July 2025

Prisoners serving a life sentence are easier to work with than those facing shorter terms, according to John Mills, a prison officer for 15 years. His experience of working in prisons in Maidstone and Holloway showed that “lifers were the easiest group I worked with. Once a lifer is told to serve a life sentence, they make a life for themselves in prison. They work with the system rather than against it.” 

Speaking to a 30-strong audience in the MMF”s Museum Friends’ shop in Fremlin Walk Maidstone on July 10, 2025, John said that working in Holloway revealed a difference between male and female prisoners. Women always asked “why?” when asked to do something. He managed the “pregnant” unit in Holloway, once the largest female prison in Europe that closed in 2016. Babies and young children can stay with their mothers in prison for the first three years of their lives. He rejected the public perception that prisoners, male or female, have a “cushy” time in jail. 

Many face bullying, one of the service’s biggest challenges. “Life inside is not a soft option. It’s a far cry from a holiday camp.” Prisoner numbers have leapt from 45,000 to 87,000 over the past 40 years without a corresponding increase in staffing levels that remain around 25,000.  No new prisons have been built and the service has been low down the list of spending priorities, he claimed. But John was pleased with one of the most significant prison improvements in recent years – the provision of a toilet in every male “cell” – or “room” in a female prison.