As part of the inaugural launch event for the Prison Research Network's 'Postgraduate & Early Career Group' (for which I am Co-Lead), I delivered a talk based on my experiences of prison-based research from my ESRC-funded doctoral research (on repeatedly criminalised women) and role as a research assistant on a subsequent ESRC-funded study on long-term imprisonment from young adulthood. The specific emphasis and intention of the talk was to generate a more open and supportive culture among new prison researchers who may be struggling with fieldwork in prisons. I delivered a frank and honest reflection on my experience of ethical and emotional challenges of conducting research in prison from my intersectional position as a young, queer woman, and the challenges of being a novitiate and junior researcher in such settings.