INSIDE ERIN PATTERSON'S 'TORTURE' CELL

A former inmate provides a glimpse into her new life behind bars

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It's been a month since convicted mushroom murderer Erin Patterson learned she would likely spend the rest of her life behind bars in a tiny cell described as a "box smaller than our toilets" and nicknamed "the slot".

Housed in the Gordon Unit – an isolation unit – at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre, the convicted killer, 51, is not only tormented by the "screaming and yelling" outside her prison cell, but inside the conditions are so bad some have likened it to "torture".

Former inmate Ashleigh Chapman, who served four years in the Melbourne jail, says life on the ward was horrific and her cell was so small it took only seven steps to walk from end to end.

"We were going days without water," Chapman told The Saturday Paper. "We were getting quite sick and a lot of us had lost a lot of weight."