ABSTRACT
In 1958 Gresham Sykes outlined pains of imprisonment as deprivations of liberty, goods and services, heterosexual relations, personal autonomy, and security. The mothers interviewed in this research felt many of the pains of imprisonment; however, ‘for women, the pains of imprisonment revolve around family relations’. The first pain of imprisonment explored by Sykes was how prisoners are physically cut off from any existing support networks. D. Medlicott argues that female prisoners find that by removing their autonomy ‘they are required to adjust their identities and behaviour in order to comply with every requirement of the institution, no matter how petty’. In 2007 Corston identified the stresses relating to arriving in prison: ‘Inspections have found improvement in reception arrangements in women’s prisons since the Corston report was published but the shock and distress of women entering the prison system and the consequent critical need for support remains’.
