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Rebel Justice
What is justice? Who does it serve? Why should you care?
When we think about justice, we think about it as an abstract, something that happens to someone else, somewhere else. But justice and the law regulate every aspect of our interactions with each other, with organisations, and with the government.
We never think about it until it impacts our lives, or that of someone close.
Our guests are women with lived experience of the justice system whether as victims or women who have committed crimes; or people at the forefront of civic action who put their lives on the line to demand a better world..
We ask them to share their insight into how we might repair a broken and harmful system, with humanity and dignity.
We also speak with people who are in the heart of the justice system creating important change; climate activists, judges, barristers, human rights campaigners, mental health advocates, artists and healers.
Rebel Justice
96. Exclusive Preview Inside The View Magazine Issue 15
Our latest Rebel Justice Podcast offers a powerful preview of The View Magazine Issue 15, weaving first‑hand testimony, hard data and practical solutions across prisons, youth custody, social care and community action.
If these stories move you, pre‑order Issue 15 at https://theviewmag.org.uk/product/the-view-magazine-issue-15/, subscribe to support this work, and share the episode with someone who cares about women’s justice. Follow and leave a review to help more people find these voices.
Credits
Guest: Elena Righi, Maile Monds & Amelie Baker
Producer: Charlotte Janes
Soundtrack: Particles (Revo Main Version) by [Coma-Media]
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This is the Rebel Justice Podcast. We are brought to you by The View magazine, the voice for women affected by the justice system, amplifying stories that challenge power and demand change. Issue 15 is out this Friday, and in this special teaser episode, we're bringing you glimpses into some of the powerful stories inside. From prisons and care systems to communities creating hope from the ground up. Here are a few of the stories you can expect in issue 15 of The View magazine.
Elena:Hi, I'm Elena, and I was a writer and editor on issue 15 of The View magazine. This issue is about changing perspectives and accountability, how systems built to protect, instead perpetuate or are complicit in harm, and the people refusing to be silenced by it.
Host:We begin with the story of Tony Asick, a 24-year-old transgender man who died at HMP Bronsfield last year. His father, Ali, shares a devastating account of neglect and systemic failure in Britain's largest women's prison, a place where medical care ends at 7 pm, and promises of reform have gone unanswered. Ali says simply, the whole system has failed. You can read his story and his fight for justice in issue 15 of The View. Next, we look at child imprisonment in England and Wales, a system that continues to lock up vulnerable children in unsafe, violent conditions. Dr. Jodie Hodgson exposes the ongoing harm inside youth custody, where rates of self-harm and abuse have soared, and staff are often the perpetrators. Her message is clear reform isn't enough. We need to end the criminalization of childhood itself. We also spoke with one of this issue's writers, Emily, on two of the articles that she has written.
Amelie:The first focuses on the grief raves. So they're this art movement, a series of installations that have been set up by Carly Attridge, who is the founder of The Lost Project, and then also uh Annie Frost Nicholson, who's an artist, and so together they kind of form this thing called the grief rave. And it's basically like an installation where people go along and there'll be a DJ and they can request songs or they can just be there to dance, and it's all about kind of dancing through your grief, essentially. So it's kind of like taking the liberation of a rave and putting it into the context of grief and kind of bringing grief out into like a communal, like public sphere without any pressure on being like, okay, you have to come, you have to talk about everything that you know is really hard to talk about because like obviously grief and loss is really hard to talk about. The second features the ethical stripper, Stacy Clare. And then I commissioned and edited another article by this woman called Stacy Clare, who is the ethical stripper. She's also got a book out by the same name, The Ethical Stripper, which was published in 2022. And that's talking all about sex workers' rights, basically, and how in the current political situation there is a lot of focus on criminalizing sex work. But the way that the legislation works is that it actually criminalizes sex work to the extent that if people are suffering abuse in these workplaces, there's no way of them actually persecuting that workplace under existing employment laws. So her article basically dives into all of that and why do decriminalization of sex work is actually what's needed. Like we don't need more legislation banning it and making it like a social taboo or anything like that. We need to be approaching it as workers' rights and viewing these sex workers as workers and affording them the same rights as any other citizen, essentially.
Host:For mothers who have lost children to the care system, the pain is indescribable and often invisible. Her circle is a project led by women who have lived it, creating spaces for healing and rebuilding without judgment or shame. CEO Amy Van Zill tells us how these women are changing what real support looks like, turning their own loss into a circle of strength and solidarity. When Tanya Freek called for help, she ended up being treated like the criminal. Accused of assaulting her husband, despite being the victim of domestic abuse, Tanya's story exposes deep cracks in how the justice system handles survivors, from ignored warnings to missing evidence. Her case asks one urgent question when the system fails victims, who will hold it to account. Inside prisons, hope can be hard to find. But Project WISE Women into Self-Employment is changing that. Founded by Gemma N Rose, the program helps women with convictions turn business ideas into self-belief and self-belief into change. We heard from author Miley about her article.
Maile:I interviewed the CEO of WISE, short for women in self-employment. She basically is the project lead for this project that basically goes in and helps women in prison specifically with their journey in self-employment. And it's one of the only organizations that's working to do that, I think, in all of the UK, specifically self-employment. So they're trying to get this integrated into the educational services that they provide in these prisons across the whole of the UK. They've done like a lot of research. Yeah, they have like a lot of women who come out and they have their stories of them actually going back to help others in prison, which is really interesting because it's like a full circle moment there.
Host:Their work connects survivors and policymakers across continents, proving that courage and community can save lives. Hear about their journey to creating the first global data set on FGM and launching this at the 80th General UN Assembly this year. We again spoke with author Miley to find out more about an article she wrote on the Open Class Theatre Company.
Maile:The Open Class Theater, I interviewed the CEO for that, and that was really interesting, and how she basically came to be the CEO and the founder of Open Class Theater. They're really making a big impact with women who are involved in the justice system because they work in prisons to come up with characters based off of lived experiences. Some other plays have gone to Broadway, but then they also have one production as well: the story of a mother and her daughter who reconnected after prison and their struggles, but it was actually them who were the actresses. Our name was Cheryl and Abigail, so that's that's their story, but you can see it in the article.
Elena:I interviewed Madeline McElwain, the executive director of the Psychedelic Bar Association, which strives to create a world where safe and legal access to psychedelics brings healing, equity, and justice for all. In the second part of the article, I speak with Trevor Ekstrom, a fully licensed psychotherapist operating out of Colorado, who conducts assisted psychotherapy sessions working with psychedelic and psychoactive substances. My review of Susie Miller's Interalia examines how she challenges traditional legal binaries and examines motherhood and masculinity on stage.
Host:And finally, we turn to the government's new Women's Justice Board, launched in early 2025, to reduce female imprisonment and focus on rehabilitation. With big names at the table, it promises reform. But campaigners warned that without lived experience and real funding, change could remain symbolic. The question is: will this new board finally listen to the women it claims to represent? These are just a few of the many stories that you'll find in issue 15 of the View magazine, a platform built by and for women whose voices deserve to be heard. You can read the full articles as part of the over 200-page magazine by visiting theview mag.org.uk and pre-ordering issue 15. The link to do so is in our podcast description below. If you'd like to support our work and receive four digital editions and one print issue a year, subscribe to the View for just £20. Make sure to follow us on our social media. We're on Instagram at the underscore view underscore magazines. And you can also find us on LinkedIn, X, and TikTok. If you'd like to reach out to us directly, you can email inquiries to us at press at theview magazine.org.