“Jailed Prison Officer Calls for Age Reform After ‘Emotional Manipulation’ by Inmate”

A prison officer who became romantically involved with a convicted drug dealer has claimed she was “emotionally manipulated” and is now calling for legal reform.

Morgan Farr Varney, 25, received a 10-month jail sentence after confessing to a relationship with Jordan Rhodes at HMP Lindholme in South Yorkshire when CCTV footage captured the pair getting cosy before concealing themselves in a storage cupboard.

Farr Varney is now spearheading a campaign to increase the minimum age requirement for prison officers to 25. At present, individuals aged 18 and over can be employed in prisons, whilst applications can be submitted from the age of 17.

When I first joined the prison service, I was young, eager to prove myself, to help others, and to build a career,” she penned in a Change petition

ADVERTISEMENT

“But I was also naïve. I didn’t yet understand how power dynamics, emotional manipulation, and psychological pressure could affect a person. I was manipulated, subtly and gradually, until I could no longer see the boundaries I was crossing.

“The consequences of that manipulation were life-changing. I lost three years of my life and suffered immense personal and emotional trauma. If proper measures of support had been in place, things could have been very different.”

Farr Varney was detained in January 2023, when she confessed she had “fallen in love” with Rhodes.

Despite being released on bail, she maintained the relationship with the crack cocaine dealer, aged 30, with numerous romantic letters and photographs of her discovered in Rhodes’ prison cell.

She received her 10-month prison sentence in May. There have been numerous instances where prison officers have engaged in intimate relationships with inmates, including cases involving Megan Breen, 23, and Linda De Sousa Abreu at HMP Wandsworth.

Farr Varney is campaigning to increase the minimum age requirement for prison officers to 25, aiming to reduce the risk of immature decisions leading to inappropriate relationships with prisoners.

She explained: “Prisons are emotionally volatile environments, filled with manipulation, trauma, and psychological challenges that even seasoned professionals struggle to navigate,”.

She added: “It is simply unfair and unsafe to place young, impressionable individuals, often barely out of adolescence, in such positions of responsibility and risk.”

Varney emphasised that her situation isn’t isolated: “My experience is not unique. Others have been affected in similar ways but have remained silent out of shame or fear and after speaking to multiple other young people who have been in the same situation as myself, to see the way their lives were ruined, or will be – I can no longer sit and do nothing about it. I am speaking now because I do not want anyone else to lose years of their life the way I did.”

She concluded: “I believe in accountability, but I also believe in prevention. Raising the minimum age for prison officers is not about excluding young people; it is about protecting them and protecting the integrity of the system itself.”