My preconceptions of life inside a jail are based mostly on TV and films. A mixture of the ridiculously romanticised Ronnie Barker and co plus the hard end Prison Break and The Wire. What's it really like inside a London prison? Well we certainly had some interesting insight into it last night. Record numbers of mobile phones are being smuggled into Britain's jails. How exactly does this happen? It certainly does happen as the first caller of the night was actually calling from his cell. He cut himself off quite quickly for fear of being overheard on the radio but we checked it out and he was calling from inside. They get there, along with drugs and other commodities, via a number of routes. A prison officer told us that full body searches of prisoners when they arrive have been phased out and so they can take things in with them that are on (or in) their person. Mobile phone parts, even the chargers, have been smuggled in this way. Another route is that for more open prisons things are just thrown over the wall. And then there is the inevitable corruption within the prison service. One man told us that many prison officers will deal in drugs and phones - in fact they'll only draw the line at knives and guns. So is it too relaxed and cushy inside? It sounded like it from the descriptions we were getting from ex prisoners last night. Although as one texter pointed out... it's like being in the smallest room in your house, 23 hours a day, with a bucket in the corner, sharing with a man you don't know. The conditions, they said, don't matter, it's the lack of freedom. In many cases though that lack of freedom is not putting people off a return visit.
Back tonight at ten