (most, all?) people are motivated by these kinds of underlying psychological issues from their relationships with their parents. Whether they're aware of it or not. I don't think it's equivalent to "major self-esteem issues" as you phrased it. I was probably a little too blunt in my explanation if it came across that way. It's just more that doing this kind of work, helping disadvantaged people make their lives better, would enable someone like Helen to look at themselves in the mirror each day and think "I'm a good person." And I think having a disapproving parent generates the need to be able to look in the mirror and say this to oneself. It also explains why Helen was so tortured by her relationship with Nikki....

My mind immediately went in a different direction. I was thinking that since her mother died when she was young, perhaps she unconsciously picked a profession that puts her in a maternal-type role. She's directly responsible for people's welfare and her job is basically 'mother hen' to the prisoners (and the officers). She rewards them, hands out discipline and has influence over their day to day routine.

I have no idea how one gets interested in 'fast track' for prison service in the UK. If you are in social services studies and these are one of the options? I do think she went in the prison services specifically to work in a women's prison though, for the same reason SHED used a women's prison as the setting. Because there are so many women lifers in the UK. I think that becomes more evident when she starts the lifer's unit.

You know when sometimes you get it & it just clicks...? ;)

Yeah, exactly! He'd be all purse-lipped (or do only mothers do that?)--tight-lipped, then.

I think that's reasonable, thanks. Will try to relax around this issue. ;)

Snerk. Yeah, why can't you just shoot him dead instead, yknow? I'd go for it.

No no--I agree, just was clarifying around that aspect of the idea itself.

Absolutely. That's why I wanted *some* kind of feedback before I posted my thoughts on it, just to double-check myself. Your take was so eerily like my own I thought okey, we're definitely reading from the same text here...!

Yeah, I get that & do agree. I don't think she'd be saying that because she had real doubts; she's neither morally complascent nor insecure, it's critical *she* believe in what she's doing. Which is why she is such a grind & takes her job so bloody seriously. Which is why the angst with the Nik. Woops, we're dovetailing again... ;) --e


Hi invisicoll,

I guess the social services aren't exactly a high glamour position but this is still pretty... mm, specific as a career path. But yeah it'd be interesting to have just a bit more general info.

I pretty much agree, I think they did get to highlight different types of problems with that move of Helen's character from Wing-Gov to Lifer's Liaison.

I thought about Helen's mother but am uncomfortable generalizing there in any way that equates loss-of-mother with latent-homosexual tendencies. We just got over 50 years of that kind of stuff & none of it did us much good. If her father was dead & she had this kind of relationship with her mother, it'd probably lead to very similar results/character traits, or so I'd assume if the ideas are valid?

I definitely think there are places H is motherly/caring or simply loving to various women in trouble. She doesn't discriminate, she doesn't care if the woman is 'crazy' (Pam) or disfigured or an addict or bereaved (Monica). Notwithstanding her relationship w/Nikki she goes out of her way to address each woman as an individual, & to try to get them if not what they want, then what they need. So yes, it comes from a caring (or 'nurturing' if you'd rather) place. That's part of her feminism, in my view.

Actually, that's not really what I meant. I just mean in terms of possibly feeling the need to nurture people as she might have wanted/needed, but didn't get. Not in terms of attraction to women.

It reminds me of something I read a while ago in one of Canadabadgirl's fics. That Helen was a broody woman in denial (about her broody-ness). I thought that fit. That Helen is the matriarch of her own nontraditional families.

Interesting topic. :)

I like this idea a lot, and I think it's complementary to the other theories--all of them are about Helen needing to give something she herself lacks. It's interesting because in the end the job gave Helen something she didn't even know she lacked. :)

How does Helen's ambition play into all of this? It's such an essential part of her character, particularly in the first half of S1 and the last half of S3. Would she have liked the kind of job (ie social work) which doesn't have a hierarchy for her to ascend? Somehow I don't think so....

Prison Govenor! It's an odd profession for Helen to choose to earn her livelihood. I wonder what was the thinking behind that? For many women this type of job hardly even passes their mental radar. I know in her interview she said her(Helen's) desire was "to help change the world", whatever that means! (Re: the official BG site). I can't see what her father being a Minister has any bearing on her decision. But I know for a fact most girls want some kind of validation/approval from their dad. Anyway that's neither here nor there.
If she wanted a safe and steady Govt. job, with her looks, education and intelligence she could've taken her pick of the jobs in any dept. Or something more glamorous she could've worked for the European Union :) or perhaps you have to be multi-lingual for that?
It's fasinating to speculate, but I'll put it down to pure Kismet!?

Right. Exactly. My point in asking. Like hello, isn't this just a bit odd? We accept it because it's a given, it's the pretext for the show. But that felt, very suddenly, like a sort of glaring thing we hadn't looked at so I at least wanted to see what others thought about it.

Well, what's funny is that in the very first episode they actually bring up the fact that it's kind of strange that Helen has this career. Sean makes some comment about a client of his, and mentions that he told this client what Helen does, and that the client was fascinated. This is where the joke came in about whether Helen knew some famous criminal woman whose name escapes me at the moment. So from the beginning they definitely establish that this is NOT the kind of career people in Helen's peer group usually go for.

Just wanted to add that I seem to have repeated a couple of points which were already mentioned in the previous posts, as I responded immediately after reading Ekny's 1st post! It was unintentional!

Interesting, good point. I'd always read it as a small item in Sean's favor: that he at least understood 'meeting' 'famous' killers (I mean, ugh anyone?) had nothing to do with the nature of H's real work. He even goes on to paraphrase his reply by saying 'you ignorant tosser' or something like. But yeah, I agree it's also a sideways comment about the circles they (or at least he) moves in. It's also a gentle way of indirectly reminding the audience--presumably largely from the same class--that's not what this show's about.

I caught onto this debate rather late and took some time to mull this over. There's a real favourite Helen word and that is 'duty.' This has disguised religious overtones and is perhaps a word or sentiment that harks back to her father. The fact that Helen is not formally religious doesn't interfere with this link. On the one hand, while she rejects (or is rejected by) her father, there is a deeper link.

I can understand Helen's drive for success against her father's low opinion of her from personal experience when a "I'll show him' sentiment got me through a maths exam despite my teacher's negative attitude. The question arises for Helen as to what she does with her success when she gets it and should she look around her as to what she really wants.

Nice point, R, that's the ironic thing about driven people (well some, anyway). I think it's partly why some audience were fine with H leaving at the end (pace Abzug's objections to it inherently 'depoliticizing' H's stance or Nikki's stance; certainly many ff's go on to situate at least 1 of the characters in some sort of real-world service-type job); for Helen to get out of there before it chewed her up alive was maybe not so bad a thing. Or wound up sitting atop the shit-heap with only a question-mark as reward....

Gosh, now what is there left for me to post when people are posting on my behalf? ;)

I think the show had Helen quit her job for the very best reasons: to save the woman she loved, and to save herself. But I do hate that the show forced her to make that choice. But the actress was leaving the show, you say, what else could they do? Well, what about giving her an even bigger promotion to work for Area Management?

Ugh, whatever, I can't even be bothered to fully formulate the argument. I had such a shitty day at work today, so if I could quit and run off with my girlfriend, I would. This whole women-having-careers thing is highly overrated.

Sorry, I didn't want you to feel left out or like your pov wasn't being considered... it's that I've internalized the Inner Abzug, see....

This whole *people* having careers thing is totally overrated. I'd loll about eating grapes or bonbons all day & read, read, read, if I had my druthers.

Ekny's point about working for the government is something that is very much of interest to me as I do this for a living though not in the prison service and with no chance of advancement. There is a kind of bunker mentality portrayed in Bad Girls that is something that I can relate to. In Bad Girls, the prison service is certainly a political hot potato with liberal and conservative strands vying for control. Added to that, right now there is a right-wing tabloid press which, as much as any time, wants governments to be 'tough on crime' ,a government who passes a whole mass of legislation without any thought as to how it is to be implemented and a population that is bursting at the seams. It is a good question as to whether there are more government workers in Britain than in America though ‘Tony’s cronies’ are all set to privatise as much of it as they can get away with.
Helen seems to want several things at the same time out of her chosen job, one that is nurturing to others, that has rules and regulations and also offers her a career path. Her wish to ‘do good to others’ isn’t that of an ‘arm’s length’ administrator although she can organize. Especially, she is able to see how things can be done differently and how people can change - to innovate.
In essence, she has a job that is halfway to being a social worker yet offers that protective environment of a government job.
I’m ever so sorry that you have had a shitty day, Abzug. Believe you me, I can understand that. What can make things worse is if you get it at both ends of the day.

You know, I was watching the S3 finale the other day and I forgot that Helen said in that episode that she got into the prison service because she believed that she had principles. I tend to forget the level of idealism she had in the beginning. I guess if you are going to change the world, fixing the cons would be a seemingly good place to start.

And that's why Helen got into the prison service in the first place.

She's an individual who craves structure. She believes that by following her principles she can change things for the better. It takes a big person to go in and want to change things for the better, especially in the prison system. Helen honestly thought she was doing the right thing.

No, I'm saying Helen's perfect by any means and that she doesn't make mistakes (she makes plenty of them in her journey both professionally and personally). However she changes one life as well as her own. I think that's a good start right there.

A good start in the board RPC. You've made a very good point here. Obviously Helen's main ambition was to change things within the prison system. And, of course, she made some mistakes. But, as you say, she definitely changed one life - as well as her own - so that's a start.