Upon returning to her home country in Venezuela after a long time living in Europe, Ana María Arévalo Gosen was told about the terrifying conditions of the country’s female prisons. Stunned by her first impression of the spaces she saw, Gosen pursued the task to get behind the system with her camera and reveal how desperate the poor and vulnerable were without justice.

Despite the law decreeing that there is a 45-day limit on deciding if inmates in detention centres should go to prison or be set free, the system often fails and women wait endlessly for days, months and sometimes years.

The crisis in Latin American penal systems, and the shocking reality for women inmates is the emotional and disturbing subject of this series. Thousands of women sit in over-crowded prisons and detention centres. They live in totally inhumane conditions without space, hygiene, medical care or any measure of respect and justice. This body of work opens the door to a daily existence which seems hopeless.

Ana María Arévalo Gosen received the prestigious Leica Oskar Barnack Award for this series in 2021 and has been chosen as a CPF Selectee at this year’s Copenhagen Photo Festival.