Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book aims to evoke and acknowledge the richness of the many different therapeutic ways of working that took place at HMP Holloway and to mark what has been lost in its untimely ending. It deals with vigour and passion about the politics of prison, highlighting the organisational preoccupation with figures and data that blinds us to the human stories they measure. The book discusses the unconscious processes that may have influenced their patient’s responses to them as they navigated the risks and dangers to the unborn children they were bringing into the, often toxic, prison atmosphere. It offers detailed case studies to illustrate the complexity of living in prison and the work that can be done to make sense of life in this social microcosm.