ABSTRACT
This chapter explores consequences to health and wellbeing looks at psychological harm. According to the women interviewed, the most common response from the prison authorities to address mental ill-health was the prescription of anti-depressants, with no psychological support. Most of the women continued to contend with psychological harm for a much longer period of time than their term of imprisonment, with some struggling many months or even years post-custody. For many of the mothers their psychological harm continued for much longer than their period of incarceration. Feelings of anger and injustice also continued to erode some of the mothers’ mental ill-health post-custody. The different experiences indicate the divergent or inconsistent level of support for mental health within the female prison estate. In fact, several of the women reported battling with suicidal thoughts, which were not identified by healthcare or other prison authorities. It was argued that contact with children might alleviate some of the psychological harm.
