The View is the only platform by and for women in the justice system with lived experience. We are the survivors of trauma and state-endorsed violence. Women also experience the worst effects of the climate crisis, including war, famine and rape. Increasingly eco-activists are being incarcerated indefinitely for peaceful protest. We stand with our suffragette sisters. Women are treated unfairly by the justice system, whether as women who have committed a crime or as victims. We work with women using art to reclaim their stories and reframe their future. Join our community’s vision for a world where women are celebrated, respected and treated with love and dignity – a world where every woman matters.
Issue 13 of The View is a promise — of survival for the planet and for women. It sheds light on the ongoing injustices women face in the legal system. At Bronzefield Prison, run by Sodexo Ltd, one woman suing the company for stealing her property was punished by being denied photocopying of legal papers — a basic right for any trial preparation.
Constance Marten shares her harrowing experience of being transported by Serco while on remand, describing court attendance under inhumane conditions. Exhausted and unprepared for trial, she says it feels deliberate — she’s unable to function, let alone participate.
We also update you on the disturbing case against The View’s editor, Farah, brought by former partner Nigel Gould-Davies. Despite withholding key digital evidence until days before trial, Judge Greenberg KC extended Farah’s imprisonment, leaving her unprepared. This case raises serious concerns about how judges arbitrarily extend custody time limits — a failing system where justice is lost when the CPS fails to meet disclosure schedules.
Human rights lawyer Anna Shapiro interviews Zainab, the fierce founder of Daughters for Earth — a feminist justice incubator fighting for climate justice. Maria Luiza explores London College of Fashion’s program at HMP Downview, empowering incarcerated women through sustainable fashion. Sophie Boone profiles ‘Rubies from the Rough,’ redefining sustainable luxury jewellery. Artists Farida Yesmen and Kani Kamil challenge perceptions through their powerful hair-themed artwork.
Finally, can you help us with The View’s upcoming short film The Mirrored Wardrobe — a modern myth urging us to question appearances? Things are not always as they may seem.
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With 130+ pages of news, views and truth, get your summer issue of The View now.
The View Magazine is a Community Interest Company (CiC) that is a feminist human rights multi-media platform. We advocate for all women who have been in contact with the justice system, whether as women in conflict with the law or women who have been victims of crime and are traumatized by the failures of agencies meant to keep us safe.
We believe that women in prison and serving their license in the community must be heard and that the issues that affect them need to be highlighted. We know that change can only come from within, by women who have been affected by that system.
Founded by 3 incarcerated women the quarterly magazine embodies their challenges within the system that institutionally retraumatizes its inmates rather than rehabilitates. The View pays for contributions from women in the criminal justice system, which showcases their art, prose, and poetry to encourage them to own their narratives and tell their stories in their own words.
You can subscribe here.
We pay our women artists half the proceeds from sales of merchandise from the art they have created that you can see in our online shop here that we sell across England and Ireland at art fairs and pop-ups and online and in our soon-to-open shop on Caledonian Road.
The work The View recognises that women in prison often have complex mental health needs. Almost £500m a year is spent on prison health care contracts and about £150m on mental health care, so why are women not receiving the treatment they deserve? Self-inflicted deaths are 8.6 times more likely in prison than in the general population and 70% of people who died from self-inflicted means whilst in prison had already been identified as having mental health needs.
The View generates profits from commercial sales of the magazine, and art that may be reinvested into much-needed advocacy and employment and skills programs for women and children who have suffered violence and trauma, as well as research into the systemic issues behind the inequality faced by women in the criminal justice system that will lead to real, meaningful criminal justice reform.
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