Episode Description
Prison is often treated as the answer to women’s harm, but the numbers tell a different story. We sit down with criminologist Hannah Jane Simpson to unpack why women’s incarceration, mental health, trauma, and self-harm are so tightly linked and why “control first” institutions can make recovery harder rather than safer.
We talk plainly about what trauma looks like in real life: dysregulation, fear, inconsistency, returning to harmful situations, and struggling to communicate clearly. Hannah explains how these survival responses are too often misread by police, courts, and custody staff as unreliability or manipulation. From self-harm in women’s prisons to the everyday impact of surveillance and lack of privacy, we explore what gender responsive justice should mean in practice: healthcare that works, environments that reduce re-traumatisation, stronger family contact, and support that actually fits women’s pathways into offending.
We also dig into domestic abuse and coercive control in the UK, including why incident-based systems struggle to prove pattern-based harm and how “ideal victim” expectations can block accountability. Hannah highlights the need for consistent reporting routes, protective measures, and vulnerable witness support from the very start, not months later when survivors have already disengaged. We close by looking at Scotland’s anti-trafficking strategy and the risk of silencing sex workers when policy is built on assumptions rather than lived experience.
If you want smarter conversations about penal reform, trauma-informed practice, coercive control, and real-world justice, listen now, then subscribe, share the episode, and leave us a review. What part of the system most needs to change first?
Guest - Hannah Jane Simpson
Host - Louisa Nabi
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