Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This clip shows Pam and her partner, Derek, who is serving a life sentence for murder, describing the difficulties of maintaining a romantic relationship when one partner is incarcerated. The clip opens with Pam walking her dog past the prison, which she describes as the 'castle on the top of the hill’ and then cuts between Pam at home and Derek in prison. Pam, who met Derek while visiting someone else in prison, believes Derek is innocent, and is shown reviewing his trial transcripts in the hope of securing a retrial. Derek, who is 37, and who has spent most of the last 17 years in jail, says he has had little contact with women and finds it difficult to express his emotions.

Educational value points

• While there are no statistics available on the number of women in Australia who form romantic relationships with men in prison, the documentary 'Barred Wives’ features several women who, like Pam, married prisoners. These women may have come into contact with their future partners through prison visits, as in Pam’s case, or through community work within the prison. Men have also married women who are serving prison sentences.

• Just as Pam believes that Derek is innocent of the murder for which he was convicted, a 2002 British study found that most women who become romantically involved with prisoners convicted of murder deny that their partner has committed the crime and that in many cases this belief sustained the relationship. Anecdotal evidence from volunteers working in Australian prisons suggests that women who form relationships with prisoners often believe that they alone understand the man and can reform or rescue him.

• Prisoners experience difficulties in maintaining a relationship and some of these are illustrated by the clip. Having spent most of his adult life in jail, Derek has had little contact with women and admits that he finds it hard to express his feelings to Pam.

• Having a partner in prison affects Pam’s life. Pam’s walks past the prison, which serve as a way of being closer to Derek, poignantly suggest the loneliness and isolation she experiences as a result of their physical separation. In addition, she has devoted much of the last 8 years to pursuing a retrial for Derek.

• The South Australian Partners of Prisoners Program has found that the lives of women whose partners are in prison are often governed by the needs of the inmate rather than by their own, and that, to an extent, they are in effect serving the prison term with their partners. The clip repeatedly draws a parallel between Derek’s incarceration and the way in which Pam’s life is circumscribed by her relationship with him. For example, it cuts from shots of Derek in the confines of his small prison cell to Pam in her cramped dining room, hemmed in by the stack of files that contain Derek’s trial transcripts. Shots of Derek in the exercise yard, which is bordered by a wire fence, are followed by a shot of Pam in her garden, filmed through a trellis, with its lattice evocative of bars. The title Barred Wives refers to physical separation, but also to the sense that women such as Pam serve a sentence as well.

• Pam’s image of the prison as 'the castle on the hill’ may allow her to take a romantic view of an otherwise bleak situation. However, the reference also works within the film to subvert the fairytale of the maiden in the castle who is rescued by a knight in shining armour. Here, it is Pam who offers Derek hope by attempting to win him a retrial.

• Prison isolates inmates from life outside and imposes a rigid routine on prisoners, who are given little opportunity to make decisions about their daily lives. Institutionalisation occurs when a prisoner who has spent long or repeated terms in prison becomes increasingly unable to live independently.

• The clip is indicative of the monotony and regimentation that characterises prison life. There is quite a range of accommodation within Australian prisons, with most modern prisons providing a television in cells, including in maximum security cells. However, most prisons are stark in nature, with Derek’s cell consisting of a bed, neatly folded blankets and unadorned walls. The concrete exercise yard is small and enclosed by brick walls topped with barbed wire and a high fence. Derek and the other inmates are dressed uniformly in blue jeans and maroon tops and they pace repeatedly up and down the small featureless enclosure.

This clip starts approximately 20 minutes into the documentary.

The clip cuts back and forth between interviews with Pam, walking her dog at the bottom of the hill where the prison sits on top, and Derek inside his cell.
Pam Well, I go for walks up there and it’s like Derek’s living in a castle on the top of the hill and I’m just living down the bottom.
Derek I’m 37 years old. Um, I got life in 1985 for a murder which I now say that I didn’t commit. And, uh, I’m doing 32 years, or life with 32 years.

We see Pam at her desk which is covered with books and manila folders, leafing through documents and making notes.
Pam He never hid anything. I mean, he told me, told me about himself. He told me he’d spent time in jail beforehand, um, for crimes he had committed. The reason he was in now, he hadn’t done what they’re saying he did, which I do believe him. And I believe that today. In the past eight years, I’ve been working on the transcript, trying for a retrial.

We see Derek sitting on his bed inside his cell and exercising in the jail yard with other inmates.
Derek I suppose I had about 45 days freedom out of the last 17-18 years. So I’ve, uh – thought I might – and I spent most of that time in maximum-security jails.

Um, with women, I think I’d be a little naïve, you know, because I haven’t had that much contact with women. I’ve only had real contact with women as a child, or prior to being 18. Their needs are pretty hard to cater for in here, and I found that very frustrating. I suppose I also found it a little hard to sort of express my feelings, being in jail, you know. So I think Pam found that a little bit hard to understand in me.

Pam is potting plants in her courtyard.
Pam It come about when I was in the visiting room, visiting, um, a family member, and, um, Derek was in the visiting room, and I knew then that there was going to be something more between us.

Close-up of Derek sitting on his bed inside his cell.
Derek I suppose it was just her, you know – the way she carried herself, her innocence, I suppose, and uh, her just being a woman, and I just think I was attracted to her, you know, first up.