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Needle and syringe programs provide free clean injecting gear. In the Australian community, these have been around for several decades, and there are now more than 4,000 places where people can get clean needles. But there are none in any prison in Australia.
It spun me out my first time in jail. You get paid to be in jail. And we get lollies, chocolate, coffee etc. I’m homeless on the outside. To me, now, it’s home.
After being trapped in a DV relationship and now gaining a record and PTSD from it, it has taken me quite a bit of time, and for him to be deported, for me to be able to look myself in the mirror and recognise myself again.
I feel empty without them and I can’t imagine how my dad feels about me being here again.
Yes, dangerous criminals should be punished for breaking the law – but should it be so hard to get on with their lives after prison?
It was another day in the yard. Same boys, same noise. I was comfortable, as much as I could be considering the circumstances.
I had lived in Sydney all my life, but, due to some regrettable circumstances, a few years ago I was required to attend a Brisbane court for a 3-week-long trial, and since that time I have been residing in a Queensland gaol.
It’s time to work smarter and not harder.
I would just like to mention a few things I’ve noticed around prison regarding inmates with both autistic and mental illness traits. Who says these inmates are right to go to prison and not a hospital?
'Nuff Respect, Kudos, and Vast Appreciation on your Magnificent, Pertinent and Poignant Periodical that just keeps getting better. WORD UP!!!
This letter isn’t about myself or my time in prison, but I have spent a fair few years here, and this why I wanted to propose potentially a system where once a week or once a month it is an option, for those who want to or are able to, to donate to a charity from money from our inmate accounts.
My name is Mel. In July, my partner overdosed while I was locked up in Tasmania. The staff there were amazing.
In my speech, I emphasised that strip searching is sexual assault disguised as prison safety. Strip searching is not about safety – and the data proves it.
The Victorian government in late February announced plans to remove the use of ‘good character’ references at sentencing.
Including a smoking ban no longer going ahead in WA, changes to the Home Detention Scheme in SA, a hiring spree at Lockyer Prison and more.
Richard will have gained his freedom from the daily visits to the library, and wondering when the guard will ever open the entry door to let us in. It makes me wonder whether Richard’s new-found “freedom” will be just another word, or perhaps, a new-found sentence.
The biggest thing that caught me off guard when I got out to the sentenced jails was how comfortable people were just doing four or five years like it was nothing.
There is a place not far from Flinders Street Station, along the bank of the Yarra River, that’s at the centre of everything I love about Melbourne.
Everyone needs their own happy place. Especially in here. Somewhere to escape the drama and politics of the yard.
My happy place is knowing inside my heart that I will do better for me. I’ll see the world in a different way.
What a joy it can be, to wrench open your mind and find yourself inhabiting a song. To live out a thousand lives, to know the intimacy of a stranger, and experience nostalgia in such a visceral way for times and places you’ve never been to.
“Go to the lookout. Ring the bells when they’re near the castle. I’ll prepare for battle.”
I hope you all have a place that you can feel your strength from. I wish I had more of these than I do, now he’s gone. Make most of your time people, inside or out – our lives are too short to waste. Find your Happy Place.
It’s 10am, I am at work deciding if I need coffee to get the jitters, a piece of fruit for some sugary glucose or a peanut butter and jam sandwich.
Maybe the title for this competition should be OUR Happy Place rather than MY Happy Place. As I think it is more about how we approach a place together that determines if we are going to be happy or not.
My experience of entering gaol was hazy and blurry. A brick, as they say, is a 10 year term of imprisonment, and getting outta my mind was on my list of things to do, not realising that I would find my true happy place in nature.
Within that club of egos, I had found a friend. He talked to me of glory and made me want to join. So I sent a few gold coins and received a nonsense letter. I must be a member! In a group of names, I am the unclean one, the token unpublished poet; there always must be one.
The straps of his back-pack chaffed and pulled against his shoulders, the weight of each uneven step threatening to topple him back down the slope. His boots crunched the tiny pebbles that slided and slid, plumes of dust flicking into the still air.
Two words, one name. I was stunned. Gathering my thoughts, I started the mental checklist. Had I pressed the wrong button? No. Was it a stranger answering? No. It was definitely my son, a changed son.
There is a lot of talk about human rights in prison – with things like “the Mandela Rules”, ‘the principle of equivalence’, and access to health care without discrimination.
Procedural fairness, often called “natural justice”, is a collection of rights, established under common law in Australia around the 1980s.
Going to the gym and doing other hard physical work are great things to do for your body, but they can leave you feeling tight and sore. Put yourself back in balance with this yoga sequence – it will loosen muscles and ease aches.
An information pamphlet discussing the condition.
You may be following in an age-old tradition of this county by languishing in one of his Majesty’s prisons, but you are not forgotten!
Australia is in the midst of an epidemic of prison lockdowns. There is often little or no warning that these lockdowns are going to happen, leaving many people in virtual solitary confinement for hours or days.
There have been 29 deaths in custody in the first three months of this year.
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The family of proud Noongar man Jeffrey Winmar have travelled to Victoria to push for answers and justice at a coronial inquest into his death in police custody in late 2023.
Cells at the courts are so full that people can’t be taken there from prison to attend their hearings.
Two new artworks from First Nations artists.
An overview of recent sporting events, including AFL, F1, football and cricket.
All you need is eggs, cream, condensed milk and 24 hours.
Jeff shares facts and odd bits he learnt in the past month.
Don't fear my love, everything’s alright. Don't fear my friends, the future looks bright.
I sit here watching the second-hand ticking by as it slowly keeps passing my time... And just as I thought the world can’t be changed it's an apocalypse of the mind.
Love’s definition cannot be just one, not one, two or more but a tonne. Love is the greatest quality of them all, a verse written by the poet Paul.
Can you find all the words from the clues?
Fill the grid so every row, column and box contains the numbers 1-9 once.
Test your general knowledge on our monthly quiz!
