We didn’t serve time together.
We didn’t meet behind the same bars.
But any woman who’s done over a year inside knows – there’s a bond that never needs explaining.
Prison doesn’t just sentence your body. It sentences your voice, your identity, your womanhood, your sanity. And when you walk out, the world expects you to be “fixed” while still holding your past against you.
We’re Gemma and Neah – two women, ex-prisoners, podcasters, survivors, doing our best to turn lived experience into real change.
The Truth Nobody Wants to Talk About
When people hear “violent female offender,” they rarely ask why.
They don’t ask about the violations that came before the offence.
They don’t ask about abuse, coercion, trauma, or survival mode.
They definitely don’t ask what happens when you’re violated again inside a system that claims to rehabilitate you.
Female rage doesn’t come from nowhere.
It comes from being silenced, dismissed, harmed – and then punished for how you survived.
As women, especially those labelled “violent,” the hoops are higher, the scrutiny harsher, and the mercy thinner. The system demands accountability (which we fully own) but rarely offers understanding or trauma-informed support in return.
And yet – we’re still here.
Why Podcasting Became Our Power
Podcasting gave us something prison never did: control of our own narrative.
Through platforms, we speak honestly about:
Life after prison, mental health, womanhood, identity and the reality of rehabilitation versus the fantasy of it, what women actually need to break cycles – not just survive them
We don’t glamorise crime.
We don’t excuse harm.
We do believe in growth, responsibility, and second chances that actually work.
Working With the System – Not Against It
This might surprise people, but our aim isn’t to tear the system down.
We want to work with it.
Real change doesn’t come from shouting across divides – it comes from lived experience being invited into the room. We want to help shape better pathways for women coming out of custody, especially those carrying trauma, diagnoses, and deep-rooted shame.
Because punishment without healing just creates repetition.
Bipolar Mum Journey 
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