The clumsy article about prison is returned (5)
I believe the answer is:
inept
'the clumsy' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'article about prison is returned' is the wordplay.
'article' becomes 'ti' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'about' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'prison' becomes 'pen' (both can mean an enclosure).
'is returned' says the letters should be written in reverse.
'ti' enclosing 'pen' is 'tpeni'.
'tpeni' in reverse letter order is 'INEPT'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for inept that I've seen before include "Unskilful, awkward" , "Incompetent or gauche" , "Silly - unskilled - unsuitable" , "Hopelessly incapable" , "Cack-handed" .)