Hints from prisoners about this, oddly (9)
I believe the answer is:
intimates
'hints' is the definition.
(intimating is a kind of hinting)
'prisoners about this oddly' is the wordplay.
'prisoners' becomes 'inmates' (inmate is a kind of prisoner).
'about' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'oddly' indicates alternate letters (letters in the odd-numbered positions are used).
The alternating letters of 'this' are 'ti'.
'inmates' going around 'ti' is 'INTIMATES'.
'from' acts as a link.
(Another definition for intimates that I've seen is " Hints - close friends".)