Questions With The Residents Part 1

As y’all know, one of my placements here in Liverpool is working with women who are transitioning out of prison. I have struggled to find the best way to blog about this because I want and need to do it in a way that keeps things confidential. The ladies and I have finally come up with a way to do this. 

We wanted to find a way to share their experiences with a wider audience. So, I came up with a list of questions that I asked a group of women, and in my next few blogs, I’m going to share their answers. It is important to note that the information that was shared with me is these women’s experiences, and therefore cannot be taken as complete fact because all humans will have differing perceptions of situations. 

The women I am privileged to work with are a variety of ages, from all around the UK, and they have a wide range of stories, with quite a few shared experiences. They come to the residence straight from prison, and spend around 12 weeks living in the house. Some come with lots of stuff, some come with just one bag. Some have family members drop them off, and some arrive on their own. Everyone who arrives is different, but they are greeted by a support worker, and they all have responsibilities in the house every day. During the week, one of their responsibilities is attending different activities and programs. I took one of these program sessions to sit and ask some questions. The five women who agreed to sit down with me ranged in age from 53 to 24, and they represented four different prisons. 

The first question I asked was regarding education and program opportunities. The four women who were present for the first conversation all agreed that there were not many options and did not really elaborate. Another resident (resident 5) I asked however, said that she wanted to finish her English and Math, and there were programs for her to do that. She also said that there were additional options, like a relationship course. Some of the other women I asked said that the lack of options is the same across most prisons. However, resident 5 said she wanted to have something to do, and so she participated in all that she could. I find the different perceptions of the prison system interesting. Of course there will be differences across the varying prisons, but as they all operate under the monarchy, there is consistency in programming offered. When I was preparing the questions, I expected some difference in perception, but this was a bit more than I thought. 

This led into the second question, which was about what COVID was like in prison. The majority of programs and work opportunities were shut down in prisons during COVID like the rest of the world. Only the essential workers, i.e. kitchen staff were permitted to work. For a lot of the pandemic, the women were isolated 22 hours a day, had one hour for exercise, and one hour to shower ect. Meals and meds were delivered to all the women on a regular schedule, and there was not much variety. Resident 3 talked about arriving in prison about a year into COVID and how lonely it was to isolate in a room for 2 weeks, with hardly any human contact. She was bored and did not have many things to do. Resident 2 shared how this is when she started cutting her own hair because she did not want it to grow at all, but couldn’t ask anyone for help. Resident 5 talked a lot about restricted movement and how the women had to be escorted by a guard if they needed to go anywhere in the prison. And this was limited even further because of staffing issues. This was different from pre-COVID when the women could walk to appointments and work without an escort and have association, or time to spend with others. I believe this was to minimize exposure risk and to make sure the women got from point A to point B as quickly as possible, but I do not know this for sure. It was also interesting to hear about the differences between COVID life “on the wing” versus in the prison houses. If you were “on the wing,” you had your own room and next to no association. The women who lived in the houses on prison grounds shared bedrooms, as well as all other aspects of the house. So these women had more human contact, but had schedules set up for when specific bedrooms would go and cook or go do laundry. But if one person in the house tested positive, no one in the house could leave. This resulted in a lot of the tension in houses because when one would get sick after the other, the isolation was prolonged. 

During COVID, almost everything was shut down. Places like the library and gym were sometimes open, but not very often because it depended on staff, and as stated previously, there has been a significant staffing shortage throughout the pandemic. One resident even commented that for a few weeks, they had zero movement because there just were not enough staff members to safely facilitate it. This took away what little freedom the women did have.

I am so grateful that the women felt comfortable enough to talk to me, and that they took the time to share their experiences. These are just the first two questions I asked, so you will be hearing from me soon with the next installment! Stay tuned. 

“And remember kids, God made you special, and they love you very much!”