My name is Michael, and I am a person who has an ABI (acquired brain injury) and I have done a lot of time in prison. I’m here to try and make it better for people who have an ABI and are in or have been through the justice system.

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I’m a pretty easy-going guy. I like to laugh and joke around a lot, but I also know when I have to be serious. I’ve had enough hassles in my life over the years, so I like to try and make my life and everybody else’s life around me as comfortable and easy as can be.

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I was never any good at school. I couldn’t read or write when I was younger. I mucked up in class and got sent to the principal’s office so I didn’t have to be embarrassed about not being able to read or write. From then, I just dragged my way through school. I got up to about year 9 until I got asked to leave.

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From a young age, I’d steal things – cars and motorbikes – and rob factories to make money. We weren’t a rich family, so whatever I got I stole because my mum and dad didn’t have money. I made my own way and grew into a criminal. I was in boys’ homes from the age of about 13, for stuff like riding motorbikes. And then I hit Pentridge, because I escaped from the boys’ home. From then, I just didn’t really look back.

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My crimes got bigger and became out of control. When my parents died, 2 months apart from each other, I was 18 and I just didn’t care about myself, let alone anybody else. I did what I had to do to survive.

I got the ABI from a motorcycle crash when I was younger and when I’ve overdosed a couple of times. When I was at Marngoneet prison in around 2010, I spoke to a counsellor about my accident and they said, “Oh, maybe you’ve got an ABI.”

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I didn’t know what it was and didn’t remember the next day what we were talking about. My doctor then said, “I want to do a few tests to see if you have an ABI.” She sent me off to see some specialists. When the doctor told me about the ABI, I didn’t know what to think because I didn’t know what an ABI was.

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The doctor explained to me what it was like to have an ABI – and it was what I’m sort of like. Someone with an ABI can have difficulties with a range of things. It could be with speech, with learning or with the capabilities of a normal person that doesn’t have an ABI. They see things differently. It’s a disability, but it’s hard to explain. It’s hard having an ABI. I feel like I’m different. I know I’m not, but I feel like a second class citizen, because I don’t understand a lot of things.

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I was 47 years old when I found out that I had an ABI. I’m hoping they can work out the people that have ABIs earlier and they can come up with a way to keep people out of prison. Because, let’s face it, prisons are sad, lonely places, especially for people with ABIs or mental health issues. All those times going to prison, I hadn’t been screened. I couldn’t read when I got in – I taught myself in jail how to read and write by reading the newspaper. If in some way they could have screened me for ABIs at the start, I think my time in prison might have been shorter and a lot different.

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Since 2017, I haven’t been back in prison, and I’ve been doing Voices for Change. It’s changed my life. It’s got me out of the gutter, so to speak. I’ve got a roof over my head, and I’ve got a partner – I’ve got everything that I need. Sometimes I haven’t got money, but I’m alive. When you’ve had enough, you’ve had enough. The things that matter to me now are my family that I have left, my group that I’m involved with – Voices for Change – and my church.

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There’s not another group in Victoria like Voices for Change, and we want to make more of them. We go to different places in the community, and we talk about people that have an ABI that have been through the justice system and explain what it’s like and how hard it is for people that have an ABI – we want to make everybody aware. Awareness is what makes things grow, and I want to make our group Voices for Change grow into something big.