To the editor,
Firstly, I would like to say how great it is to finally have a nationwide paper focused solely on prisoners and issues relating to prisoners as people, not just prisoners. I look forward to each edition and hope it is here to stay! I am a prisoner at the Adelaide Women's Prison, South Australia. I have served two years and six months of my six year six month sentence.
I thought I could enlighten you on how this prison's day to day works. In the unit I'm in, there are eight jobs available: two unit cleaners, two laundry workers, two meal servers, one milk server and one gardener. There are 20 women in this unit. All jobs except the gardener are six day a week jobs. They all get the same daily rate, $5.14 per day. The gardener job is a three day a week job. The meal servers hand out the meals, lunch and dinner, which is about 10 mins per day, and the milk server hands out the milk at dinner time, about five mins per day. The cleaners vacuum and mop the unit once per day. It’s about one hour to one and a half hours of work everyday. Everyone gets paid the same even though jobs like the laundry and cleaner are a lot more work than the other days. Unemployment is $12.80 per week.
On Tuesday, we get "Education" in the afternoon. I study business studies and there is a literacy and numeracy course that runs at the same time. If you attend education you receive $5.64 for that day.
All up, I receive $36.48 a week, before deductions. They then take $2 per week for resettlement (for when we are released), $3 for CIC Levy (court fines), and $11 per year for TV access. Some women come in here for a month, pay their TV access, get out for a month then come back and have to pay for TV access again. Here in SA, we pay $2.50 for a 10 minute call. In the "Secure" area of the prison, on a 'standard' regime you're entitled to 21 calls per week. If you use all 21 by Thursday, you have to wait until Sunday morning to use the phone. If you are fortunate enough to have someone who can send you money, you can receive $200 per month. It must be paid by money order from Australia post, a $15 money order fee applies. Any amount over the $200 goes into your phone account. If the sender doesn't write their name, address and phone number on the back of the money order it goes into a suspense account and the sender must call the business centre with the money order receipt number and details to have the money moved into the general account. If we do get the money through we can spend $50 per week. In all of the secure units there is no microwave, no kettle, no toaster. The only thing you can cook is two minute noodles with the hot tap.
We get yard movement (exercise) for one hour twice per week (as long as there is a yard officer). To progress to the Living Skills Unit (lower security) you need manager's approval. There is only one women's prison in South Australia so if you get stuck in Mainstream/Secure there is nowhere else you can go.
The Living Skills Unit (LSU) is where most women aim to progress to. The LSU holds all of the courses you can do. The cooking course, barista course, construction course, Women’s studies, Dialectical Behavioural Therapy, Yoga on the Inside and more. None of that is offered to the Secure units.
If you reside in LSU, Edge Church puts on a kids visit once a month and the kids can come and play games and run around, play on the playground and the women can bring food they've made or things they’ve bought on the buy and spend some quality time with their children. Kids visits are not offered to the Secure units.
I am in the Secure unit, and I constantly have vivid nightmares that I go for a parole interview and they defer my parole until I progress through the institution and do some courses. In my dream I have an infinite sentence. I wake up dripping with sweat, thanking god it was just a dream.
I'm very much looking forward to the next edition of the paper and especially the second part of the Freedom of Information section. Hopefully you get many letters from South Australia.
Sincerely,
Donna
Adelaide Womens Prison
To the editor,
Firstly, I would like to say how great it is to finally have a nationwide paper focused solely on prisoners and issues relating to prisoners as people, not just prisoners. I look forward to each edition and hope it is here to stay! I am a prisoner at the Adelaide Women's Prison, South Australia. I have served two years and six months of my six year six month sentence.
I thought I could enlighten you on how this prison's day to day works. In the unit I'm in, there are eight jobs available: two unit cleaners, two laundry workers, two meal servers, one milk server and one gardener. There are 20 women in this unit. All jobs except the gardener are six day a week jobs. They all get the same daily rate, $5.14 per day. The gardener job is a three day a week job. The meal servers hand out the meals, lunch and dinner, which is about 10 mins per day, and the milk server hands out the milk at dinner time, about five mins per day. The cleaners vacuum and mop the unit once per day. It’s about one hour to one and a half hours of work everyday. Everyone gets paid the same even though jobs like the laundry and cleaner are a lot more work than the other days. Unemployment is $12.80 per week.
On Tuesday, we get "Education" in the afternoon. I study business studies and there is a literacy and numeracy course that runs at the same time. If you attend education you receive $5.64 for that day.
All up, I receive $36.48 a week, before deductions. They then take $2 per week for resettlement (for when we are released), $3 for CIC Levy (court fines), and $11 per year for TV access. Some women come in here for a month, pay their TV access, get out for a month then come back and have to pay for TV access again. Here in SA, we pay $2.50 for a 10 minute call. In the "Secure" area of the prison, on a 'standard' regime you're entitled to 21 calls per week. If you use all 21 by Thursday, you have to wait until Sunday morning to use the phone. If you are fortunate enough to have someone who can send you money, you can receive $200 per month. It must be paid by money order from Australia post, a $15 money order fee applies. Any amount over the $200 goes into your phone account. If the sender doesn't write their name, address and phone number on the back of the money order it goes into a suspense account and the sender must call the business centre with the money order receipt number and details to have the money moved into the general account. If we do get the money through we can spend $50 per week. In all of the secure units there is no microwave, no kettle, no toaster. The only thing you can cook is two minute noodles with the hot tap.
We get yard movement (exercise) for one hour twice per week (as long as there is a yard officer). To progress to the Living Skills Unit (lower security) you need manager's approval. There is only one women's prison in South Australia so if you get stuck in Mainstream/Secure there is nowhere else you can go.
The Living Skills Unit (LSU) is where most women aim to progress to. The LSU holds all of the courses you can do. The cooking course, barista course, construction course, Women’s studies, Dialectical Behavioural Therapy, Yoga on the Inside and more. None of that is offered to the Secure units.
If you reside in LSU, Edge Church puts on a kids visit once a month and the kids can come and play games and run around, play on the playground and the women can bring food they've made or things they’ve bought on the buy and spend some quality time with their children. Kids visits are not offered to the Secure units.
I am in the Secure unit, and I constantly have vivid nightmares that I go for a parole interview and they defer my parole until I progress through the institution and do some courses. In my dream I have an infinite sentence. I wake up dripping with sweat, thanking god it was just a dream.
I'm very much looking forward to the next edition of the paper and especially the second part of the Freedom of Information section. Hopefully you get many letters from South Australia.
Sincerely,
Donna
Adelaide Womens Prison
