Bipolar Mum Journey

Call me antisocial, but I don’t care about people with huge public support doing time or having done time.

I’ve stood next to mothers in tears on picket lines, mourning their kids stuck on IPP sentences open-ended punishment, often for people with undiagnosed mental health conditions.

I’ve seen, firsthand, prison officers torment inmates who were clearly unwell and couldn’t defend themselves. I’ve been on the receiving end of abuse too, and I couldn’t speak up and let’s be honest, even if I had, nothing would’ve changed or I would have got extra charges.

I’ve also seen middle-class women strutting around inside like they were above it all. That attitude doesn’t go down well, not with prisoners, not with staff. Therefore, you’re gonna bring on your own chaos.

And then there’s Lucy Connolly. Her tweet wasn’t just “opinion” it was violent, racist, and encouraged burning down buildings that housed asylum seekers. That’s not freedom of speech. That’s hate.

Regardless of how angry we were at that vile scumbag killing children, we can’t tweet things like that in the heat of a riot.

So no, I won’t start protesting for Lucy unless the public starts showing up for the thousands of inmates treated like utter shit. In 2024 alone, 342 people died in prison custody in England and Wales. That’s up 10% from the year before.

Break it down:

• 89 died by suicide.
  
• 7 were murdered.
  
• The rest? Natural causes, “accidents”, or still not even classified.
  

And where’s the outcry for them?

You won’t hear much, because society has decided those lives don’t count. A lot of them messed up, sure but so did Lucy. Where’s your energy for them?

Don’t ask me to make noise for one person when you’re silent about the thousands suffering behind bars.