Meet the prison officers who manage Australia’s worst criminals and you’ll soon learn why they hate being called ‘guards’.

In this first episode of Behind the Walls: The Job, crime author and former journalist Michael Duffy takes listeners inside Bathurst, Wellington and Lithgow correctional centres to hear from officers about what it’s really like to work inside NSW prisons.

Michael spent six months recording the series at 11 correctional centres and four Community Corrections offices.

“I was a court reporter for years but I had no idea what happened to convicted offenders when they were taken off to prison – like many people, I was just glad it was someone else’s job to look after them,” he says.

“Also, like many people, I thought prison was just about locks and security. For this podcast, I’ve gone to talk with real prison officers and discovered that their jobs – and they themselves – are about much more than that.”

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