British prisons: Dank, depressing and dangerous as in Dickens' times

Prison Wandsworth, London, is just one of the many jails in England and Wales that date back to Victorian times. Photo: dpa/Zuma Press

If you are unlucky enough to spend time in a British prison, the deaths, the vermin and the rotting walls might make you think time has stood still for a century.

The conditions recall those described by Charles Dickens, who lived from 1812-1870 and was deeply affected by the jail where his father was held.