In ‘Inside Job,’ Dr Rebecca Myers (Forensic Psychologist) talks about her experiences running her first sex offender training programme in a prison when a 22yr old trainee during the late 1990’s. In it she describes supporting six men who have committed horrific sexual crimes, in addition to burglary, assault and murder, to understand the reasons why they committed them and to develop strategies to prevent it happening again. Myers also talks about her thoughts and feelings as a trainee in the prison environment, her mistakes and worries, and aspects of her personal life.

As a psychologist who trained in the early 2000’s and who has also run a sex offender training programme (albeit in the community with people with a learning disability) I could relate to a lot of Myers writing. I found it a very accurate representation of the group process and was impressed by the way she has turned it almost into a crime novel. Myers writing style is really clear and engaging and she carefully balances compassion for the men with revulsion for their crimes, and fear of the harm they can cause her. I am sure lots of the case studies presented are composites, partly due to confidentiality and also this book being written 30yrs later, but they came across as authentic.The only difficulty I had was with the relationship Myers describes having with a fellow prison officer and co facilitator of the group. Whilst she describes this being common in the prison milleu, I did question the professionalism and unknown or unacknowledged impact on the group and the third facilitator. However she is honest to have included it and it helps to show that psychologists are imperfect and human.

My thanks to NetGalley and Harper Collins Uk for a copy of “ Inside Job” for an honest review.

This was a very interesting insight into the work of prison psychologist Dr Rebecca Myers ,someone who deals With prisoners who carry out serious sexual and violent acts.
It is not an enjoyable read, indeed it is very hard to get through reading the details , but it is fascinating to see how a program ,to get into the minds of such prisoners can begin to explain how someone can find it possible to inflict such pain on others .
Thought provoking memoir

Really interesting and gripping book with a real insight of a forensic psychologist in the carceral system. A job in the sex offender therapy program is terrifying but definitely makes a fantastic book. Without being sensationalizing or voyeuristic, it revolves around human stories and traumas and really sucks you in. I read it in one sitting, a real gem!

An excellent expose of quite a hidden world, and a world most of us wouldn't want to explore ordinarily. But the author manages to create quite an emotional and engaging read out of absolutely horrific material.
Despite feeling quite repulsed by the acts described I could see through them to the men behind them, like the author tries to do with her work, and manages to do with her words here.

I became strangely invested in the the group of men the author works with, and the staff she works alongside and found myself rooting for everyone involved (bar a few irredeemable characters). Some of the stories were so extraordinary I sometimes forgot that these were real people and it almost felt like reading a novel sometimes, but the 'truth is stranger than fiction' cliché is just awful in this context.

I was astounded at the psychology techniques described - the pen in the leg anyone? - and found the procedures and research really interesting.

The author also reveals some of herself and how her psychology parallels the men she is treating, so there is some internal struggle and discussion about who we are and why we do what we do, which added more depth and personality. There were some throwaway lines about her relationships that could have done with some more explaining but overall I liked getting to know Rebecca and her colleagues and patients.

The final chapters about the changing techniques over the years and the catch up on some of the men were brilliant. I was desperate to know what happened to a few of them, information that the author didn't know either, and weirdly I have gone from thinking 'throw away the key' to hoping that after their punishments there was some redemption.

This isn’t my usual type of read but I was intrigued by the fact it’s based on the authors own experiences.

If you’re a fan of true crime or shows like Mindhunter then you’ll definitely get a kick out of this book.

In this gripping, hard hitting memoir, Dr Rebecca Myers revisits her time in the ‘Hot Seat’ with Graymoor’s infamous inmates - who might not be as different to us as we think.

First of all this book isn’t for the faint of heart, you’re going to hear from rapists and child molesters but it is interesting and thought provoking to hear from their perspective and that of a psychologist. Straight away you can tell that you’re reading the work of someone’s life experience. I was glued straight away and couldn’t stop myself from reading. I wanted to find out more about the inmates and the work Dr Rebecca Myers was doing but I also wanted to know about Rebecca’s personal life and how and if she could turn her work mind off after hearing such awful things.

Overall this was a thought provoking and gripping read which caused a mixture of emotions. If you’re a fan of true crime then this would definitely be the book for you.

I was half hooked and half creeped out/disgusted by this book that I still couldn't stop reading.

It certainly opened my eyes to psychology in prison.

Having visit prisoners as a nurse I get the feelings of walking around being female in a male
Prison.

To do it so young and at such a high category prison. That takes some balls.

Was worth the reading time. Thank you.

Not for the feint hearted. This is a gruesome and scary memoir of a prison psychologist. It's fascinating and a gripping read until you remind yourself that this is real, these were real crimes.

well that was an insightful yet horrific read on the SOTP rollout in prisons in the 1990s, so not for the light hearted. It doesn’t go completely into detail about the crimes committed but you get the idea what they have inflicted.

Really readable and gives great insight into why some people are sexual offenders and what a narrow path separates those who do and those who don’t. Every offender has been let down to a greater or lesser degree as a child by adults and some stories made me want to cry- but not all children who have experienced bad parenting go on to offend and Rebecca Myers’s tries to unravel why these men did and help them understand themselves.

I had to double check this with non fiction as it felt like I was reading a crime novel.

It’s an interesting insight into Rebecca’s job as a psychologist. An interesting but difficult read.

A background into a psychologists role in a prison this was interesting and dealt with some great points but lacked some depth to the details which meant you didn’t really connect with the people involved

This book is not for the faint hearted! That said the author has done an amazing job of making it easily readable and withholding most of the gruesome details of offences.

The book is a very honest account of her start as a prison psychologist and her progress through this career. It has a great balance of detail and progress. I loved the honesty about her own childhood, feelings and imposter syndrome.

I was interested to read about the research (not heavy) of the effectiveness of programmes and how they changed.

It was interesting to see the similarities and differences between staff and prisoners and to see humanity brought to the situation.

As a social worker this book spoke to me of the exchange of a bit of yourself for the work you do…this is undoubtedly true and it is good to see it openly discussed.

Inside Job is the fascinating ,and often horrifying, story of prison psychologist Dr Rebecca Myers, focussing on the first group therapy sessions she ran at HM Prison Graymouth. This particular establishment houses many offenders seen as the lowest of the low even amongst the prison community, child killers,abusers and rapists.

As a newly-qualified psychologist the 22 year-old Dr Myers finds herself in the Lion's Den and very quickly has to adapt to the macho prison culture and the wrong kind of attention on both sides of the bars in less enlightened times.

Her group consists of the worst of the worst but men ,who so they claim at least,want to rehabilitate . What follows is a fascinating story as the characters of the various offenders are revealed, including the one in total denial,the apparently genuinely remorseful and the former policeman who thinks his former career makes him somehow above the others despite his own appalling crimes. While not gratuitous the men's crimes are told in enough detail to be truly disturbing.

While all of the crimes are truly horrific it emerges that in some cases the offenders had been traumatised and seriously abused themselves and I found myself torn between compassion for them and loathing for the awful and unforgivable things they had done to totally innocent and vulnerable people.
A fascinating book that in my case at least I suspect had the opposite effect to that Dr Myers was aiming for. I finished it thinking that no-one who commits the kind of crimes her group have should be considered for release .....ever.

A book that makes you think hard is always a good thing and this one certainly does that. It's far from an easy read , please be very aware of it's content and if you think you'll be upset in any way don't buy it.
If you can handle the content it's a well-written and thought-provoking read.

Inside Job
Inside job is the real life reflections of Rebecca Myers who started her career as a forensic psychologist at the age of 22. In a prison full of murderers, rapists and chauvinistic staff. Rebecca is sent to undertake training to deliver the SOTP sexual offenders treatment programme. Before she knows is she is back in the prison, providing a group session to help the men see, accept, admit and understand their offending. I enjoy true crime, I like a thriller, but this is something else. A lot of it was hard to read, as a Mum, hearing the stories of the men on the SOTP. Their life histories, what led them to offend, their excuses for what they did. It was a hard hitting book. I don’t watch Coronation Street but I’m pretty sure if I did - I’d be checking behind the sofa after hearing the theme tune!

This is a fascinating memoir about the author's experience of working as psychologist in a category A men's prison. Much of it focuses on her work with a group of men, all of whom are convicted sex offenders, as she helps them explore their crimes and the reasons behind them.
It is an interesting and thought-provoking read. Some parts are difficult to read, especially where it goes into the detail of some of the men's crimes but it is interesting to explore some of the factors that lead people to commit these acts as well as how they can be rehabilitated.
I appreciated the author's honesty about some of her own struggles too.

An interesting, yet harrowing, read.

This book details the first job that Rebecca Myers had after graduating with her Psychology degree. Rebecca starts working in a prison as a prison psychologist. She is young, inexperienced and somewhat naïve but she is good at her job. Following a training program she begins treating groups of prisoners on the Sexual Offenders Therapy Programme (SOTP), a programme which aims to discover why these men committed sexual offences and how they can be prevented from offending in the future. The crimes that these men committed are hideous and detailed fairly closely. It is interesting learning about the men, their crimes and what drove them to offend. Many of the men feel that they are alone but learn that they all have similarities in their thinking and begin to recognise patterns in their behaviour. Rebecca herself comes to learn that she too shares some of the schemas that these men share and that they are just people - people who have done bad things but still people nonetheless.

It was such a fascinating read that I was a bit disappointed that it ended so quickly and I felt that there was so much more that could have been said.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Dr Rebecca Myers recounts her time at a prison with the introduction of the Sex Offenders Treatment Program and this follows the start of her career.
This could be quite triggering and there is a small warning at the start of the book but based on the blurb I would presume the reader understands the subject matter.
An insightful read without jargon and very interesting. Thank you to netgalley for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

This was a very interesting book to read. It was tough to read and upsetting at times due to offences of prisoners being described in detail, so this book definitely needs a few trigger warnings. I spent a lot of time being confused - there’s a lot of different prisoners being talked about at the same time, and it was really hard for me to remember who was who. I think it would have been easier if the chapters were split into parts for each inmate, or they were talked about separately. But talking about all of them at the same time made it very confusing. At times it also felt like I was reading a fiction book, because the way settings and the author’s life was described, it made me feel like I was reading a fictional book. This also made it a bit confusing because just as I was becoming focused on the meetings with the prisoners, it would change to talking about the author’s personal relationships - and the way it was described and talked about just didn’t fit well into a non-fiction book. I would recommend this one, as it’s easy to read as there’s not too many medical terms or explanations, so it’s very easy to understand even though I have never studied psychology.

Gripped me from the first page, I was walking into the prison with her and stayed until the end. Very well written and very interesting insight to the job.

A disturbing but fascinating read. Dr Rebecca Myers writes about her time as a psychologist at a prison treating sex offenders/murderers. There were moments when I thought I'd have to stop reading because some of the crimes described were so horrifying but the writing style is compelling and the treatment programme Myers was involved in was very interesting. Dr Myers honesty about her own personal demons was refreshing, as was the account of how her work affected her personal life.

I would definitely recommend this to anyone interested in how prisoners are treated and in criminal psychology.