Life

Career Options in Criminal Justice

If you are considering a career in criminal justice you may be surprised by the diversity and variety of jobs that are available. Opportunities can range from working in prisons or probation, legal aid or public defender positions and even charities serving specific criminal justice interests.
The possibilities are wide ranging and almost all of the jobs help you contribute to society and have a direct impact on people’s lives.

While each of the specific jobs has different requirements you will typically be deeply involved with protecting society and assuring the safety of the general public.

You will be required to interact with people from all different backgrounds and will need to very quickly develop a connection with them.

Your intuition and interpersonal aptitude will be put to the test with almost every encounter, and the more skilled you are in these areas the greater positive impact you will have.

Typical Jobs in Criminal Justice

There are diverse job categories and opportunities within criminal justice. For instance, you may choose to be a police officer that protects the community and keeps people safe from crime. In this role, you will have direct on the street interaction with a wide range of individuals in potentially difficult situations.

If you prefer to work in a different environment, you could consider become a parole officer. In this role you would work with offenders and provide pre-sentence recommendations to the court. You would also work with individuals about to be released from prison and help monitor them and ensure public safety after they are placed back into the community.

Numerous jobs are available for individuals interested in working as a prison officer. These positions are very challenging. You may also want to see if working with youthful offenders is the right path for you. As a youth offending officer you may participate in youth Intensive Supervision programmes and other initiatives that are specifically designed to assure better outcomes among young people.

Other Types of Criminal Justice Jobs

 There are extensive options available for criminal justice jobs beyond the typical ones mentioned above. If your calling is to work in defense of those charged with a crime, you could consider a career with the Legal Aid Agency or the Public Defender Service. There are also numerous charities that offer the opportunity to work for criminal justice reform.

Among the careers in criminal justice there are a number of offerings that are health-related. If you focus on offender health you could pursue a role as offender health nurse, pharmacist, mental health nurse or a drug treatment nurse.

There are also specialized opportunities available in the field of substance misuse, including substance misuse recovery workers and nurses.

If you are interested in a career in criminal justice be sure to research the different options there for you. It would also be very helpful to talk with people in the jobs you are interested in and ask for their help and advice as you evaluate your career opportunities.

Life

It’s Not Too Late For 2017 Resolutions

We blinked, and now we are in the early months of 2017 is upon us. If you’re like most people, you’ve set some standard resolutions in the past, such as the ever so popular weight losing and money gaining goals, and unfortunately if you’re like 92% of them, you quit. Not you, not this year! It turns out that small, fun, resolutions are the cure to a life-changing and successful new year. Below are the top Four suggestions.

https://www.pexels.com/photo/scrabble-resolutions-3297/ – free stock image 🙂

1.) Affirmations

Many of us fail to realize we are constantly having conversations with ourselves. One major reason for quitting, is that we have the horrible ability to talk ourselves out of goals by saying “I can’t”. Replace your mental dialogue with a few affirmations to say as many times as possible throughout your day, there is truly no excuse to give up on this one, it costs nothing and can give so much. A few examples:

– “I can achieve my dreams.”- “I am a happy and confident person.”- “2017 is my year to transform.”

2.) Extreme Makeover

Have you ever heard the phrase “Dress for Success”? This isn’t something that one does simply for fun, in the privacy of their own home. A wardrobe makeover can transform the way you feel from the outside in. A few style tips:

-Ask yourself what you want to be, for example, if you would like to be a high-powered executive in a successful company, a dress suit is a must.

-Play with your look, many clothing retail stores offers a variety of styles for men, women, and kids, there’s even an “inspire me” section on their site, so you can explore fresh looks. Don’t rule out a certain style, it may be just what you need in 2017.

-Save on Style- Many people have a goal of building their savings account, revamping your wardrobe should never cut deep into your pockets. Most online retailers such as House of Fraser have voucher codes and promo codes, in addition to huge promotional savings on their sites. If you don’t see a discount, do a quick google search before buying, there are often codes for free shipping and seasonal discounts.

3.) Drop the Digital and add to your time

This day in age, cell phones have become such a huge time trap in our lives, we often don’t even notice it. The average person spends anywhere from 90 minutes to 4 hours on their cell phone per day. Think of what could be accomplished by dropping the phone and incorporating something more enriching into your life. A few suggestions to get the most out of this disconnect:

-Put your phone out of sight, not just in your pocket, cell phones are highly addictive, as is social media.

-Begin a routine with your new-found time, walk the dog, organize one area of the house, read a chapter of a book, workout, take a long bath.

4.) Meal Preparation

Instead of focusing on eating healthier every single day, choose one day out of the week to “meal prep”, this can be simplified: 

-Make enough food on Sunday to divide into lunches and dinners for Monday through Wednesday. Repeat the preparation on Wednesday for the remainder of the week. This takes the guesswork and excuses out of healthier choices.

The truth is, if anyone has ever made positive changes in their life, then you can too. You are capable and determined (otherwise, you wouldn’t have read this far) to succeed. A new year is a new start, and can bring with it a brand-new story. Cheers to the positive momentum you are bringing to your life.

Life

Car Maintenance You Can Do Yourself

Car Maintenance You Can Do YourselfAnyone who knows me knows that I’m quite headstrong, which means that I don’t like deferring to other people if there’s something I can do myself. Sure, I ask for help with the bigger things which are beyond my skill-set but there’s plenty of things I do by myself, including certain areas of car maintenance. Youtube is a great source for videos on how to do things yourself and I thought I’d give you an insight into things I do myself, especially before an MOT!

Keeping Tyres Properly Inflated

If your tyres are under-inflated it can have various knock-on effects and can even have an effect on the fuel consumption of your car. Making sure they’re fully pumped up is something that can be done at home and it’s wise to get an air compressor bundle to make the whole process easier.

Changing Your Wiper Blades

Ensuring that your wiper blades fully clear your windscreen is really important from a safety point of view and is something they’re hot on during an MOT. Changing them yourself is surprisingly easy and most models of car have blades with just clip off and on. It’s very simple to do and will save you a labour cost if you take them to a garage.

Changing Bulbs

Bulbs are another area where you can possibly fail an MOT so checking them before you take your car in can save you money. Buying from a local autoparts store, bulbs will set you back under a couple of quid each but more unscrupulous garages will charge four or fives times what they pay for them wholesale.

Topping Up Fluids

Checking your oil is something that most people remember to do, but it’s important to keep your radiator, screen wash, brake fluid and power steering fluid topped up too. They’re all available to buy quite cheaply and checking a diagram of what’s going on under your bonnet will show you where each of them is supposed to go – just don’t get them mixed up!

Valeting

Believe me, as a mum to two messy kids who spends a lot of time in the car, I know how messy things can get and it’s always tempting to drop it off at a valeting centre and take yourself off for a cup of coffee, but doing it yourself can save you a bunch of money. Get the kids involved with washing and hoovering the interior and they might think twice before messing it all up again!

Do you do your own car maintenance or is this something that you’ll happily pay a little extra for someone else to do? Leave me a comment below!

Family · Life

The Day I Ran Over a Cyclist

Last Sunday started off a day like any other. Burrito Baby had been poorly for a couple of days, showing what we thought were the initial signs of chicken pox, which threatened to get our holidays off to a really rubbish start. However, after a very long sleep she woke up seeming much better and the sun was shining so I hatched a plan to take the girls out and surprise them by taking them for breakfast and buying them a paddling pool for the garden. We got dressed, covered in sun cream and left the house.

Living where we do means that we get a LOT of walkers and cyclists using the roads, especially on sunny days, so I’m always careful when taking the winding single lane road which leads away from home, and this day was no exception. I made it up to the junction which takes us out onto the National Speed limit lane at the end of our road and stopped to let a car and a cyclist go past. It’s a poorly-sighted road so I always give an extra couple of looks to make sure the road is clear.

Just as I pulled away, a cyclist came around the corner and into the path of my car. I swerved one way to avoid him, he swerved another way to avoid me, but we hit. He, and his bike, rolled over my bonnet and onto the concrete as I brought the car to a halt. I think I shouted a few expletives as I jumped out of the car and, stupidly, asked “shall I call an ambulance?”. Of course he needed a fucking ambulance; he’d just been hit by a car.

As I was calling for an ambulance, a few other people from the larger part of our village stopped their cars and came over to see what was going on, an older couple who went into help-mode and started propping umbrellas over the injured cyclist (who by this point, although conscious, was bleeding from his mouth and his knee and seemed pretty badly in shock), and a woman of about my age but heavily pregnant who asked if she could check on my girls in the back of the car.

The call to 999 was, frankly, excruciating. Our road doesn’t have a name and aside from a farm or two has no major landmarks, so trying to direct them to where to go was virtually impossible. In the end, I gave them my own address and told them to just aim for there because they couldn’t miss us. In fact, the police turned up after just ten minutes while the ambulance took a full 45 minutes to arrive. The people who stopped joked about how they suddenly understood why there was a defibrillator at both ends of our village. The injured man had been cycling with a friend who had made it to their destination, realised his friend wasn’t showing up and cycled back to find him.

I won’t lie; I was shitting myself. Until the police arrived, I was convinced that I was going to be clapped in irons and thrown in a cell. Although I was sure that I hadn’t driven recklessly nor made any careless mistakes, I’ve never been involved in this sort of thing and had NO idea how I would be dealt with. The first response car had two male officers on board, one of whom took me into the back of his car to ask me a whole bunch of questions and take my details, warning that I may be questioned under caution and breathalysed when the traffic unit arrived.

Low and behold, when the Traffic guys turned up, I was questioned again (the “anything you do say may be given in evidence”, etc, was casually dropped into the conversation but felt hugely surreal nonetheless) and given a Breathalyzer. I hadn’t had an alcoholic drink for about a week before the accident, but I was still relieved when the display read ZERO. The officer took photos of the car, questioned me and the cyclist and did a load of other bits before telling me that he was convinced that it was “just one of those things”, an accident which was unavoidable and which wasn’t due to anyone being at fault.

He said that the speedo on the man’s bicycle showed that he’d been doing 23mph around the corner as we collided and that it was a sharp bend, meaning it could have happened to anyone. His injuries (a broken tooth and a badly scuffed knee) were largely superficial because I was only going slowly as I pulled away. At the most, I may have to attend a course to prove my hazard perceptions skills but I wouldn’t be in trouble or even get any points on my licence.

Obviously I was relieved that the blame wasn’t being laid on me but I was also gutted that I had contributed to someone getting hurt, so I asked the man’s friend to apologise to him for me. As the ambulance pulled away, the officer who’d taken the cyclists statement came to me and said “He asked me to tell you to try not to feel guilty, he knows you weren’t at fault”, which made me feel mildly better.

Skip forward to 5 days later; I haven’t heard anything else about the man, so I assume he is on the mend. Despite the full force of a human man and a bike hitting my car, there’s a dent on the bonnet about the size of a fifty pence piece, so Volvo FTW. Sausage seems pretty unfazed by it all and BB has only mentioned it once – they were both in the back, Sausage looking down at Pokemon Go, so I don’t think they really saw much.

As for me…well, I don’t really know. I’ve had nightmares a couple of nights since it happened and I keep seeing the guy’s face as he rolled off of my bonnet onto the tarmac, the image popping into my head at random. I got straight back into the car and drove again because me being able to drive is basically essential to us living in our dream house here in the country, but I won’t lie; I feel sick every time I see a cyclist on the road and I have visions of them swerving in front of me as I overtake. The whole thing could have been a whole lot worse, but I still feel awful about it all.

Why am I writing this, you may ask? Well, I don’t know…catharsis, maybe? A warning to be extra, EXTRA vigilant for cyclists on the road? Maybe just to get it all off of my chest in the hope it stops swirling around in my brain at any opportunity. Who knows?

Maybe as an opportunity to thank a few people – My fellow villagers for reminding me exactly why we wanted to live in a small, friendly community. The Cuthberts for making me strong tea, showing me their garden and their kindness and introducing us to their chickens – all of which calmed me down massively. My in-laws for, as ever, being on my team and making me feel less like a bad person. My kids for being resilient little buggers. Mostly Husband for hugging me, telling me that it wasn’t my fault and giving my hand a little squeeze whenever we have to drive past a cyclist. And the Police for realising that I wasn’t a hapless criminal, just a very shocked Mum of two on a Sunday morning drive.

I doubt the cyclist will ever read this but I hope he’s okay and that he’ll be back on his bike as soon as he’s able. I’d hate to think that his love of cycling was tarnished by this. Most of all I just hope that he and I are both able to get back behind the wheel and never have anything like this happen to either of us again.

get well soon

Family · Life

Things You Should Do Online

It’s a modern world we live in and it now seems that there’s barely anything that you can’t do online. Sometimes, it might seem like dragging out to the high street to run errands is the only option but there are actually a lot of online services which could make your life a whole lot easier. Here’s just a few:

Online Key Cutters

I have to say that it has never occurred to me that you could order keys from an online key cutters, but apparently that’s a thing! Every time I go to my local key cutters, I seem to either stand in a queue for ages or get sent away because the person who does it isn’t there, so this seems WAY more convenient.

Birthday Cards

Okay, so most of us know that you can order birthday cards online but many of the services actually offer a reminder service too. Add all of your important birthdays, anniversaries and other occasions to the calendar on your account and they’ll actually prompt you to send a card in time for the big day!

Write a Will

It used to be that you needed to deal with someone face-to-face in order to make a will, but these days there are loads of online services which allow you to write a will. Some of them will even print the documents and send them to you, OR keep them safe in a Cloud-based service.

Book a Doctors Appointment

You might not have realised but most doctors surgeries now offer a lot of online services, such as appointment booking, test results and even repeat prescription requests. It’s great that they seem to be moving towards the 21st century a little quicker as so many of these services have been the sort of thing that you used to only be able to do in person, which can be a real inconvenience.