I loved this book, it's a true insight into the role of a psychologist within a prison system that,in my opinion,could do so much more for prisoners. The attention to detail was sometimes unsettling to read but necessary to get a true understanding of the work that goes into helping convicts understand their actions. Learning how past experiences in their early life helped to shape their future actions was so interesting and as someone who works with young children and has shown some training into how early childhood experiences has an impact on them as they grow older I found it fascinating.
The author doesn't hold back on how difficult the jobs are for all who work in the prison service and left me with a greater understanding of what happens behind bars.
A fantastic if difficult at times read which I shouldn't put down,totally recommend it.

Many thanks to the author, NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read and review this book.

I have read a few books of this ilk and looked forward to reading this new insight to the workings of a prison and it's inmates.

It began with an explanation of who the author was and what her new employment would entail, along with detailed insights to her degree. She was dealing with rapists who had murdered their victims and was fairly interesting reading for the first 33% of her book.

After this I struggled through and really couldn't see what the point was of writing this book, other than the author having some erotic fantasy she wanted to put on paper! A great deal of the book was a little too far fetched to be a proper description of her daily (and nightly) doings!!

I did not enjoy this book and feel, as I stated before, this book is not to be taken too seriously and she certainly is not a good ambassador for a prison phycologist! Can only give 2 stars for effort, apologies to the author.

Psychologist Dr Rebecca Myers experience of working at HMP Graymoor is an honest, insightful, disturbing and a challenging read, she in unsparing in the details she provides of her personal life and the mistakes she makes. Graymoor, a Category A prison, is one of the UK’s most notorious prisons, with its population of nearly 800 murderers, rapists and child molesters. Myers has just graduated when she reports for her first shift, she is 22 and about to sit down with some of the country’s most dangerous criminals. She has always wanted to work with male prisoners in a maximum security prison, but unsurprisingly, given the tough environment, being so young with so little life experience, she has a hard time. Myers has a problem with blushing, is apprehensive, is terrified of being left alone with the prisoner group and suffers from imposter syndrome. We follow her progress as she learns to adapt to her new circumstances and develop in her professional career.

Myers is to implement a groundbreaking course, the CBT based Sexual Offenders Training Programme (SOTP), with its laudable aims of rehabilitating and reducing sexual offending by changing the mindset and behaviours of the emotionally damaged men perpetrating such heinous crimes. With prison officers to help facilitate, she manages a group of six men, some Category A (high risk), including murderers and psychopaths. She tries to get the men to gain new and more truthful perspectives on their crimes, difficult when some are in denial, included are details of their backgrounds and their lives, how they came to commit the crime, with the terrifying and more ambiguous elements of the course, such as role playing the actual crimes themselves. Neither Myers or her co-facilitators, the prison officers, are left untouched by the intense darkness of the forensic details of the horrors they become privy to, only able to communicate with each other and other professionals in the prison. It messes with their heads, how they look at people in the outside world, giving them nightmares, whilst contaminating and wreaking havoc in their personal lives.

I was truly impressed with the changes the programme made in many of the men in the group, true the results were not the same across the board, and as illustrated with the likes of Kyle, some made little progress. It was inspiring to see Myers compassion and humanity as she develops relationships with the men that resulted in trust and friendships, and to see her wisdom in perceiving that there were many ways in which she was just like the men who are so often vilified and ostracised. Many readers will not be surprised to learn of the horrors of many prisoners backgrounds, including sexual abuse and violence. Myers concludes with reporting the state of the SOTP programme and the problems it faced, and highlighting some of the changes and modifications. This is an eye opening and informative read about the dangerous men behind bars and a psychologist's courageous efforts in trying changing their behaviour and reducing sexual offending for the future. Highly recommended. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

Inside Job is a hard read - at times I had to put the book down as reading about child molesters/rapists was hard to comprehend - especially when their crimes were so intricately detailed on the pages.

Myers describes her journey from being a young psychologist working in a maximum security prison with murderers, rapists, and peadophiles where she fell for a fellow prison officer to moving through the ranks to eventually training new psychology recruits.

The book is a heavy read, there are graphic scenes which unfortunately left indelible marks in my memory - however, it is wonderfully written - very honest and at times intriguing.

The cover and synopsis of this book was what originally drew me in. I am an avid reader of true life books. The book follows the journey of a group of offenders through there SOTP therapy delivered by Rebecca. I thoroughly enjoyed the personal touches as I learnt about aspects of her life and how her job affected her. I felt like I got to know the characters personally and was alongside them as they went through their therapy and gradually understanding why they committed their offences. This book can be very upsetting to read when the incidents are explained and I hope all the men involved have benefited from SOTP and have not reoffended. If you enjoy real life gritty reads then this book is for you.

I love memoirs like this. I've read and hugely enjoyed all of Dr Amanda Brown's books and this one, about life as a prison psychologist working with serious offenders, was just as good. Dr Myers is a brave, strong and inspiring woman, and writes with heartfelt honesty. Recommended.
With grateful thanks to Netgalley, HarperCollins UK and Dr Rebecca Myers for my advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

I rarely read non-fiction books but this one absolutely grabbed me.

I found it gripping, horrifying and moving, and really urge people with an interest in psychology, crime fiction and true crime to read it.

This book is a detailed explanation of Dr Rebecca Myers who at the age of 22 worked as a psychologist in a men's prison in the 90's working with prisoners who had committed sexual crimes in hope they would not reoffend.
A dark book, not easy topics to read but really interesting.
I do not often read non fiction but I really enjoyed this and want to than the author and publisher for an advanced copy for an honest review.

Inside Job Dr Rebecca Myers

5 stars

The genre of books that I most like reading is crime and psychological thrillers so when I saw this book promoted on Netgalley, I was really interested to read it.

Dr Myers is fresh out of university and her first job is dealing with male sexual offenders at Graymoor prison. She feels completely out of her depth but takes us through her doubts and fears and explains in great detail the various programmes that the prisons in the 1990’s used in an effort to understand the minds and behaviours of these very troubled men. We find out about 9 of the prisoners chosen to be in her programmes, all of them having committed sexual crimes, often against minor. We are told in some detail about their crimes but never in a gratuitous way although it takes very little imagination to realise what these men have done.

What I found particularly fascinating was how through the innovative programmes some of the men come to realise and admit to their crimes and manage some form of rehabilitation. The other thing that struck me was, that in almost every case, I could understand how the childhood of these men had in many cases led to their adult crimes.

I was left thinking how much I admire Dr Myers and all other forensic psychologists in doing this job and it was particularly interesting to find out about the current ways that prisons are trying to continue the various programmes.

I would thoroughly recommend this book to anyone interested in this area of psychology.

Karen Deborah
Reviewer for Net Galley

Being a forensic psychologist was always a dream of mine growing up, but the more I realised the extent of the job the more I realised I did not have the emotional capacity to undertake that role, and even more so after reading this book by Dr Rebecca Myers, some of the situations that she explains she found herself in throughout this particular stage of her career were quite disturbing and I applaud her ability to work through them, myself personally I could not see how I would handle it, for that I applaud her

Now on to the book, I love the fact that the author focused on a particular stage of her career with providing the SOTP to sex offenders in a high-risk prison, there were times in the book that I was able to piece together which prison she was talking about after the name dropping of two very infamous killers, however that is all I could pick up on privacy wise. It was intriguing to read about the SOTP, as this was something I had never heard of, and then at the end of the book with particular case studies and figures was interesting. I also appreciate the fact that she did not focus heavily on the offenders crimes, as that could read for some disturbing reading, although trigger warnings there are very descriptive parts in the book that relate to some heinous crimes – especially those performed on children.

However, it was interesting to read the author had her own internal debate, finding the crimes completely heinous, but knowing that she still had to conduct her job with unbiased, and despite the fact these individuals were criminals and sexual offenders, they were still human beings. I liked the way that the book was focused on the program that Rebecca ran, and as difficult as it probable is to admit it, I found the way that she was able to humanise some of the criminals in the story, and there were a few of them I actually started to feel sorry for, which really starts an emotional and moral dilemma within the reader.

This was definitely a read that I was fascinated and engrossed in, and I really found it an intriguing read, I would definitely read more books by this author, and I would recommend this book to fans of psychology, but would heed a number of trigger warnings, such as; criminal behaviour, criminal descriptions, rape, murder, child abuse, child murder, psychopathy, sexual content, sexual harassment and sexual crimes.

As someone who is interested in both psychology and prison life, this book had all the hallmarks of something that was going to keep me gripped. Written by a psychologist who had worked for some years in a high security prison filled with sex offenders, it also promised to be a realistic, eye-opening account from someone with on-the-ground experience.

It certainly delivered in this respect and the author told us, in some lengthy and intricate detail, about the set of characters she was there to treat on the programme she was leading. She walked us through the various stages of this and how it aimed to give prisoners an understanding of their behaviour and ways to modify it in the future, in the hope it may stop them re-offending. So far so interesting, from a ‘case history’ point of view. If you were thinking of entering the profession, this could provide valuable insights into what you might expect, as it is a down to earth account that has not been glamourised. Where it fell a little short I thought was in the story-telling aspect, ie: this is definitely a psychologist-turned-writer rather than a seasoned author. So it’s at times a bit dry and a little closer to an exam dissertation. As someone with an interest, but also looking for a story, I’d have liked to to a little more about various side-plots, her wider life etc, rather than such dogged following of the outcomes for every person in the group.

That said, I enjoyed learning about the writer’s world and she has my admiration for doing what must be an incredibly difficult job.

A really interesting book. I read this in one siting as I just could not get enough. Thank you to the published for an advanced copy of this book.

Really good insight into how prisons try to help prisoners. It does show how people can end up in situations through different choices they make or are made for them.

This is an incredible account of a newly qualified psychologist entering a prison to run programmes for the worst offenders. It is written with empathy and honesty, both in writing about the offenders and also in dealing with her own feelings

For anyone who is a fan of True Crime or interested in the workings of the mind I would highly recommend this book, having said that, I’m now off to read something a bit lighter!

With thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins for ARC in return for an honest review

This book looks into the rehabilitation of sex offenders in a maximum secure prison, its insightful and surprising what goes on. The therapy sessions I enjoyed reading the most.

A great insight into the progressive treatment of sex offenders over the last 30 years. Told with compassion, empathy and experience. I don’t often read non-fiction so it’s rare that something grabs me and keeps my attention.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for approving me for this arc

Okay well wow, I love books like this anyway but I did not want to stop reading this nor did I want it to finish I thought the group work was very different and unique and I think it is important to teach people, in general, why we act the way in which we do!

These men who participated in the groups seemed to realise why they acted in such heinous ways and if was nice to read that they knew how to react to different thoughts, feelings and schemas and were able to recognise when their thoughts and actions were unhealthy.

I also liked that Rebeca started to view them as normal people because most are, I found the whole book very interesting and would 100% read more from her!

A deeply thought provoking book, that pulls no punches. All the more poignant as it is a true, factual story.

What an amazing insight into the role that Rebecca played in her early years at Graymoor Prison, and the way in which she dealt with both her own demons and those of the inmates chosen to taken part in the SOTP.

This is not an easy read and definitely not one for the faint hearted, but a must for anyone who has an interest in the human psyche, and invaluable for those embarking on such a profession.

Thank you NetGalley.

What a non fiction book! A good read and a solid insight to how the other side of prison works and what individuals have to do in order to come to terms with what they have done and how rehabilitation can work but it’s a long and complicated process, it was helpful to have the follow up at the end

This is an incredibly fascinating book; it is not an easy book to ‘enjoy’ as parts are very detailed, and the crimes committed by the men featured are both distressing and horrifying (the Coronation Street theme tune is now tainted!).

It is interesting to see that, through the sessions facilitated by Rebecca and her colleagues, some of the prisoners successfully changed their mindsets, understood themselves and the reasons for their offences. Some even went so far as to experience and exhibit remorse. I was also gripped by the author adding reflections on her personal situation both at the time the book is set, and also as child, this feels a very brave thing to do.

All in all, I found this book both educational and eye opening.