Australia’s prisons are notoriously private – inmates are forbidden from talking to the outside world without permission, and officers are silenced by airtight contracts.

On Guard – an eight-part podcast – uncovers what really goes on behind bars as former correctional officers share shocking secrets from the frontline of working with some of Australia’s most infamous criminals.

There’s Kerry Corbin who had the unenviable task of minding Daniel Morcombe’s killer Brett Peter Cowan and Tony Burley who oversaw Australia’s worst killer – Port Arthur mass-murderer Martin Bryant for more than a decade.

Beatrix ‘Trixie’ Bennett-Hillier recounts working in one of Australia’s toughest prisons – home to Anita Cobby’s killers – while Maria Costigan found herself face-to-face every day with the man who murdered her niece.

ON GUARD PODCAST

Ep 1: Kerry Corbin on Guarding monsters: ‘Being in jail doesn’t mean you’re safe’

Ep 2: Alan Butler on sex, drugs and lovesick staff: How inmates run wild

Ep 3: Jennifer Kaschau on Granny killer: ‘She was the closest thing to a psychopath’

Ep 4: Beatrix ‘Trixie’ Bennett-Hillier: Anita Cobby’s rapist ‘dragged her into cell’

Ep 5: Bob Hastings: Why Carl Williams’ murder was a ‘wake-up call’

Ep 6: Maria Costigan: ‘Nearly s***t myself’: How I faced my niece’s killer

Ep 7: Tony Burley: Massacre monster trades sex for chocolates

Ep 8: Steve Bergervoet: How I got ‘Chopper’ Read nude behind bars

Ten years working in South Australian prisons has forever changed Jennifer Kaschau. By the time she retired she had met some of the nation’s most evil women and built rapport with high-profile murderers.

Not many people can say they got Mark ‘Chopper’ Read naked on their first day of work – but former prison officer Steve Bergervoet is one of them.

TEST YOUR PRISON SLANG

Prison slang quiz: What’s a foil boil?

Prison slang quiz: What’s a brick?

Prison slang quiz: What’s a cockatoo?

Prison slang quiz: What’s a 2-out?

Prison slang quiz: What’s a crumb?

Prison slang quiz: What’s a duzza?

Prison slang quiz: What’s chicken soup?

Prison slang quiz: What’s a peter thief?

Hear from Alan Butler spent his 32 year career fighting prison corruption and Bob Hastings who took the top job as Victoria’s Commissioner for Corrections just six months before gangland kingpin Carl Williams was murdered in jail.

Each episode concludes with a ‘Prison Pop Quiz’ where officers decode the meaning behind prison lingo … and the answers are eye-watering.

Listen to the episodes by clicking on the tiles below.