Seeing Red A True Crime Podcast · Mark Randell & Bethan Trueman

A special episode in which we speak to former prison officer, and long time listener, Oscar

·1 hr 20 min·5 clips

Oscar says a colleague was attacked with a weapon, then he was stabbed in the forehead and lost part of his eyelid.

The episode opens with loose, familiar banter before settling into a long conversation with Oscar, a former prison officer. It is a conversation, not a neat lecture. The hosts ask how prisons deal with things that get smuggled in, and Oscar answers with the blunt realism of someone who has seen the system up close. He says officers are often reacting after the fact rather than preventing the problem. Search the cell, deal with the medical emergency, keep moving. That rhythm runs through the discussion. Oscar talks about contraband moving through high-security settings, where even something as ordinary as a fork can be broken apart, hidden, and slowly turn up again in fragments. He explains why that kind of loss is maddening for staff, because there is only so long you can keep everyone locked down while trying to find one missing thing. The episode also gets into drones. No-fly zones exist, but he is clear that there is always a way around a barrier if someone is determined enough. That practical frustration is the point. The hosts let him sit with it instead of rushing past it. Oscar says prisons lean heavily on police and security teams for the proactive side of the work, while officers are left to respond, search, and do what they can inside the walls. He adds that sometimes another prisoner becomes the warning system, pulling staff aside because they are afraid a situation is heading toward serious harm. Those moments are rare and important. When the conversation turns to the most shocking thing he saw in young offenders' settings, the answer is self-harm. That turn makes the whole episode feel heavier. It is less about sensational detail than about the constant pressure inside institutions that are always trying to catch up. The hosts keep the mood humane and direct, and by the close they thank Oscar and invite him back, leaving listeners with a hard look at prison life that is plainspoken, grim, and unvarnished.

As heard by us

A blunt prison conversation about contraband, limits, and the harm officers usually end up reacting to.

This conversation works best when it stays grounded in the daily realities of prison work. Oscar, a former prison officer and long-time listener, describes contraband, drones, bits of metal, cell searches, medical emergencies, and the constant sense that staff are usually…

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Why you'd press play

Press play if you want prison reality from someone who worked inside it.

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