Prison Girls: Life Inside

The series begins in the jail’s intake area - fresh off the streets, the women here can be drunk, high or suffering from mental health problems. With inmates detoxing from heroin, crack, and crystal meth, medical emergencies are a regular occurrence. When travelling musician and drug user, Carmen, goes into multiple seizures, officers call a ‘Code Blue’ medical emergency, meaning jail staff and paramedics scramble to respond. It’s not just Carmen though - across the pod, women are at different stages of withdrawal, including grandmother Danette and addict Natasha, who is having a serious panic attack as she detoxes in her cell. Downstairs, the jail’s Transitional Housing Unit (THU) couldn’t be more different. Here, inmates taking vocational courses can sunbathe and socialise, and enjoy meals prepared by fellow-inmates in the jail’s culinary programme. Young mum, and crystal meth addict, Erica, is working to turn her life around, but the THU has a strict zero-tolerance policy towards any kind of rule breaking – can she live up to the high expectations, and how would she cope if she was thrown back into the main jail?