Hardly a day goes by at HMP Nottingham without a prisoner saying that they have been the victim of physical or verbal abuse. It is a statistic which, at face value, might cause concern to those both inside and outside the prison system. But for senior prison officer Dominique Chapman the higher the number the better. As the prison’s violence reduction co-ordinator she explains "When I first took over the role nearly three years ago there was just one violent incident investigated a month which meant cases were massively under-reported. This July we had 49 investigations and on average we have 31. The figures show that the prisoners feel confident in reporting things, that didn’t happen before."

Chapman, 31, who joined the prison service nearly 10 years ago because she was too young to become a social worker, has been instrumental in creating a no-tolerance culture to violence at the prison. She introduced systematic reporting of any allegations of violence between prisoners or prisoners, staff and visitors. She brought a theatre company into the prison using interactive drama to explore issues around violence reduction. She changed the induction programme so that new inmates know that allegations of violence will be investigated and resolved within 48 hours of an incident being reported. She says: "We are showing perpetrators that reports will be dealt with immediately – people don’t slip through the net." And before prisoners are allocated to shared cells at Nottingham, officers now make sure that there is no 'history' between them which might spark tension. Chapman says: "Nottingham is a local prison, there are gangs and a lot of the guys here have known each other since youth offending institutions and they share history. Now when somebody comes in and says 'I've got a problem with that guy' it will be checked out."

Chapman admits one of the biggest issues was persuading prisoners that it was acceptable to report allegations of violence because they were worried they would get labelled as a 'grass.' "It's something we still talk about all the time, it’s been a question of persuading them that if they tell us there is a problem we can help solve it," she says.

The other major challenge was persuading other prison officers that a culture of violence in the prison system was unacceptable. She says: "It was the biggest problem. Prisoners who have been in young offending institutions can see that the system is changing, but prison staff who have only worked in one place don't see that, there was an assumption that violence such as assaults just happens in prisons." So how did she get staff on board? "It was just about being persistent. It was all about reporting, communicating and feedback." Her strategy, and determination, to create a no tolerance culture to violence has paid off. A recent official audit of the violence reduction system at Nottingham came back with full marks. Says Chapman: "We got 100% - I don't think that's happened anywhere else in the prison service before."

Debbie Andalo