Prisoners' Wives - Kathy

Inside Story • Season 1977 • Episode 4

About this episode

Kathy is at the end. In 24 hours her husband Steve will be released. He has served 18 months in Wandsworth Prison for robbery. She has served 18 months on the 12th floor of a high-rise council block coping with all the problems of a one-parent family for being the wife of a convict. Kathy has had to bear the stigma of 'guilt by association' that attaches to all prisoners' wives, and she has watched with mounting horror the erosion of her four children's emotional stability. The joy of her husband's release is underscored with the anxiety of living with a man again, and the knowledge that their future will depend on Steve getting a job and curbing his drinking. Unless that occurs, she will slide into the nightmare world of the battered wife.