Imago Dei are a charity that works with women in prison and continues to support them once they leave.

Women are in the minority in the prison system and only make up around 4% of the prison population in England and Wales. This means that the majority of services are design for men and don't meet the needs of women in prison.

We want to see women supported well whilst in prison and then continue to be well supported when they leave. Women like Mary *

Mary started working with her ID Essence worker in 2017 when she was just 20. She was referred to do the myLife Managing Emotions course by her Offender Manager and one of the prison Governors because they were finding it hard to manage her behaviour in the prison. Mary engaged really well with the course and said she found it really insightful and helped her to begin to make changes.

Mary was released from prison in 2018, but after going through further traumatic experiences after prison and having difficulties accessing healthcare support she needed, Mary ended up getting back involved in crime and ended up coming back to prison about a year later. She reconnected with her ID Essence worker and they restarted their weekly session.

Mary was released in April 2021, and this time round, she responded to the card we sent her in the post reminding her of the support available and Mary reached out saying she would like to continue working with Essence outside. Since then, Mary and her ID Essence Worker have been in touch regularly through phone calls, messages and in person meet ups. Life has not been easy for Mary after prison – she has faced significant barriers with areas such as her housing, her physical and mental health, difficulty accessing the benefits she is entitled to and various others.

However despite these barriers, Mary has persevered and not given up. She has reconnected with her family and is very close with them, she has secured a place to study Law at University, she has started accessing therapy and mindfulness groups (which she has now been asked to help deliver) and made good improvements with her health conditions.

We asked Mary to share with us something that she is proud of herself for, this is what she said.

“There’s so many things I’m proud of accomplishing in the last year and I’m proud of how much I’ve grown as a person. Nothing was working for me when I first came out of prison and I was just always frustrated. Jo has been so instrumental in my progress and she’s always been my biggest cheerleader and she reminds me to never give up and keep my chin up. I’m currently awaiting starting my law course at Uni in September, I’ve finally moved out of my bad accommodation and I’ve sorted out all of my financials. It’s been a long and trying year but eventually it all worked out. There’s sooo much more personally that I’ve accomplished like my anger, my emotions and everything in between!”