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About Time is the national newspaper for Australian prisons and detention facilities

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ISSUE NO. 22
MAY 2026
Title
Subheading Line 1
Subheading Line 2
Section
A Letter to Parents Inside
From your children on
the outside
Experiences
Open Air in Prison
Your rights to fresh air explained
Legal Corner
Bored in prison?
Try Steven’s list of
activities!
Play

Why Mum Can't Come Home

Stories I tell my children

By Hannah

I am currently remanded and I have two young children. My son is 8 and my daughter is 6. I have never told them that I’m in jail and instead explain to them that I’m at a facility that helps mummys and daddys get their minds and bodies strong again.

I’ve struggled to explain to them the lengthy time periods I’ve spent away from home, so recently I wrote them both a story that tried to explain why I’m not always around.

ISSUE NO. 22
2 MIN READ
Ike Curtis

‘I Try, I Really Do’

By Lynda

Mum I wish you knew how much I care, and how much I miss you when you’re not there.

ISSUE NO. 22
1 MIN READ

From a Mum With Her Son in Jail

By Lorraine

Living grief, as a mother, is waking each day with the knowledge that your child is still here, yet not truly free.

ISSUE NO. 22
2 MIN READ

Handling Family Issues From Prison

By Amos

Family issues trouble you the most while you are in the custody. Maybe you have a spouse or children. Or you may have close relationship with some members of the family. Some of us might have children in different states or overseas.

ISSUE NO. 22
2 MIN READ
By Dane

The following is in response to the article by Denham Sadler titled “Sweltering Behind Bars: Stifling Heat in Australian prisons”.

ISSUE NO. 22
2 MIN READ
By Luiing

If foreign prisoners have been sentenced under same law as Australians, then it’s extremely important that they have right to be treat equally in their imprisonment – on humanitarian grounds.

ISSUE NO. 22
2 MIN READ
By Prisoners at Albany Prison, WA

We are not sure who to write to or who we can talk to about theses matters. We are hoping someone reads our letter and can point us in the right direction to have our voices heard.

ISSUE NO. 22
1 MIN READ
By Muhamed

Prison teaches people to hold back. To keep to themselves. To give as little as possible. To protect what little energy or hope they have left. When everything feels limited – time, freedom, trust – it makes sense to think that giving more will leave you with less. But the bee lives by a different rule.

ISSUE NO. 22
2 MIN READ

Making Prison Visits Better

By Denham Sadler

With Mother’s Day this month, prison visits have never been more important. But for children with a parent in prison, or other loved ones, this process can be scary and intimidating, with a lot of rules and conditions.

ISSUE NO. 22
4 MIN READ
Ethan Cassidy

We Need You: Maximum Security Unit Review Consultation

By Prisoners' Legal Service Queensland

The Inspector of Detention Services Queensland is undertaking a review of Maximum Security Units (MSUs) at Arthur Gorrie, Brisbane and Woodford Correctional Centres.

ISSUE NO. 22
3 MIN READ
katerha via Flickr

New Civil Law Service for Women in NSW Prisons

By About Time

The Women’s Advocacy Service is a partnership between Legal Aid NSW and the Aboriginal Legal Service (NSW/ACT), providing face-to-face appointments with both a lawyer and a social worker.

ISSUE NO. 22
2 MIN READ

Australia’s Oldest Prison Vegetable Garden?

By Hayley McKee

The men at Fremantle Prison learnt how to grow fresh food by planting concentrated rows of sturdy cabbage, corn, carrots, spring onions and other edible plants that could withstand the harsh WA sun. At its peak, the garden supplied the prison kitchen with more than 10,000 kilograms of fruit and vegetables each year.

ISSUE NO. 22
3 MIN READ
Fremantle Prison Parade Ground Gardens, 1970, Courtesy Fremantle Prison

Around the Country – April 2026

By About Time

Including the prison population growing in the ACT, a drug bust during a prison visit in Victoria, Hakea inmates suing state government in WA and more.

ISSUE NO. 22
5 MIN READ
Ethan Cassidy

A Letter to Parents Inside

By Yung Prodigy

So this Mother’s Day, please know we’re still here, and still holding you in mind. Always. You are always in our thoughts and in our hearts.

ISSUE NO. 22
4 MIN READ

Day Release: Freedom Whiplash

By Jonathan

My first day out was surreal. Just walking out the gate, I felt the weight slip from my shoulders. I told Mum with a smile, “I’m a free man, for today.”

ISSUE NO. 22
3 MIN READ
Ethan Cassidy

Freed, Then Taken: When My Love Was Deported

By Marianna Jans

My heart stopped the moment I heard his voice, the panic already rising before he even said a word. “They’re deporting me,” he whispered.

ISSUE NO. 22
2 MIN READ
Willy Pleasance

C No More: Peter’s Story

By Peter

If you’re reading this from inside, here’s what I want you to know.

ISSUE NO. 22
4 MIN READ

Ask the Doctor: Nutrition

By Harley

Hello! I’m Harley, a doctor working in Victoria. Welcome back to Ask the Doctor!

ISSUE NO. 22
2 MIN READ
Artificial Sweeteners – Splenda & Equal by Bukowsky18

Open Air in Prison: Your Rights Explained

By Human Rights Law Centre lawyers Monique Hurley and Sohini Mehta, with assistance from Connor Shaw and with Queensland-specific contributions from the Prisoners’ Legal Service Queensland.

With people in prisons across the country being subjected to an “epidemic of prison lockdowns”, it is important to note that bare minimum safeguards exist in law, in most jurisdictions, that purport to guarantee at least some time ‘in the open air’ each day for people behind bars.

ISSUE NO. 22
5 MIN READ
ken.jumper via Flickr

Mob

Sports Round Up!

By Goal Mouth

An overview of recent sporting events, including athletics, F1 and soccer.

ISSUE NO. 22
2 MIN READ
Braden Collum

Legal Q&A

Do you have a general legal query that you want answered?
Is  there an area of law that you think people inside should know more about? Submit your question in the provided form, and we might publish an answer in the paper.

Submit Your Question

All About Churchill

By T

If I could interview someone dead or alive, I would like to interview Winston Churchill, Britain’s wartime (WWII) leader.

ISSUE NO. 22
2 MIN READ
Sir Winston Churchill by BiblioArchives LibraryArchives
By Dennis

Nostalgia is a gentle haze, a soft and fading, golden maze, where time itself begins to blur, and memory’s touch is sweet and pure.

ISSUE NO. 22
1 MIN READ
By Karie

I’m not belle of the ball, not the very least, but we have something in common, I’m in love with a beast. But the beast is not a person but a drug that I call meth, I’ve been talking to myself for hours, I’m running out of breath.

ISSUE NO. 22
1 MIN READ
By Phillip

There’s irony, hypocrisy, fallacy, a vast ocean of distance to cross. The “saint”, the “sinner”, it’s lunacy, that the ignorant could save the lost.

ISSUE NO. 22
2 MIN READ

Play

Bored in Jail Activity List

Steven writes from a prison in VIC.

Crossword

Can you find all the words from the clues?

Meme of the Month

Meicho writes from a prison in QLD.

Sudoku

Fill the grid so every row, column and box contains the numbers 1-9 once.

Quiz

Test your general knowledge on our monthly quiz!

Ethan Cassidy
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