Loose Woman Katie Piper Swaps The Panel For A Life Behind ‘Bars’ | This Morning

and it really is compelling uh Katie joins us now it's lovely to see you welcome hello so the inspiration from this was really born out of the volunteering work that you do over here in UK prisons yeah that's right so I've been volunteering sort of off camera for the last couple of years in women's prisons um it sort of started around uh they contacted me first and they'd been doing projects about women that had inspired them um and they sort of we've done this project about you we've named this part of the prison about well after you so would you come in and I have to be honest rather reluctantly I thought I don't know if it's something I'd actually volunteer to do and I think my apprehension and judgment was wrong I went in I related to a lot of the women I've formed relationships with them and just carried on and going in doing workshops and groups and talks stuff around International women's day and then got this real interest in you know motherhood Behind Bars went out to the states where obviously it's different laws different types of crime and it really kind of opened the door on this Unseen World and finding mother head in a setting that you would never think about how how do the two countries I mean obviously in America it's kind of state by state right but how do broadly how do the two countries compare so if you're a mother with a baby over here what what happened yeah I mean there's one law here you know and there's mother and baby unit and some female prisons here and people that are screened and go for sort of rigorous checks and testing can keep their baby up to the age of two years old in a sort of prison Nursery in the states it's almost like individual countries where the law is different you know right down in the South and the Bible Belt where I went then back up to the North in Chicago where I then went we'll be filmed for six months so we've got real variety it's just potluck where you're in class where you end up I mean the figures are shocking actually 60 000 women uh pregnant women are being locked up each year in America this is around 1 in 25 women are locked up pregnant in Illinois one in 20 children have a parent in jail and although those statistics are shocking but it seems to be more reflective of is that how many women and children's life or impacted some way by trauma and abuse or crying exactly that and I think there might be some people watching this that feel this is controversial and why should they care about someone in prison they made their choice and absolutely there is a percent of the population that that's true for and you'll see on the program by their own admission they say this is the right place for me for now but male versus female crime is very different and like you said 60 of the population are there for drug charges so usually they've been exploited by a pimp or a drug dealer and they're used as a mural or they have addiction themselves and like you said that addiction comes from a trauma that happened to them in childhood so you don't go to prison and meet loads of Myra hendleys I'm sure they exist and I accept that they should be there but that's a small percent of the population you meet women like you and I that are Mothers Daughters wives but life unraveled and things got tough and there was no support system in place you know just overall like whether whether it's from a moral or economic argument it just doesn't make sense to look people up and throw away the key without rehabilitating it just doesn't and also it's not working because I I would be interviewing someone in a cell and they would say oh my mum's down the wing in another cell sure my grandma's been here and my daughter's in the county jail and been arrested so well generational cycle of incarceration and addiction so what happens to children who have mothers in U.S prisons so it varies there's nine State nurseries in the whole of the states and that means you can keep your child up to the age of two with you in the prism there's some places that just don't have any facilities or support for women or children you give birth and 24 hours later your child is taken away from you and you know you're literally talking about women having cesareans being stitched up and being thrown back into work just not on the child yeah and that is the common thread throughout this that always the child is the victim and we would just meet people that their only future was the same cycle as their mum and I think statistics show if you're disconnected to your mum in the first two three years you're statistically more likely to end up in prison yourself yeah what's the appetite like for reform over there again it varies because when I went to the South I got to visit these amazing alternative facilities so there were some that were missionaries christian-led so lots of singing and dancing but also life skills they had a Dentistry placed they had a hairdressers they were educating and teaching women's skills you're still court ordered and sent there by the judge I also went to a detox center which was similar you're still serving out a sentence but your child can live with you up to the age of 13 years old I mean it sounds if Blake say potluck depending on what state where you're at the kind of care you get it is utterly fascinating and Brilliant real life stories that's Katie Piper's jail house mums at 10 pm on W Channel tomorrow something else that you're all about to embark on which seems incredibly exciting is the loose women tour are you going out and about yeah first time they've done it um and you know I've only been on lease for two years so I still kind of feel a bit like a newbie yeah to some of the veterans um but you just know it's going to be pretty wild don't you think I mean just the line come and let loose with us on tour we're not on daytime we're not going to be told off an area that's what I was going to say it's going to feel quite different because of the just the time of day it's the fact it's the evening I mean we will be let loose a little bit more actually I'm scared slash excited yeah um yeah I think there'll be a lot of interaction with the audience and people are going to be able to ask questions and we'll probably be able to sort of meet people afterwards and yeah are you bunking down with Janice me and Janet Street Port so we'll be together you know sharing a bunk yeah it will be really good fun and not only that you've also got on um ITV you're back at the weekend aren't you yes that's right yeah so the breakfast show starts um again this Sunday the series one last year and you know a new show you always think oh will anybody watch it you know how will it do and then it was it was really great the response and it's come back again and it's so different from being in a maximum security jail you know when I was filming out there yeah well yeah I don't know it's a tight budget good to have variety yeah it's fun and it's nice because you do you know fun and Joy are also important and it'll be sort of celebrity guests yeah tick tockers lots of fun content so I like that kind of you know diversity practice jailhouse mum starts tomorrow uh 10 p.m on the W channel uh and then Katy Perry's breakfast Show returns this Sunday yeah at 8 30 on ITV and the loose women tour will just be coming to a town near You in September it begins if you just open your window you will hear them it's kind of all you need really just it'll be it'll be available on a loudspeaker and Parish news thank you so much

Channel: This Morning

Views: 38,355

Keywords: this morning, this morning itv, holly willoughby, phillip schofield, this morning funniest moments, this morning interviews, alison hammond, itv

Id: DhaqGCgY2KY

Length: 6min 45sec (405 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 20 2023