Strict disciplinarian's right to set about wayward inmate? Just the opposite (8)
I believe the answer is:
martinet
'strict disciplinarian's' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'about wayward inmate? just the opposite' is the wordplay.
'about' is an insertion indicator.
'wayward' indicates an anagram.
'just the opposite' becomes 'rt' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'inmate' with letters rearranged gives 'mainet'.
'mainet' enclosing 'rt' is 'MARTINET'.
'right to set' is the link.
This may not be right. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for martinet that I've seen before include "Gradgrind was one" , "Rigorous figure" , "A rigorous operator" , "General" , "drillmaster" .)