Abstract
This chapter considers how the prison environment impacts women’s mental health during their incarceration. Through interviews with women living on the housing block of a closed Female Training Prison in England, the experience of imprisonment is considered to have substantial impact on mental health through lack of social support from others, uncertainty around punishment and a lack of opportunities to engage in meaningful activity in order to promote mental health. Behaviours to overcome these feelings were not necessarily about promoting mental health, but emerged as a result of the need to cope with the prison environment. The findings are discussed in relation to the broader literature and policy surrounding health and health promotion in prisons.
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Jablonska, A., Meek, R. (2018). ‘There Was No Understanding, There Was No Care, There Was No Looking After Me’: The Impact of the Prison Environment on the Mental Health of Female Prisoners. In: Mills, A., Kendall, K. (eds) Mental Health in Prisons. Palgrave Studies in Prisons and Penology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94090-8_7
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