They're slow to pull up, surrounded by convicts (8)
I believe the answer is:
laggards
'they're slow' is the definition.
The definition suggests an adverb but the answer is not.
'pull up surrounded by convicts' is the wordplay.
'pull' becomes 'drag' (dragging is a kind of pulling).
'up' says the letters should be written backwards (in down clue: letters go upwards).
'surrounded by' indicates putting letters inside.
'convicts' becomes 'lags' (I've seen this before).
'drag' reversed gives 'gard'.
'gard' going within 'lags' is 'LAGGARDS'.
'to' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for laggards that I've seen before include "Slow people; glad rags (anag.)" , "They tend to fall behind" , "They make slow progress and fall behind others" , "Dawdlers" .)