Within three to six months of working, I had started paying my old court fines off and could apply to get my licence, which meant we didn’t have to get the bus everywhere while my girlfriend was pregnant. This was huge. Having a car and our own independence made me re-learn the lesson I’d learnt all those years ago in jail: having a job gives you purpose. It gives you structure and financial independence.

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I didn’t have to line up at Centrelink anymore or go to those job appointments and pretend like I was trying when I wasn’t. Life got good real quick. All of a sudden we got approved for a 3-bedroom house, and then before I knew it there was a little baby girl with us as well. I applied to get forklift tickets, which eventually led me to a better-paying job.

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Since all of this really sunk in, I have worked a lot. I have run my own business, subcontracted for builders, gone to courses, done workshops – the list goes on. I have been in my trade for six years now, and all of these things have helped me get further and further away from the jail life. I’ve also met a lot of people who come from the same situation who say working saved me from my old self.

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The reason why I wrote this article is in the hope someone will read this inside prison and get a job as soon as they get out. It’s hard at first, being told what to do all day. You might feel like you don’t belong there, or everyone knows you’ve been locked up and are silently judging you, and that may be a reality you do have to face at some point. But that’s better than being in jail, eating shit food and living in a tiny box watching reruns of the same TV shows, right?

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Another reality is this: it’s about your future. It’s not about anyone else. This is your time to grow and evolve out of the old you and into a person with discipline and structure in their life. Every successful person has worked hard to get where they are, and a lot of them have gone through battles to get there. But the main thing is they stick at their goal and don’t stop.

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For us, it’s about getting out of the system and changing our lives so we can be the fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, uncles and aunties that our families need us to be. But also, so we can be who we need to be for ourselves: happy and healthy.

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If you’re reading this in jail, you can do it. There are so many opportunities out there for us in 2026. Set yourself a small achievable goal and go for it. You only get one life. There’s no other chance coming your way. This is it, and being inside those jails across our country is a waste of it.

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I believe every prisoner deserves a shot at a good life, and it’s only you that can give that to yourself. So get out and prove everyone wrong who ever doubted you. Show them that you aren’t what they said you are, and enjoy your best life: working hard and enjoying your family and friends on the outside.

Let’s face it: money makes the world go around. Some of you reading this article will be doing time for stealing money. Some of you will be reading this having sold drugs to get money. And some of you will be reading this having committed an offence for a basic need that didn’t cost much money at all. It’s all money, money, money.

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It’s a catch-22 in our society: you can’t survive without it, and if you don’t have it coming in every week, things get hard real quick. I’ve been there myself – not working, stealing everything I could get my hands on, trading goods to sell so
I could make some quick cash.

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But just like in the movies, no matter how good things are going, it always comes to a point where you either get caught or the plug runs out, and things backfire. Then bam, you’re back doing ram raids and burglaries, just like you said you wouldn’t the last time you got out.It took me a while to get my head around this, and one thing I learnt doing my last sentence was the importance of having a job and sticking with it.

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When I was locked up, I couldn’t get much money sent my way. I was sick of having no spends, 2–3 minute phone calls, and there’s only so many times you can work out in a day. So I got a job at the print shop where a mate of mine was working. Even though it was boring, and I hated it for the first time in a while, I was supporting myself without stealing or doing anything I could get in trouble for.

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Soon enough a wing cleaner job came up. Having a unit job is the cream of the crop in jail because you get all the benefits that go with it. Within three months of me starting to work, I had a single cell and had saved up to get a stereo.

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Kendrick Lamar’s first album had just dropped, Good Kid, M.A.A.D City. I borrowed it off one of the boys. I remember the feeling: sitting back listening to it, it kind of felt like I was at home in my bedroom. It’s weird how your brain can make you feel normal in such a dull place, but I was happy. I had worked hard for that stereo, and the music made it all feel better. I can’t really explain it any other way.

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If you fast-forward a few years, I was on the outside and I hadn’t been back for a while. It was coming around to that time where doing crime started to seem okay again. I hadn’t done anything with myself since getting out: no job, no courses, no TAFE. I literally just used drugs and ruined everything for myself. To be honest, I felt that moment where I sort of accepted that I was probably gonna be back inside soon anyway, so who cares, right? Wrong.

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I found out my partner was pregnant, and we were living in a set of apartment blocks that were pretty shady. It wasn’t a good place to be living in those circumstances. So I went to the factories up the road and asked for a job. Coincidentally and luckily for me, one of the bosses at this factory had done a lot of jail himself and turned his life around. He could see himself in me, I suppose, and he took me under his wing.