Release on temporary licence (RoTL) for women in prison is supposed to be part of their resettlement and rehabilitation. They can access resettlement leave to maintain contact with their children, especially their young children. In addition, women are allowed to apply for a special purpose licence (SPL) to leave prison to attend urgent medical appointments.
In November 2025, when a woman with aggressive stage 3 breast cancer who the prison made miss 17 months of treatment and 22 hospital appointments, was denied leave from HMP Eastwood Park in Gloucestershire on an SPL to access specialist treatment at UCLH, over 120 miles away, The View exposes the systemic lack of judgment and disregard for public protection shown by flailing Governor Zoe short. Governor Short is currently reapplying for her own job. She has requested millions of pounds more funding for her prison by categorising it as a complex prison. Is she fit to be a prison governor?
Let’s consider who is being granted RoTL. Paige Poole, a dangerous female predator who enjoys abusing children, was convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison, plus a 4 year extended licence, because the judge considered her such a dangerous sexual predator due to her convictions for serious sexual and physical abuse of children. Her 15 year sentence was to send a message to the public that the court took her crimes extremely seriously. The extended 4 year licence would have placed her under intense supervision by the probation service and police, and she would have been put on the sex offenders list. However, she was extradited last week from Eastwood Park having served barely 4 years of her 15 year sentence. She requested to be sent to Hawaii before she was returned to the US, for a sunny holiday;; and that request was granted. She was paid £3000 of taxpayer’s money to agree to be deported. Paige Poole only served four years of a 15 year prison sentence, she will not be on a sex offender’s register, nor will she have any licence conditions except not to return to the UK for 10 years.
There are no Proceeds of Crime Act proceedings against her, although she profited vastly from selling films of her sexually abusing children. She called herself the Dark Queen on the dark web while working as a posh nanny in a wealthy household in London. She told other prisoners at HMP Eastwood Park that she was paid £1500 a week. At Eastwood Park, she was given a very privileged position as a librarian orderly. She was also given an all-access pass to roam the prison freely.
Rachel, the librarian appointed by South Gloucestershire Council is very young. She lives at home with her parents and she’s never been in a relationship. She is very shy and quiet. Groomed by Paige, Rachel brought in vanilla essence, specialist smoothies and other treats, although she wasn’t supposed to.
Paige Poole was allowed to have silk pillowcases, and when she came out for a games day, she was dressed in £150 Lulu Lemon leggings and Prada sunglasses. She groomed other vulnerable prisoners. She got their personal details, such as email addresses and names and details of their children. Governor Zoe Short told the women that there were paedophiles all over the prison and they shouldn’t feel triggered or traumatized by Paige when they complained about her. In male prisons the paedophiles are separated from other prisoners.
Zoe short pretends to run a trauma informed prison. Paige Poole is now a free woman who will not serve a day in an American prison. The only condition of her release is that she can’t return to the UK for 10 years. She’s profited from her crime selling videos of abuse for over she bragged for over £10,000. It beggars belief that the British government isn’t trying to recover any money from her, or that she is not going to serve extra prison time in lieu of paying these funds back.
Violent prisoner, Jessica Stunnell, who was convicted of two counts of attempted murder after she stabbed her best friend and former partner, leaving them with life changing injuries, after they started a relationship, was given a 16 year prison sentence and is not eligible for parole but she was given day release to a local Ninja warrior soft play center, to pacify her after they refused a longer ROTL application. She has many years before she’s eligible for parole. She’s also a privileged prisoner who has three jobs, when other women at Eastwood Park are locked behind their doors for 23 hours a day because there are not enough jobs for prisoners.
One prisoner told The View, “I’m so fed up with these prison officers. There’s one called Miss Goulder, who’s 21 years old. She’s disgusting. She’s always shouting at me. She doesn’t like standing out in the cold, so she doesn’t let us have even half an hour outside which we’re allowed to have.”
Another prisoner told The View that she’s constantly targeted by certain prison officers and given negative behavior warnings. Res seven is a so-called Enhanced wing at Eastwood Park. Prisoners live in open conditions and they’re not locked in. Many go out to work as part of their rehabilitation and resettlement processes. It was recently condemned because the green paint contained asbestos, and all the women living on res seven under open conditions were moved to res five, which is within the largest house block. Recently, the mother and baby unit flooded at Eastwood Park because someone left the shower on. Babies can stay there until they’re 18 months old, but women have to work during the daytime in the prison, and officers look after their babies. The women and their babies were moved to Kinnon, the induction wing, but during the day, when mothers are forced to work, they were moved on to res seven so that these babies could breathe in asbestos. The central heating at prison hasnt worked for years and it is run off a generator plant. The level of heat cannot be controlled and open heat pipes run through every cell. Women have been taken to hospital due to unbearable levels of heat. When they asked for the heating to be turned down they were told not to complain, and if it was turned off it wouldn’t be turned on again. It’s either far too hot or freezing cold.
Eastwood Park is a dangerous, violent, failing prison with an appalling governor who has no sense of responsibility for the women in her care. Her own staff can’t stand her because of the extremely high levels of violence against staff, the highest in the prison state. She forces them to attend talks and the senior management team have to attend talks by local business leaders, which are supposed to be inspirational. There is a high number of prison officers from Africa and Eastern Europe, whose lack of comprehension of English and compassion is a constant source of grief for women in their care. One very vulnerable prisoner who has a diagnosis of CPTSD asked a Nigerian prison officer all day if she had to appear at court in person, or via video link the next day, this prison officer just ignored her request the whole day, basically because she didn’t understand what she was being asked.
Eventually, after evening lock in, this prison officer who came in on a visa under the Boris wave to stem the flood of prison officers leaving the prison service, is in the lack of recruitment of British prison officers, told this vulnerable prisoner she would appear by video link. This prisoner is the victim of sexual violence. The prison officer told her, after she was locked in, she had to appear by video link, so she settled in for the night, but then she was rudely woken up at 5:30am to be taken by prison van to Truro Magistrate’s court, hundreds of miles away. Naturally, she was furious.
She called the prison officer useless and she was given a negative behavior warning. This IEP Incentive and Earned Privileges scheme is a broken, archaic and infantilizing system where prison officers can give women positive or negative warnings. Two negative warnings in a week result in a woman being locked behind her door for a week, 23 hours a day. Some prison officers use this device to punish women they don’t like, or particularly vulnerable, women with mental disorders, who are unwell and whom they consider demanding. Another woman with a diagnosis of PTSD and bipolar disorder was given a negative IEP for knitting with old used J cloth that she’d rinsed out. This is the second IEP this woman has been given in a week, so she was locked behind her door, 23/7, for a week. When a prisoner is given a negative behavior warning, they’re supposed to be given an appeal form. Prison officers never give women these appeal forms. They’re not readily available, and most prisoners, let alone prison officers, don’t even know how to appeal these negative IEPs. This is not justice. This is persecution and oppression. Women are given negative warnings for swearing and for not being behind their doors fast enough. Positive comments are usually given in prison workplaces or education, but only 60% are not in any work or employment.
Under David Lammy’s newest hair brain scheme, he wants prison officers to determine whether a prisoner is let out early due to good behavior. This leaves the whole system open to abuse and corruption. The number of prison officers who are dismissed or investigated for corruption is at the highest level ever. Figures published by the Ministry of Justice show that the number of prison and probation staff dismissed for misconduct has doubled from 181 in 2022 to 397 in 2024.
This is an area that is too sensitive and should not be given to prison officers to determine whether a prisoner is behaving or not. Eastwood Park, under the leadership of Zoe short, is an increasingly dangerous place with the wrong areas prioritized. Women like Jessica Stunnell and Paige Poole, who deserve to be incarcerated are rewarded because they know how to play the system. Women who need urgent Special Purpose leave for cancer treatment and MRI PET scans for staging the progression of their cancer are told they’re not being given SPL because, according to Governor of OMU Liam Jones, MRI PET scans are considered routine appointments that could be rescheduled. This woman waited five months for this appointment, and the prison was fully aware of it. The woman who was refused ROTL to see her children is heartbroken. She put the request in 12 weeks ago and has heard nothing. Her children won’t come to the prison to see her because it’s too traumatizing. The Feminist Justice Coalition has instructed Scott Laing at Bhatia Best to bring an urgent judicial review against the reason not to grant SPL/ ROTL in a case which may make legal history, force the British government dysfunctional Ministry of Justice to respect and comply with women with cancer’s most basic health rights, such as access to chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
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Jessica Stunnell: Woman who stabbed ex and best friend jailed