A former serial prison inmate has revealed what its like to spend Christmas Day behind bars – and also opened up about the pain of being separated from cell mates he’d grown close to.
Ex-con Jamie Robinson, 38, who hosts TikTok channel Jail Tales, which sees him interviewing people as they leave prisons and courtrooms, has spent time in 28 UK prisons, including Strangeways, Brixton and Pentonville.
Robinson, who grew up on ‘a rough estate’ in Preston, told The Good, The Bad and The Ugly podcast about the realities of spending the festive season inside, saying prisoners ‘don’t care’ about Christmas Day.
The TikToker, who has more than 37,000 followers, first found himself in court aged 12 for battery and has since served multiples terms in prison for violent crimes and drug dealing.
Robinson, who was addicted to heroin before getting clean in his thirties, told podcast host Tony Murrell that he doesn’t look back fondly on spending December 25th in prison.
He said: ‘It’s just another day in jail. People who have been imprisoned don’t even think about Christmas.
‘You get Christmas dinner but it’s just another day you want to get out of the way.
‘You want New Year to get out of the way too so you start a fresh year, so you’re a year closer to going home, especially when you’re doing big sentences.’
Revealing how cell mates become like family, the ex-con said the bond between those who share a prison cell is hard to break – and it can be devastating when prisoners are separated.
He said: ‘People who’ve been in jail will be able to relate to this. If you’ve been in prison with somebody and you’re padded up with them and you’ve been chilling with them for longer than a year and everything you do you share. If one of you gets moved, you cry your eyes out mate. It’s a killer.’
Robinson also revealed the horrors of spending time in prison, saying he’s seen ‘dead bodies’, recounting how he once witnessed a fellow inmate being glassed to death during a football match – as regional burger bar wars spilled over into prison life.
He told the podcast: ‘I remember one time playing inter-wing football. There was a tackle, I remember thinking “that wasn’t a bad tackle”. I walked over and the kid’s rolling around with a Nescafe jar stuck out of his neck.’
Robinson told the podcast the person responsible was given a life sentence after being caught on camera committing the murder.
Speaking about the prison officers – often dubbed ‘screws’ – he encountered, he said he respected the profession after experiencing it first hand.
He told podcast listeners: ‘You get up every day knowing you’re going into prison, the bell’s going to be pressed five times a day at least and you’re going to running to people’s faces being opened up, people being hot watered…to be a screw and run and do that every day, you’ve got to be a bad a**’.
Emily Foster is a globe-trotting journalist based in the UK. Her articles offer readers a global perspective on international events, exploring complex geopolitical issues and providing a nuanced view of the world’s most pressing challenges.
