Question: Do you think that people misinterpretate prisoners a lot along the lines of mental health and how they feel in prisons?

Laura Hemming answered on 23 Jun 2018:

Yes definitely! One of the things I’m studying is how prisoners talk about their emotions. And we’re finding so far that prisoners don’t tend to talk about their emotions to other people very much. Because of this, prisoners can appear ‘tough’ and like nothing affects them. But in fact, not talking about your feelings can lead to poorer mental health. So I definitely think people misinterpret the lack of communication in prisoners as a sign that they’re strong when in reality it might actually be a sign that they’re weak.