I came from a stable family, had a good education and worked in corporate roles for many years. I learned that the system doesn’t favour anyone

• ‘I fell asleep at the wheel’: my life changed the day my partner died
• The grief of losing my son and husband drove me to drug addiction

“I see no other option than to issue you a custodial sentence for a period of two and a half years.” I still hear those words like they were said only yesterday. My stomach sank and my head spun. A million things went through my mind as I started having trouble breathing, and nausea set in.

I had never been to jail. I’d never had a criminal record. As visions of Wentworth episodes ran through my head, I suddenly had to pull myself together because shit was about to get very real. I was going to prison for fraudulent activity that I had committed under the influence of ice.

Using ice helped mask the pain – but my health and life quickly unravelled. I spent almost three years in jail for dealing drugs

• ‘I fell asleep at the wheel’: my life changed the day my partner died
• ‘A mass imprisonment crisis’: why more women are doing time

I married my husband in my early 20s, had two beautiful children: a girl and a boy. I was the luckiest woman alive. I thought I was blessed.

My son died at age 19. It devastated us. What had been a very close family began to unravel. My husband was diagnosed with cancer soon after and for the next few years we battled. After being told he did not have long, he began to take drugs. I joined him not long after. He passed away in my arms in 2011. My daughter had moved in with her boyfriend and was trying to build a life for herself, so I found myself alone, vulnerable and not coping very well.