Today's Guardian reveals how an undercover reporter was offered £1,500 by inmates. Here is his diary.

Did an early shift on Beaumont wing - this is where the "vulnerable prisoners" are kept. On with two Prison Custody Officers who seem quite lazy. Lots of paperwork. Staff hardly get up to leave the office.

Tuesday, December 12

Long day with no results. Worked with ex-Gurkah, excellent PCO.

Wednesday, December 13

Nothing to report.

Saturday, December 16

There was a random staff search this morning. I didn't take the recording equipment in. No info gained today.

Sunday, December 17

Gained a lot of footage today, mainly from PCOs talking about how info wasn't getting passed on to the Home Office controller for fear of being punished by the government. Incidents include 13 knives being found, gates left open and prisoners that might have a key for the office.

Monday, December 18

Too busy today. On the cell search, noticed that some cells were horrifically dirty with no punishment.

Tuesday, December 19

Nothing to report.

Thursday, December 21

Was on an "a shift" today. This involves working from 07.30 to 20.45 with only a 15-minute break. Did a lot of filming. In the morning I was on with a new PCO. He said that they didn't do some cells to prevent hassle.

I watched the prisoners on exercise. It seems they pass drugs through the gaps they create in the "secure" cell windows. Two prisoners were "shipped out" for security reasons. I don't see obvious bullying but the quieter prisoners seem to get their stuff pinched a lot.

Friday, December 22

On a late shift. Had to drive to hospital to take a prisoner for an operation. Got back to prison about 18.30. At approx 18.40 there was a throw over onto the exercise yard. The PCOs locked the prisoners in and I was part of the strip search team. Nothing was found. A prisoner on Carling wing offered me £5,000 to bring in drugs for him.

Saturday, December 23 - Tuesday, December 26

Was on Christmas leave, a welcome break.

Wednesday, December 27

Was supposed to be on general duties "long shift" (07.30 to 21.00) today but was passed between wings instead. Got searched twice today.

Thursday, December 28

Because of heightened security, I didn't take the camera in. Didn't miss much.

Friday, December 29

Was supposed to be on general duties but was put into visits to operate the CCTV. Told how "they under-quoted the staffing levels" so there is no general duties pool. At approx 13.15 there was a fight on Farley. Two prisoners involved, something to do with gangs.

In the evening there was a triple stabbing on Farley, all available staff were called. Had something to do with the fight at lunchtime. I was used to take one of the prisoners to A&E. He didn't say anything about the stabbings.

Saturday, December 30

Had to come in this morning on a prisoner escort to take him to his mother's nursing home. The prisoner couldn't say enough about how good the staff are.

Sunday, December 31

Off work. Went to New Year party. Hoping all the PCOs he invited would be there. Only four people showed up. Seems the PCOs are arrogantly cliquey.

Monday, January 1

On a late shift. Spent all day outside preventing throw-overs. Filmed the farmer's fence they use to keep people off the grounds.

Tuesday, January 2

Did a lot of filming today. Wasn't supposed to be but because of the lack of management I managed to allocate myself onto Carling wing. A prisoner approached me saying he wanted to be moved off the wing because he was scared. It was dealt with really slowly. Talked with the drug dealer.

Thursday, January 4

Talked more to the drug dealer on Carling. He said before Christmas a PCO brought a large pack of cannabis in.

Tuesday, January 9

In Seg today. Seg is run really well and staff are professional.

Wednesday, January 10

Nothing suspicious in the mandatory drug testing team. They are having high positive results on target testing which means the drug takers are being found - they're doing a good job.

Friday, January 12

Admissions today. Nothing to report apart from boredom.

Tuesday, January 16 to Wednesday January 24

Outside of prison doing class work.

Thursday, January 25

Went into prison to do some practical work. The class went into Davies unit to search the landing of the wing, I think because there was a fight between some prisoners. This incident escalated and involved six prisoners who I heard got moved off the unit. On the search some tools and hooch were found.

Learned how Rye Hill works on a penalty point system for the Home Office. A point escalates to about £123. Example of the scale is "self-harm" is one point, a find of "contraband" is five points, sentence plans being missed is three points. Rye Hill is allowed 80 points each quarter. Plans for a £5m extension are being talked about - this would mean six new wings and 150 more staff.

Monday, January 29

Nothing to report, well, apart from finding out that my allocated unit is Davies (the worst, most violent unit in the prison.)

Wednesday, January 31

Because there is nothing to do we were sent into the prison all day. Davies has a bad atmosphere because the prisoners tell the staff what to do. During the cell checks me and a PCO found three buckets of hooch.

Thursday, February 1

On Davies on an early shift. There is a lot of tension on the wing. I filmed a prisoner throwing hooch on the floor.

Friday, February 2

Graduation day. Was a bit of a let down. Ended at lunchtime where we went to the Duncow, the PCO local pub. Talked about how Rye Hill should increase security.

Monday, February 5

Was working on Davies today. The most major thing that happened is that a prisoner started fighting when we found hooch in his cell.

Tuesday, February 6

Was really tired from Davies yesterday. Being a PCO is hard work. Being a PCO on an uncontrollable wing is even worse.

Thursday, February 8

Staff search - didn't bring in rig. I heard news that a prisoner tried to escape on Davies. He cut the hover wire and was caught trying to climb the fence. I think he was trying to fetch the drugs that landed on the roof. Working on Davies again. Really hard work dealing with the prisoners.

Friday, February 9

In visits most of the night, quite boring. Then I was called down to Seg to help with the watches there. There was one sash watch and two dirty protests, there was also a unique watch for one prisoner who was acting strange. I think one was on dirty protest because he didn't want to go back to the wing.

Monday, February 12

Was on a late doing the food servery. Not much happened just hard getting them to eat their own food and not everyone else's.

Tuesday, February 13

On a late shift again but this time was general duties. Start of shift was working with the visits team searching visitors. Noticed the metal detector gate wasn't even switched on. Also, a lot of visitors failed the drug-testing machine - they then get put on a closed visit.

Thursday, February 15

On an early shift with another lazy officer. It's amazing how often you get left alone on the wing with 75 prisoners. Two just isn't enough.

Friday, February 16

Spent all day on an escort. I took a prisoner to A&E because his piles were starting to swell and bleed. He is the cellmate of one of the main people in the Xmas Farley incident. He mentioned how Rye Hill is dangerous, the gang culture and the abundance of weapons. He is out soon but I think he is trapped and will end up back in jail. It seems in the fight his pad mate did most of the damage with a smashed plate, including two major wounds to a prisoner's neck. It seems it was the Yardies against the Pikies. He described it as the whole wing "going off" and the officers "running away". His piles weren't fixed.

Saturday, February 17

Was called to Davies because of a prisoner fighting because they had found a mobile in his cell. When I got there he was semi-calm but still taken to an empty room. A female PCO looked a little upset. Turns out she was threatened with a pool cue by a prisoner saying he was going to smash her face in.

She said she was scared for her life, one because Davies is out of control and two because she has no backing from the staff. She said she had gone home crying a couple of times, so now I was concerned about her mental wellbeing and safety.

I told the people who organised the staff placement about her situation and pleaded with them to move her in the afternoon just to let the prisoners calm down. They said they would.

Sunday, February 18

Turns out they didn't bother moving her. It's like they don't realise how dangerous Davies is or that they only care if there's an incident. When I was sitting down talking to some prisoners they mentioned female officers then the subject changes. It soon was evident that they wanted me to bring in drugs. My second week on Davies and they are already approaching me. I wonder how many corrupt officers there are.

Monday, February 19

Not much happening on Davies today because most seem asleep from being drunk at the weekend. Still too much to do, even without the prisoners.

Wednesday, February 21

On Tuesday it looks like they have moved some more prisoners including my new groomer off the wing. Feels like they are only one step behind me, if only they put as much effort into looking after the staff. It wasn't long before his friend approached me saying "we can still do this".

Thursday, February 22

The morning I spent on Davies. The day dragged and seemed to prolong the more requests the prisoners threw at me.

I filmed the joke of a hut they call drug rehab centre. Floated around in the afternoon filming stuff until I was placed on Farley wing at 18:00. Tired from working nearly 11 hours, Farley was chaotic. There were six new prisoners put on as it is an induction wing.

Friday, February 23

On late Davies, felt like I haven't slept. Bad day.

Monday, February 26

On Carling with a good officer. I wonder what drives the non-corrupt good officers. When I asked one she said she liked to make a difference and is interested in criminal psychology and the legal system. Good point but I'm not interested in having 70 criminal kids. Filmed a craft knife and me talking to the head of security.

Tuesday, February 27

Last day, spent morning on Davies. Nothing happened. In the afternoon spent time in Seg, also filmed a PCO talking about a missing report on razor saw blades being found.

In addition to my other notes there was also another thing of note today. During lunchtime I normally take the same prisoner down to pick up the trolley as a lot of the PCO's job is to watch the prisoners work. Serving lunch sounds easy but imagine serving 50 kids (not 75 as some prisoners are quite dignified) who have a violent trend and wanted chips instead of pasta.

Anyway, lunchtime seems to be one of the busiest times for a PCO. I normally ask this prisoner who collects the trolley to save me some food. At the end when it seemed all the food was gone he said "Gov, I saved you some food in here". It looked like at the start he put some aside for me under the hot plate.

I trusted him enough that it wouldn't be tampered with. It seems in these modern-age prisons the line is starting to blur between "screw" and "con".

· Life Behind Bars, a prison investigation by GuardianFilms for Panorama, is on BBC1 tonight at 8.30pm