Ex-prisoner gives rare and shocking account of what life’s like in a women’s jail
Scarlett Roberts’ diary of her four months inside a women’s jail last year is a rare and shocking account of mostly male prison officers allegedly abusing their power over women.
One extract reads: “14th of May, cell 19 after lunch at 12:30. Two officers were arguing with her. She was not violent… There were seven officers in the end, all restraining her in her cell. No officers put bodycams on. One officer kicked her in the chest.”
Her account details the alleged treatment of a youth offender in a cell next door.
Scarlett recalls: “They folded her in two, they brought her arms up behind her back until she was screaming. Then the senior officer kicked her in the chest right before they closed the door. They didn’t let her out for 48 hours.”
She is choosing to speak out about her experience despite the stigma of being a former prisoner.
Her testimony comes on the day a government report into women’s prisons makes eight recommendations that recognise that the Prison Service currently does not offer the support needed for women.
It comes as self-harm rates among female prisoners continue to soar – up 63% this year according to the latest government “safety in custody” statistics.
Scarlett tells Sky News the conditions at HMP Eastwood Park were ‘inhuman’. Pic: Andy Portch
Officers showed ‘no compassion’ to prisoners
Scarlett was jailed in HMP Eastwood Park in Gloucestershire for perverting the course of justice.
An inspectorate report of the jail earlier this year said levels of self-harm there were “the highest of all women’s prisons”.
It also noted two recent self-inflicted deaths – with two more yet-to-be-classified deaths mentioned in a progress report this September.
Scarlett says conditions in the jail are “not fit for purpose” to ensure the safety and rehabilitation of women prisoners.
She alleges that male staff used disproportionate force against women prisoners to keep them in check and they would also withdraw meals or medical attention as punishment for troublemakers.
She said prisoner self-harm was rife and officers showed no compassion.
“One lady had self-harmed significantly,” she recounts. “There was a lot of blood, and they didn’t dress the wound. They didn’t cover it up. She was bleeding and they gave her a bowl to bleed in. They were like, ‘there you go’.
“When they opened the door, she threw it in distress and as a result got days added on to her sentence.”
The inspectorate report published in February said Eastwood Park had extreme levels of self-harm, a lack of clinical supervision, and acute staff shortages.
It also stated: “The number of times force had been used against women had increased significantly and we were not confident it was always used as a last resort.”
The report added: “The cells were appalling, dilapidated and covered in graffiti, one was blood-splattered, and some had extensive scratches on the walls which reflected the degree of trauma previous residents must have experienced.
“No prisoner should be held in such conditions, let alone women who were acutely unwell and in great distress.”
Staff shortages meant women didn’t spend enough time out of their cells, the report also said.
A cell door at HMP Eastwood Park. Pic: HM Inspectorate of Prisons
Prisoners ‘caged for 23 hours a day’
A subsequent progress report found limited improvements – but some things had gotten worse.
For example, the use of force had increased in the last 10 months.
The conditions are “so inhuman”, Scarlett said.
She added: “You are caged for 23 hours a day – and that’s if there is enough staff to let you out even for one hour. So many days they were like ‘we don’t have enough staff, so no one is getting out today’. And in a space I couldn’t even open my arms wide.”
Clothes and sanitary products also seemed to be in short supply.
Scarlett says she didn’t have underwear for weeks, and had little help from the officer on call when she had her period.
She told Sky News: “He just didn’t know what a tampon was. So, I had to explain to him what they were and then he came back with big sanitary pads and then I had to explain I’m not wearing any underwear.”
Scarlett Roberts was jailed for perverting the course of justice. Pic: Andy Portch
‘You’re watching your life fall apart’
Scarlett is now an exercise physiologist and founded Red: Redemption CIC to provide movement for mental health services for those at risk of self-medication, self-harm and suicidal behaviours.
She’s also written a blog about her experience.
She described how her mental health deteriorated during her four months of incarceration, and you can almost see it illustrated in the way she crossed off the days in her pocket calendar with increasing pressure in the strokes – the last pages are multiple thick lines.
Scarlett said: “Prison should be like a scaffolding is to a building – that it’s a structure, a temporary structure, to help you build a better life for when you come out.
“Instead, it’s a cage – being put in the crumbling building – you’re watching your life fall apart.
“I mean there’s nothing you can do. And then one day you are released, and you are just in the rubble.”
Commenting on this interview, a Prison Service spokesperson said: “Custody is a last resort for women and the number of women in prison has fallen by a quarter since 2010.
“We are investing up to £14m to improve the safety and rehabilitation of women so they can turn their backs on crime for good – including specialist self-harm training for staff, improved mental health services and help into work on release.”
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But the government report published by NHS England on Thursday admitted “the prison environment is experienced as unfit for purpose by many women and health and social care providers”.
It recommends a number of measures including “providing specialist care, support and treatment for women that meet their unique needs, including for example pregnancy and the menopause“.
Recognising that a high number of women in prison are vulnerable and living with trauma, it says the service needs to improve access to services such as talking therapies, and acknowledges prisons are ill-equipped to provide the necessary treatment and care for acutely mentally ill women.
Read more:
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Should pregnant women be spared jail?
One of UK’s oldest jails ‘unfit’ and ‘inhumane’
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‘A lot of prisons not fit for purpose’
Scarlett believes a much more radical overhaul is needed, including a review of what she describes as an “us and them” relationship between the prison officers and the inmates.
She says: “It’s right to remove people’s freedoms – but a judge does that. That’s what he did with me – he removed my freedom for a period of time – that’s my punishment.
“It is not other people’s job to further punish you by weaponising access to basic necessities – such as healthcare, food – because they see fit or because they personally want to.”
Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK.
The parents of survivors of the Southport attack have revealed the “untold stories” of how their “hero” children escaped.
Axel Rudakubana, 18, murdered Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, Bebe King, six, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, in what the chairman of the public inquiry Sir Adrian Fulford called “one of the most egregious crimes in our country’s history”.
Eight children were injured along with two adults at a Taylor Swift-themed class in the Merseyside seaside town on 29 July last year, while 15 others escaped without physical injuries.
The surviving victims and their families have been granted anonymity during the inquiry, with one girl referred to as C3. Her father was the first to give evidence at Liverpool Town Hall on Wednesday.
Alice da Silva Aguiar, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Bebe King were murdered in the attack
Reading a statement on behalf of him and his wife, he told how their daughter was the first girl to escape the scene by running from the Hart Space building and hiding behind a parked car before jumping through an open car door.
“Our nine-year-old daughter was stabbed three times in the back by a coward she didn’t even see,” he said.
“Although she didn’t know what was happening – she knew she had to run. She ran out of the studio door, down the stairs, and out of the building.”
Read more: Southport inquiry as it happened
He said she can be seen “looking scared, confused and pained” in CCTV footage of the incident, adding: “It was troubling for us to see what she had to go through, before either of her parents had arrived at the scene.”
“We are so thankful and proud that despite being critically injured, she was able to make the decisions she did in that terrible moment,” he said.
The girl’s father said his daughter “continues to astound” them with the way she dealt with the attack and her recovery, saying: “It has been inspiring for us to witness.”
Inquiry chair Sir Adrian Fulford at Liverpool Town Hall. Pic: PA
He said she has difficulty sleeping, experiences flashbacks, looks over her shoulder scanning for potential danger when she leaves the house, has a fear of loud noises and has to turn off some songs when they come on the radio.
“Our daughter knows that she is loved,” he said.
“It is through this support and love that she will continue to thrive. We couldn’t be prouder of her. She is our hero.”
Stabbed 33 times
The parents of a girl referred to as C1 told how their “beautiful, articulate, fun-loving little girl” was stabbed 33 times.
After being attacked she escaped the building, but Rudakubana was seen dragging her back inside in CCTV footage played during his sentencing hearing, which drew gasps in court, before she was stabbed 20 more times.
“That is how she became known in this nightmare. The girl that was dragged back in,” her mother said.
Police at the scene. Pic: PA
She thanked the teachers who escaped to call police and flag down help but said: “The most painful of truths for us though, and what has been most devastating to come to terms with, is that there were no adults to help during both of her attacks.
“She was only supported by other children. The courage and strength she found leaves me crushed, but in complete awe.”
She added: “It is these untold stories of remarkable strength and bravery that are missing when we have heard other accounts of this day.”
The mother said the “hours and days that followed the attack were a living hell” and her daughter’s memories – including a concert of her “idol” Taylor Swift – have “been forfeited to make space for the trauma that she carries”.
“We tell her she was brave. How proud we are that she was able to help other girls. How her strength makes us feel strong. How important what she did that day was. She is her own hero. She may be a survivor of this attack, but she is still trying to survive this, every single day,” she said.
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‘We need to understand what went wrong’
Attack ‘changed everything’
The mother of a girl referred to as C8 said she was “like any other seven-year-old little girl”, “with an incredible energy” and “full of life”.
But in a statement read out by a legal representative, she said the attack last year “changed everything” when she got a “panicked phone call” from a friend’s mother, who couldn’t find the girls.
“That moment, the sound of fear in her voice and the panic I felt will never leave me,” she said.
“I rushed to the scene and what I saw is something no parent should ever see. My daughter had sustained serious physical injuries including a stab wound to her arm and a cut to her face and chin.”
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‘We don’t want Elsie forgotten’
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She said her daughter “remembers the attack vividly” and later told her “she thought it had to be fake, because she couldn’t believe something that terrible could really be happening”.
“Where she was once eager to go off with her friends, she now needs my support if it is somewhere public or unknown,” she said.
“Simple days out now need a level of safety planning that we would never have considered before.”
‘Constant flashbacks’
The mother of a girl referred to as Q, who escaped without being physically injured, told how she arrived to collect her daughter to find “children running from the building, screaming and fearing for their lives”.
In a statement read to the inquiry by a legal representative on her behalf, she said it was “the most horrific experience of my life”.
“What I saw on that day will stick with me forever, I constantly have flashbacks and relive what happened,” she said.
She said her daughter has become “very withdrawn” since the attack and has asked her parents, “How will I ever be normal again?”
Rudakubana was jailed for a minimum of 52 years in January and is being investigated over an alleged attack on a prison officer at Belmarsh prison in May.
The public inquiry, announced by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper in January, is looking into whether the attack could or should have been prevented, given what was known about the killer.
Rudakubana, who was born in Cardiff, had contact with police, the courts, the youth justice system, social services and mental health services, and was referred to the government’s anti-extremism Prevent scheme three times before the murders.
A rapid review into his contact with Prevent found his case should have been kept open and that he should have been referred to Channel, another anti-terror scheme.
C1’s mother said: “She deserves the truth, she deserves accountability. She deserves an apology. Our girls deserve an apology.
“Backed up by the promise that changes will be made and this will not be allowed to happen again.”
UK
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While the politicians talk, so many people come from around the world to try to get across the Channel on small boats. But why?
Why make such a perilous crossing to try to get to a country that seems to be getting increasingly hostile to asylum seekers?
As the British and French leaders meet, with small boats at the forefront of their agenda, we came to northern France to get some answers.
It is not a new question, but it is peppered with fresh relevance.
Over the course of a morning spent around a migrant camp in Dunkirk, we meet migrants from Gaza, Iraq, Eritrea, South Sudan, Sri Lanka and beyond.
Some are fearful, waving us away; some are happy to talk. Very few are comfortable to be filmed.
All but one man – who says he’s come to the wrong place and actually wants to claim asylum in Paris – are intent on reaching Britain.
They see the calm seas, feel the light winds – perfect conditions for small boat crossings.
John has come here from South Sudan. He tells me he’s now 18 years old. He left his war-torn home nation just before his 16th birthday. He feels that reaching Britain is his destiny.
“England is my dream country,” he says. “It has been my dream since I was at school. It’s the country that colonised us and when I get there, I will feel like I am home.
“In England, they can give me an opportunity to succeed or to do whatever I need to do in my life. I feel like I am an English child, who was born in Africa.”
‘England is my dream country,’ John tells Adam Parsons
He says he would like to make a career in England, either as a journalist or in human resources, and, like many others we meet, is at pains to insist he will work hard.
The boat crossing is waved away as little more than an inconvenience – a trifle compared with the previous hardships of his journey towards Britain.
We meet a group of men who have all travelled from Gaza, intent on starting new lives in Britain and then bringing their families over to join them.
One man, who left Gaza two years ago, tells me that his son has since been shot in the leg “but there is no hospital for him to go to”.
Next to him, a man called Abdullah says he entered Europe through Greece and stayed there for months on end, but was told the Greek authorities would never allow him to bring over his family.
Britain, he thinks, will be more accommodating. “Gaza is being destroyed – we need help,” he says.
Abdullah says ‘Gaza is being destroyed – we need help’
A man from Eritrea tells us he is escaping a failing country and has friends in Britain – he plans to become a bicycle courier in either London or Manchester.
He can’t stay in France, he says, because he doesn’t speak French. The English language is presented as a huge draw for many of the people we talk to, just as it had been during similar conversations over the course of many years.
I ask many of these people why they don’t want to stay in France, or another safe European country.
Some repeat that they cannot speak the language and feel ostracised. Another says that he tried, and failed, to get a residency permit in both France and Belgium.
But this is also, clearly, a flawed survey. Last year, five times as many people sought asylum in France as in Britain.
And French critics have long insisted that Britain, a country without a European-style ID card system, makes itself attractive to migrants who can “disappear”.
Read more:
Channel crossings rise 50% in first six months of 2025
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Migrant Channel crossings hit new record
A young man from Iraq, with absolutely perfect English, comes for a chat. He oozes confidence and a certain amount of mischief.
It has taken him only seven days to get from Iraq to Dunkirk; when I ask how he has made the trip so quickly, he shrugs. “Money talks”.
He looks around him. “Let me tell you – all of these people you see around you will be getting to Britain and the first job they get will be in the black market, so they won’t be paying any tax.
“Back in the day in Britain, they used to welcome immigrants very well, but these days I don’t think they want to, because there’s too many of them coming by boat. Every day it’s about seven or 800 people. That’s too many people.”
“But,” I ask, “if those people are a problem – then what makes you different? Aren’t you a problem too?”
He shakes his head emphatically. “I know that I’m a very good guy. And I won’t be a problem. I’ll only stay in Britain for a few years and then I’ll leave again.”
A man from Sri Lanka says he “will feel safe” when he gets to Britain; a tall, smiling man from Ethiopia echoes the sentiment: “We are not safe in our home country so we have come all this way,” he says. “We want to work, to be part of Britain.”
Emmanuel is another from South Sudan – thoughtful and eloquent. He left his country five years ago – “at the start of COVID” – and has not seen his children in all that time. His aim is to start a new life in Britain, and then to bring his family to join him.
He is a trained electrical engineer, but says he could also work as a lorry driver. He is adamant that Britain has a responsibility to the people of its former colony.
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“The British came to my country – colonising, killing, raping,” he said. “And we didn’t complain. We let it happen.
“I am not the problem. I won’t fight anyone; I want to work. And if I break the laws – if any immigrant breaks the laws – then fine, deport them.
“I know it won’t be easy – some people won’t like me, some people will. But England is my dream.”
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