As part of new reforms in the prison system, Ian Bickers, the governor at HMP Wandsworth, will be able to form his own relationship with the media.

I was given permission to meet with him and be taken on a tour of the prison, getting a glimpse of what life is like behind bars.

From the relatively plush office space where the administration side of prison life takes place, we go through a courtyard to what prisoners first see when they enter Wandsworth, either on remand or to serve their sentence.

A bare room with a table and bench.

Prisoners are then searched, often by removing all their clothes, but also by an x-ray machine, which Mr Bickers is keen to increase the use of in coming months.

The governor has plans to gut, redecorate and modernise this space, replacing the bare walls with something more akin to a doctors' surgery.

He said: "At the moment we do full searches, but we could use more body scanners like you have in the airport.

"We probably would not have holding rooms, we want to create a different feel.

"We could use handheld devices so that we don't need big desks."

One of the officers' priorities is an increase in the number of segregated spaces in prison. Currently, Wandsworth has 12, for a prison population of up to 1,877.

Mr Bickers said: "It is not enough spaces to deal with drunkenness, druggy-ness, and my officers berate me to extend it.

"It is change of accommodation, so we need permission, and we did not get it."

Under the new autonomous system, Mr Bickers can get back the six cells previously used as segregation cells.

He said: "Now, I work with the union and I say actually this is what they want.

"We now need to find all the reasons why we should do things."

From reception, we make our way to the E wing, which is where prisoners will spend their first night before they are put in their new cell.

The walls are lined with cells and a few prisoners are poking their heads out of the observation slots, calling out to the governor for a minute of his time.

We are followed down the hall by a prisoner holding a pen and a form, and on second glance Mr Bickers asks the man if he really wanted another smoking packet as he knew the inmate was trying to quit.

I was told by one officer that the job doesn’t feel as safe as when he started 15 years ago.

The day I visit, three officers are in helmets and protective gear, ready to restrain any of the men should they become violent. They were moving four particularly difficult prisoners.

In the end, all four men walk to the vans to be transferred, a regular process according to Mr Bickers who says sometimes troublemakers need to be taken out of the prison environment.

In the main prison and from the centre, you can see HMP Wandsworth’s scale. Six wings and three storeys is home for 1,600 men.

A fight breaks out while we stand there. Officers run from every wing to answer an alarm bell, before retreating to their posts when they are not needed.

One prisoner comes past us with a cut on the left side of his face, heading to the medical wing with four officers. Fights happen about three times a day in the prison.

On the way out, the governor stops to pull down a deodorant bottle hanging from a window by a string of ripped bedsheets.

After I ask if it is a deodorant bottle, he responds: "Yes, but there won't be deodorant in it."

Welcome to his world.