Alex South is a writer and former Senior Prison Officer with ten years experience working in men’s prisons. Her 2023 memoir Behind These Doors was a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week.
A few months ago, I spoke to a man halfway through a life sentence for murder. We first met 12 years ago when I was a prison officer. We mused on the changes to the prison service over the last decade. He said it wasn’t just the days that had got louder, but the nights
I met Daniel in a high-security prison, where I worked as a prison officer. He was just 21. We’d talked about him a lot before he arrived on the wing – we passed the security briefing on him back and forth, scrutinising his vacant mug shot and the endless red bullet points beneath it: Climber wouldn’t
