ISSUE NO. 15
October 2025
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Letters

A Message of Compassion and Care

By
David

David writes from a prison in NSW.

Sydney Rae via Unsplash

Included is a poem written by Michael and my honest response of encouragement. May it offer hope to anyone who challenges themselves to choose to heal toward being a quality human. There are so many men wanting to transform. There are many who hear their pain. There are too few who truly listen. About Time gives all a voice to proclaim their sorrow and continue their amends. This challenges all to honestly listen with compassion and care. Thanks to you and your professionalism for making transformation possible.

Shalom, David.

Michael:

Alone in my cell, in my cell each day I cry.

It doesn’t matter if I live or die.

People laugh at me and don’t feel my pain,

Even when it’s sunny it feels like rain.

Each day I know I’m losing hope.

What’s gone, can no longer cope.

A man can no longer cope when he has lost everything he loved,

When he’s the only one.

My children have forgotten me,

My shadow has befriended me.

One day you’re nothing, a forgotten king,

And the next, a clown.

And in the sea of sadness I will drown.

God was once my heart, but now I feel we are no longer anything more.

We are held deep, far apart.

I have no more to thrive to live, no more to give.

Just close my eyes and never more weep,

That I may eternally finally sleep.

David:

Michael, you stand at another crossroad of your life. Your poem expresses your feelings of powerlessness.

Your sketches show your desire for goodness. Your sharing indicates seeking wisdom. Your tears are the balm of healing. Your wise words to others are filled with compassion.

It is time to decide: self-honesty or self-pity? Stay powerless or ask for power? Trust in yourself or trust in God’s care? Remain selfish or live selflessly? Choose death or transformation? Die, or live.

David

Included is a poem written by Michael and my honest response of encouragement. May it offer hope to anyone who challenges themselves to choose to heal toward being a quality human. There are so many men wanting to transform. There are many who hear their pain. There are too few who truly listen. About Time gives all a voice to proclaim their sorrow and continue their amends. This challenges all to honestly listen with compassion and care. Thanks to you and your professionalism for making transformation possible.

Shalom, David.

Michael:

Alone in my cell, in my cell each day I cry.

It doesn’t matter if I live or die.

People laugh at me and don’t feel my pain,

Even when it’s sunny it feels like rain.

Each day I know I’m losing hope.

What’s gone, can no longer cope.

A man can no longer cope when he has lost everything he loved,

When he’s the only one.

My children have forgotten me,

My shadow has befriended me.

One day you’re nothing, a forgotten king,

And the next, a clown.

And in the sea of sadness I will drown.

God was once my heart, but now I feel we are no longer anything more.

We are held deep, far apart.

I have no more to thrive to live, no more to give.

Just close my eyes and never more weep,

That I may eternally finally sleep.

David:

Michael, you stand at another crossroad of your life. Your poem expresses your feelings of powerlessness.

Your sketches show your desire for goodness. Your sharing indicates seeking wisdom. Your tears are the balm of healing. Your wise words to others are filled with compassion.

It is time to decide: self-honesty or self-pity? Stay powerless or ask for power? Trust in yourself or trust in God’s care? Remain selfish or live selflessly? Choose death or transformation? Die, or live.

David

Lessons from Bees

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.

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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.

Letters

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Rights for Foreign Prisoners

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.

Letters

ISSUE NO. 22

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Not Cool: Heat and Overcrowding in TMCC

By Dane

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

Letters

ISSUE NO. 22

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Welcome to About Time

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

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