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Stacey Dooley travels to Iowa to investigate one of the most radical women’s prisons in America. The Correctional Institute for Women is a new 80-million-pound facility which houses more than 700 female offenders, from drunk drivers to violent murderers. For the last three years, the prison has been run by Sheryl Dahm, a warden with a difference. Rather than placing discipline and punishment at the heart of her regime, she tries to instil in the women a sense of purpose and self-esteem. She permits the women all kinds of freedom: therapy dogs, make-up and – if they behave – the chance to move freely around the prison.

Stacey gets to know one particular group - the lifers, who make up around ten per cent of the prison population. They are the mothers, daughters, sisters and wives who have said goodbye to the ones they love forever. These are women hidden from mainstream society, leading parallel existences behind bars. All of the lifers have been convicted of first-degree murder and many of the women open up for the first time to Stacey about the nature of their crimes and their remorse. Stacey probes the women about their feelings towards the victims. What would they like to say to them now? Other lifers are cagier about their crimes though. Barbara Pasa has only just arrived in prison to start her life sentence and remains adamant she has been the victim of a miscarriage of justice.

The film broadens out to follow the women through their ups and downs. Judy White has been inside for more than 40 years for murder, even though she wasn’t even present when the crime took place. Her lawyer is now fighting to get her a hearing in front of the parole board to see if her sentence could be commuted. Stacey is on the shoulder of the warden when she gives Judy some dramatic news about her case.

Stacey also learns that the main disciplinary problem in the prison is not fighting or drugs, but sex. Interviewing counsellor Mia Williams, Stacey hears about the innovative ways in which the women make sex toys and try to avoid being spotted by guards. In one dramatic scene, the film crew are with an officer when two women are found in bed together.

But the film also follows some deep romantic relationships develop amongst the women. Judy, more than 40 years into her sentence, has been in a relationship for more three decades with the wise-cracking Pops, who explains how their bond has developed from sex to just being grateful for their health.

But relationships can become very complicated in prison. Tatiana Dixon – serving life for murder – has been in a long-term romance with a woman who left the prison two years ago. Tatiana has to wrestle with the fear that her girlfriend Kristen could at any point stop seeing her as she enjoys her freedom. Stacey is there on visitor’s day to see Tatiana and Kristen enjoy one of only two meetings they are permitted every year.

Stacey documents the unique experience of being a female lifer, with all the drama, emotions, twists and turns that that brings. Amidst the pain, guilt and suffering, there is humour, kindness and resourcefulness in this moving documentary.