Franco's dictatorship profusely used the prison to fight against dissidents and opponents. Although most prisoners over nearly four decades were men, women couldn't avoid punishment either. Women who were imprisoned, suffered a significant material deprivation, as well as strong religious and ideological indoctrination. In those prisoners with children, forced separation was used as blackmail to achieve the conversion of mothers and children to the values of national-catholicism. Furthermore, inmate's mothers, wives and daughters were indirect victims of the prison, through social control mechanisms, which were designed to get under control a considered hostile population due to their republicanism. Over time, prison life conditions improved, at the same time as female prisoners decreased. But the will of religious and moral indoctrination in women's prisons remained virtually intact until the end of the dictatorship.
