A female prison guard who worked in a rat-infested Victorian jail has revealed some of the strangest things she witnessed in her role.
When Alex South started working as a Prison Officer (PO) at the Cambridge jail, later moving to Wormwood Scrubs prison in West London, she had no idea what to expect.
But it certainly wasn’t inmates sitting eating McDonald's in their cells that they had somehow managed to smuggle past security.
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South described the prison as “chaotic, dark, and with three times more men” than her previous placement.
While Whitemoor was high security, Wormwood Scrubs is a busy local prison, serving the courts – meaning things were a little more relaxed.
She claims that it also meant smuggled items like mobile phones, and weapons such as flick knives were rife – sometimes even delivered to cell windows by drones.
Other times items were thrown in, or smuggled by pigeons, from the neighbouring public park.
She references one occasion where she spotted a drone delivering illegal contraband so she rushed to the cell to apprehend the drop off.
But when she opened the cell door she found two men at a table eating a McDonalds.
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She told the Daily Mail: “A couple of Big Macs, a side of fries and some chicken nuggets”.
South explained that due to staffing issues, Scrubs prison was operated on an emergency regime – meaning inmates were locked away 23 hours a day.
“Scrubs was very different from Whitemoor.‘It had three times more men.
“It’s Victorian, dark, rat-infested. There was not a single day I worked there when I did not see a rat – inside, outside, running over your boots. They’re everywhere.
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“They got out for one hour. ‘One hour to settle scores, to make phone calls with only eight phones on a wing, to have a shower when there weren’t many showers.
“There was no time for conversation, to form friendships. Anything could be a flashpoint for a fight.”
She claimed inmates would get so desperate to be let out of their cells they would set their bedding on fire.
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