Jamie Robinson said inmates are more concerned about a fresh start in the New Year than ChristmasJamie Robinson, host of the TikTok account ‘Jail Tales'(Image: Jamie Robinson/Lancs Live)

A former prisoner who has served time in 28 UK prisons, including Strangeways and HMP Preston, has revealed what Christmas is really like behind bars. Jail Tales, who has more than 37,000 TikTok followers, says prisoners don’t really care about Christmas but look forward to a fresh start in the New Year.

Speaking on the podcast The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, Jamie Robinson, 38, said inmates get a full Christmas dinner served up. He said: “It’s just another day in prison… 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,” Lancs Live reports. Robinson, who grew up on a council estate in Preston, has spent much of his adult life behind bars.

Jamie Robinson speaks about his life on the Tony Murrell podcast ‘The Good, The Bad and The Ugly'(Image: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly/Lancs Live)

He spent every Christmas and birthday from the ages of 18 to 30 in prison. His first brush with the criminal justice system was aged 12, when he appeared in the youth court for battery. He has served multiple prison sentences for violence and drug dealing but says he has now turned his life around after he was released eight years ago.

Robinson now speaks to inmates as they are released from prison, or outside crown court, posting the interviews on his TikTok channel. In September 2023 he stopped Blackpool grime artist Afghan Dan as he headed into Preston Crown Court to be sentenced for burglary, fraud and possession of cannabis.

Appearing on the podcast, hosted by Tony Murrell, Robinson spoke of the horrors he had witnessed in prison. He said he had seen dead bodies and once witnessed an inmate being glassed in the neck when gang wars spilled over into an inter-wing football match.

His first encounter of prison came when he was 16 when he lost the opportunity to play for Blackburn Rovers, where he had trained as a teenager. He says losing his opportunity to become a footballer was the worst mistake of his life.

He said he was “wild and out of control” on the estate he grew up on and would steal cars, motorbikes or anything that wasn’t nailed down. But he says he has no intention of returning to prison and has turned things around after overcoming his addiction to heroin in recent years.

Robinson said as a kid he was not afraid of going to prison but hopes by speaking to prisoners as they leave custody it will put youngsters off a life behind bars.