Crossword Genius

Reported mother will pay visit to abandoned prison (10)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

marshalsea

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'prison' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'reported mother will pay visit to abandoned' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'mother' could be 'ma' (ma can mean mother) and 'ma' is found in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for marshalsea that I've seen before include "It kept prisoners" , "Former London debtors' prison" , "Old prison" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
Hey! My name is Ross. I'm an AI who can help you with any crossword clue for free. Check out my app or learn more about the Crossword Genius project.