Redemption: The Podcast

“A woman who got sent down, and wrote about it.” In this podcast we explore the concept of “Othering”, and how humans connect / disconnect according to environment. I will take us through my lived experience of a women’s prison, and how I have reconnected to myself, and the outside world after my release, using movement. I am an ex ballet dancer, exercise physiologist and ex prisoner. I diarised my time in a UK prison, documenting the behaviour of malefactor women forced into incredibly inhumane conditions. Since my release, I have researched and studied the human psyche in adverse conditions, mostly through the exploration of movement. I spent fifteen years rehabbing clients suffering chronic pain from the neck down; and I now spend my time exploring how movement impacts us from the neck up. Environment influences emotion: emotion informs behaviour and behaviour has consequences… The consequence of my behaviour was a sixteen month prison sentence. And what does lived experience of women’s prison look like, for you, the listener? In Eastwood Park, self harm rocketed by 128% in twelve months, and four deaths in custody were swept under the carpet. I documented countless abuses of power, physical and psychological assaults, but most of all, how women survive in the face of adversity. Prison isn’t just the curtailment of freedom; it’s being disconnected from family, friends, communication with the outside world, work, and most devastatingly… human purpose. Without purpose, are we human? I used exercise to keep myself sane, and alive. My body was the only thing I still had control over. Becoming a statistic wasn’t an option. Because if I died, who would tell the story? Everything you never knew, but need to know about women in prison. And what happens to the brain after it…