Low pay means prison officers are susceptible to offers from jailed drug dealers for cash to bring drugs in. Drugs are a huge problem and the ways of bringing them into the prison are ingenious, from stuffing a dead pigeon with drugs and throwing it over the walls to a visitor secreting them in a baby's nappy.

There are regular compulsory drug tests and some voluntary ones. Cannabis takes 10 days to work its way out of the system, heroin only one. That's why prisoners come in using recreational drugs and end up addicted to hard drugs.

To avoid being caught during cell searches, prisoners' drugs and mobile phones - a huge problem in prisons - are often concealed in their back passage. Since the Human Rights Act, prisoners can no longer be searched there.

Sadly, there is virtually no rehabilitation in my prison. There are waiting lists for education - which appears to be almost useless judging by a couple of English classes which I sat in on - drug rehabilitation and jobs. These include cleaning the wings, helping in the kitchen or laundry, and dismantling earphones for recycling. Prisoners get 50p a day for being in the prison and 90p for a morning's work in the kitchen. Making a phone call is far more expensive inside than outside - BT has a monopoly.

The one area where you might expect complaints is over the food. Prices in the canteen are twice that of Tesco, partly because everything has to be individually wrapped and glass containers are not allowed.

The prison has only £1.80 a day to spend on each prisoner for breakfast, lunch - the choice is halal, vegetarian, vegan, two meats and a "healthy option" baguette or wrap - plus a cold meal in the evening. Lunch is served at 11.30am and seems like the worst sort of school dinner, but the prisoners hardly grumble. Perhaps this says more about them than it does about the cooking.