‘Every Day Done Is Another Day Gone’: A First-Timer on Remand

Ice was my crutch, my friend, my demon. But after 11 months, the mental call for ice has diminished greatly, and as it fades away, the times when it taps me on the shoulder are only in those moments of darkness, the times when those flashes of realisation, that gap between why I’m here and how long it’s been since I’ve seen my pets, my family and my friends, and the place I once called home, has grown.

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The faint upside is that the light at the end of the tunnel gets brighter every day! Every day done is another day gone.

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The eye-opening part of this is just how many decent blokes have been separated from their family, their homes, their jobs and their friends, and how biased the “justice” system is towards incarceration as seemingly the only option.

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The extra emotional damage that has been done, is being done, and will continue to be done, is incalculable.

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Sadly, it seems that public outrages sway too heavily on public opinion and therefore the expectations of the justice system are to enforce penalties which are over exaggerated in the context of the crime and the people involved.

Surely there must be alternatives – better and more efficient alternatives – to incarceration. But  our governments continue to cut funding to mental health support services, an absurdity in the light of so many studies calling for an increase in funding.

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The identification of triggers, causes, the unearthing of long suppressed problems will continue to have too many people, being jailed instead of being given better ways and methods of atoning for their momentary lapse of reason, or their excessive punishment by a system biased and broken.

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Being jailed fosters a lack of faith and of trust in those that, in many cases, were once seen as fair and just, as doing the right thing by society. It also makes us more apprehensive of the lawmakers and wary of those we once trusted to “do the right thing”.

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By being locked up and forced to live in a community filled with bitterness, and in some cases bitterness bordering on outright hatred, emotional osmosis occurs and even the most sane and rational cannot help but be ‘infected’ with that bitterness and feel that what they sensed was once right is no longer.

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There’s a reinforcement, not reduction, of the lack of self-worth and self-esteem.

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Time happens to all living creatures. It is only we humans who believe time away from others with nothing to change behaviour, time away from society, will make us better in society. It’s a belief that is wrong and outdated and, sadly, highly unlikely to evolve as society has evolved.

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That’s my five cents and GST.