Mobs spawn in the darkness, my cells are all dark but small, so mobs will spawn every now and then, but not at a high rate, this time, it was 2 creepers.
I'm using this method in another room, I seal it off with cobblestone and open it with a press of a button, when it's closed (sealed), it's 100% dark, so a lot of mobs will spawn, I have a switch that will put in some light when I pull it, so every 10 minutes or so, I go down, open it, light it up, and it has around 10-15 different mobs, so I start farming XP and mob resources.
EDIT : For example I just game down to my prison now, found 2 creepers in 2 different cells and a spider in another one.
Last edited by EJM; Jul 9, 2012 at 06:50 PM.