I am delighted to support The View magazine and the critical work they do to bring important issues into public discourse and to give a voice to women in the criminal justice system. Much of my work is about examining the impacts of social policy and challenging the kinds of misrepresentation and false narratives that can so easily become entrenched and divisive. Society is nothing without all of us working together for a better future; inclusion is paramount, and any social documentary must include the authentic voices of those involved. It is this kind of collaborative creative practice that will redefine our visual history and create opportunities for a much more diverse and inclusive reimagining of the society we want to live in. It is a privilege to be asked to play a small part in helping The View to challenge the failings of our system and stimulate public debate.
Someone’s Daughters
Baroness Brenda Hale
There are so many reasons to fight for the criminal justice system to treat women better than it does – that so many women in prison have themselves been the victims of violence, abuse and exploitation; that so many have serious mental health problems which are not being properly addressed in prison; that so many have issues with drug and alcohol abuse which led to their imprisonment and need proper treatment if they are not to return; that so many are in prison for offences which are neither serious or violent and for relatively short periods. But to me the main reason to fight for a different system is that women in the criminal justice system are not only some-one’s daughter – they are also, more often than not, some-one’s mother.
What happens to the children when their mother is sent to prison? If they are lucky, they will be taken care of by someone whom they know and love, their father, an aunt, their grandmother, a family friend. If they are unlucky, they will be looked after by strangers arranged by the local authority. Lucky or unlucky, they will often have to leave their homes, their schools, their friends, their familiar surroundings. Finding a new school place may not be easy. Visiting their mother may be very difficult, a long way to travel because there are so few women’s prisons that they are often far away, an all-too-short and unnatural time with her, and few and far between, especially for young children whose sense of time is quite different from ours. And all of this disruption for what may be only a few weeks’ sentence. But even if it is only a few weeks, it can be very difficult to get the family back together again when the mother is released. Her home and her livelihood, as well as her children, may be gone. All too often, there is no-one waiting at the prison gates when a woman is discharged.
When I was in the Court of Appeal, we held that the human rights of children had to be taken into account in sentencing their parents. But does that happen? I congratulate The View for giving these women a voice – helping us all to understand them and what has happened to them and how the system could do better by them if only the will were there.
Emily Ramsay
My name is Emily and I was given an 8 year prison sentence for Conspiracy to supply Class A drugs in 2015. I served 4 years of that sentence in prison and the remainder 4 years I am on license in the community. Prior to this I had never been in trouble with the police, never had any contact with police at all. I completed school with all of my GCSE’s grading from A’s- C’s and then went onto college where I obtained a BTEC National Diploma. I grew up with an amazing, loving family who have always been so supportive along with a very special group of friends.
So with this being said, it raises the question “Then how did you end up going to prison?…”
In 2011 I gave birth to my daughter and not too long after that I split up with my daughter’s father who I had been with since I was a teenager. I became a single parent, lived alone, worked a full time job and tried to be the very best mum that I could be to my little girl. Some time after I met “The Ex” through a mutual friend. It was all great, I had support from him, he worked, he accepted my daughter and stepped up where I thought it was needed. He came into my life when I was actually really quite vulnerable although at the time I didn’t think that I was. See, I had always been a very outspoken, opinionated, take no crap kind of person so I did not see myself vulnerable at all.
As time went on, we of course became closer, doing most things together and this is when it all started… It started by him asking me if I could just drive him to go and meet a friend quickly which I did. We did this often. Then he would call me when I wasn’t with him and say ”Emily, remember when we went to this place the other day, do you mind just going there quickly as I can’t get there and grab this bag from my friend”. No questions asked, I did it. I would go there, meet his “friends” and then go and drop the bag off to him. It then became apparent that I was in-fact collecting money for him. So if I knew what I was doing was wrong, why didn’t I just stop?!… something I have been asked so many times over the years since my arrest. See, what people don’t realise is what is actually going on behind closed doors. They see you, the person that they have always known to be the bold, bubbly character when in-fact you are now just a shell of that person that you used to know. My relationship consisted of extreme levels of emotional abuse. He used my daughter as a way to keep me around, telling me how much she would suffer if he was no longer a part of her life. He wormed is way in to a point where he got me to stop working my job, become financially dependant on him, moved me out of the home I had before I met him to a property that he paid for, got me a new car that he also paid for, isolated me from my friends and family who were not allowed to know where I lived. He would comment on my appearance, my looks, my weight using phrases like “no one else will want you”. He actually got me to a point where everyday I lived on eggshells around him. I never knew what version of him was going to walk through the door that day. The moment I heard his key go into the door, my stomach used to drop, i’d look around the house to see if I had forgotten to do anything that he expected I should have done, I lived a nightmare and couldn’t see how I was going to be able to wake up from it.
He was controlling, abusive, clever, manipulative, a serial cheater but even after doing all these things to me, making me question what I did wrong, why am I not good enough, he was able to justify his behaviour to me by telling me that it’s because I hadn’t behaved properly that’s why he did the things he did. He threw glasses at me, threatened to kill me, punched me around the face and then would sit and cry with his head in his hands telling me that I made him do that and for a long time I believed that to be the truth.
“GET OUT THE FUCKING CAR!!!” This voice in my head that I still hear is as clear as day. This is the moment that I was circled by undercover police officers where I was dragged from the car and arrested. I had been collecting drugs for him where I was on my way to drop it off to someone else when this happened. I was remanded in custody due to my involvement in what had been an undercover operation for months, where myself and other people were under investigation. I spent 2 nights in the police station where I was strip searched, not given a blanket to sleep with, not able to clean my teeth until I was taken to court on the saturday and again remanded into custody as they believed I was a potential flight risk and may flee the country whilst awaiting my court date.On receiving my sentence of 8 years, the courts did take into account my previous good character, the mitigating circumstances surrounding my domestic abuse and the fact that I had pleaded guilty at the earliest I could. However, since then and knowing what I do now about life in prison and especially mothers who are taken away from their children was this actually in the best interest of my child?…I know there is people that will say but if you cared about your child you wouldn’t have put yourself in this position to be taken away from her but if you have never been a survivor of domestic abuse or taken the time to understand the psychological impact it has on you then how can you really know what people go through. I made this decision to tell my story because I believe that more work needs to be done in raising awareness to not only the courts about coercive control and the events that led up to my involvement in criminality but also to young women who are at risk of being groomed through their relationships. I was an educated young person but when it came to this, that was completely irrelevant because they don’t teach you in school the potential red flags and warning signs of the perpetrators of domestic abuse as they come in so many different forms.