What would
Holloway Women's
Centre mean to you?

As an NHS service manager supporting women in the perinatal period within the geographical area of the former Holloway Prison, a women's centre would provide a vital opportunity to complement and strengthen our work. It would enable the development of meaningful partnerships and targeted programmes for criminalised women sentenced in the community, addressing criminogenic factors through a holistic, wraparound model of care, while also enhancing maternal mental health and promoting healthy parent–child relationships.

Many years ago I did a Narcotics Anonymous talk for about 6 of the Women there. Afterwards a couple of the women shared how it was so tough going back out they would reoffend just to be safe. There's so much time and money spent putting people away rather than educating before and rehabilitating after. This women's centre sounds crucial. I know I couldn't have stayed clean and sober, led a good life, be a good enough Mum if I don't have the support and community offered.

The essence of women lingers at Holloway. Women weeping, slammed in a man made system. Not much progress. Women still suffer under an archaic adversarial patriarchal system. HMP Holloway should be remembered. Daughters, sisters, aunties, mum, grannies went there. Liberty denied. The least they can do is leave women — 51% of population — a centre to heal, gather, recollect and recognise women's uniqueness.

Safe spaces for women fleeing abuse are still a rarity and many women that I know who have suffered abuse in varying forms have had nowhere to run to. The majority of abuse is still in the home, making the need for safe environments even more important. That a place once used to punish women should now be a place where women can find safety is a fitting irony and gives some hope that maybe things will work out better.

Having worked in the NHS with vulnerable women and children, and also on a voluntary telephone helpline, I believe that women's centres are absolutely vital to promote the welfare and wellbeing of women and children.

Holloway project needs to be honoured as a vital resource for women. A move away from punitive treatment is the way to go. Prison harms and exacerbates problems, breaking up families and driving up cost. The services are ready and waiting — finish the building!

This will be a healing space for women, a space free from the gaze of the patriarchy — a women-only space to honour our sistahs who were wrongly incarcerated, who did not get justice, who should have not been in prison. The centre will have the spirit and footprints of our sistahs, a space that has become sacred through the tears, the hurt, the trauma, pain, joy, laughter, and sisterhood. Having this place will be defiance, resistance and revolutionary.

I often used to visit Holloway prison when I was a Probation Officer. It was not always the best of places for the prisoners, many of whom could have been better dealt with in the community. Now we have the chance to turn that legacy into something positive. Many women who commit crime are the victims of both childhood and domestic abuse. With help they can deal with that trauma, gain friends and practical help and go on to lead productive and happy lives.

This is a unique opportunity to really honour women's place in society through Islington's support of those women who have ended up in prison through complex circumstances. This is a chance to build a community that honours, empowers and supports women through initiatives like grief and bereavement support, parenting skills, art and literacy. This is an opportunity for other women to get involved in pioneering work that will redefine women's prisons for years to come.

The closure of HMP Holloway was a major 'moment' in the long march for women's justice — the promise to replace the prison with community support and specifically a women's centre must be kept. Women's centres are an alternative to prison, with a focus on prevention of social issues, not punishment. They are a place where women can get the support to stop the continuation of generational trauma and break the cycle of criminalisation.

We need to honour the women of the past who suffered horribly there with forced feeding when campaigning for women to have the vote. Disgusting that wealth has grown so vast and yet families with young and older children have to struggle to get by. The women of Holloway deserve to be remembered — and the site should reflect that legacy.

I attended one of the first ever planning meetings for the women's centre, in 2016/17. Some of the people present were ex inmates, and they had suggested a women's building should have rehab facilities. I suggested an employment support and community centre/arts and leisure facility. It would focus on former inmates but be open to any woman in Islington — an amazing way of reclaiming the space for those it once constrained and repressed.