RODNEY Adler, who grew up in Sydney's eastern suburbs, had a rough time in jail.

He realised the inmates knew precisely who he was. He felt targeted. But, Adler, who was jailed over the collapse of insurance giant HIH, quickly learned his biggest problem was not with the inmates but the jail wardens who he says made his time behind bars difficult.

"I believe the Department of Corrective Services held a considerable number of HIH shares in their superannuation fund and the loss that this fund sustained was translated into treating me poorly," he said. "I was constantly moved and enjoyed the courtesy of eight prisons.

"In jail there are four things you don't want to be: high-profile, perceived as wealthy, Jewish and educated. I won the superfecta."

Adler says that during his more than two years in jail he was not sexually assaulted.

"I was worried about that, but I wasn't sexually assaulted - not at all," he said.

But he lived in fear as fellow inmates frequently took condoms from vending machines.

"I kept seeing these big, burly men going to the condom machine and taking one or two every day," he said. "I lived in fear that their use would involve me."

"One day I worked up the courage to ask a big Tongan man who I had become moderately friendly with and said timidly, 'Excuse me, bro,' because everyone is bro in jail. 'I see you're taking a condom every day, and I cannot believe that you would be using it as is the intention - you don't seem that sort of guy and I am confused.' "

Adler was told the inmates were discarding the condom and using the lubricant as hair gel.

"The jail population is quite poor and they would prefer not to spend their limited money on hair gel when it can be retrieved from the condom packet - thank goodness," he said. "I had no idea; I've never had the need to use a condom in my life."

Adler also insisted that he had never lost faith in God while in prison.