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Wednesday 25 May 2011

Girls behind bars

Yesterday, I was lucky enough to attend an Exhibition called “Girls Behind Bars” held in the “Together Our Space Gallery” in Old Street in London. In this current exhibition all the art work, visual and spoken media, was produced by female prisoners or ex-offenders and aims to explore their lives and how the justice system has affected them.

“Together” is a national charity which works alongside people who have mental health issues. They aspire to “a world where each individual can play their part in breaking down the barriers that exist around mental health through ignorance and lack of understanding”.

Together run a specialist service for vulnerable people in the criminal justice system and are known for their campaign for positive change. This is especially important as more than 70% of the prison population has two or more mental health disorders and female prisoners are 35 times more likely than women in general. For prisoners, finding a way to open up and express their feelings and communicate this with the outside world is a huge step forward.

Now you may ask why I say I was “lucky” to be able to see this inspiring exhibition. I am presently a serving offender, working in the community to give something back to the community. So for me, this exhibition had two meanings. Firstly, I could really relate to the work that had been created as I understood the environment that the women are in and know how difficult it can be to express your feelings and survive the challenges. Secondly, I now appreciate things I previously would have found at the bottom of my list of things to do, work and earning money were always far more important in the past and never gave me any time to be creative.


It is amazing how a few words or a picture drawn with feeling can “paint a thousand words”. I found the work on display gave the viewing public a peek into the varied experiences of women in the justice system: some bad, some not so bad and some downright awful, especially if they are suffering from mental health issues. I have seen the effects of poor mental health on the female population in prison and this is often just one of many problems affecting them.


Inside Job Productions, where I currently work as a Production Trainee had a short animation in the exhibition, created by girls from a Young Offenders Institute in Brighton. I was very proud to see what they had produced. The work they created showed real understanding of the mistakes they had made and could have been avoided. It was an educational and informative presentation, which I don’t believe would have had the same impact if it was only in a written form. It proves that creative communication can educate and inform a wider population. From a personal point of view, I have been able to use artwork and media as a medium to fuse together all my previous interests and it has given me a “new voice” and increased self esteem.


Written by DM