I can remember hearing the beatings during the night I was down there. You are searched after a visit. I saw inmates with bottles of whisky. The uncertainty feeds through on to the landings. If a Home Secretary says he 'wants decent but austere' prisons some people just hear austere.
Most people join the prison service because they want to do some good work.
They are then asked, after 11 weeks of training, to do one of the most difficult jobs in the public sector.