Chibuike Ekeiwu has worked at the Kent prison since 2022. The photographer Tom Pilston recounts a day spent with him keeping order in a tough environment

Chibuike Ekeiwu is no bruiser. He is not particularly tall or musclebound, has a friendly face and talks in an intelligent, calm manner. Chibs, as he is known, is also a patient man with an ability to defuse tension, which can frustrate the prisoners he works with at HMP Maidstone, a category C prison in Kent.

Ekeiwu leaves the shared Victorian terrace house he lives in at dawn and drives across town bathed in the yellow light of the street lamps.

Ekeiwu drives to the prison and walks the last 50 metres to the staff entrance before making his way to the Kent House wing