ISSUE NO. 12
July 2025
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Letters

Lit a Light of Hope

By
Zayne

Zayne writes from Metropolitan Remand Centre in Victoria.

Willy Pleasance

Greetings, prison newspaper.

I am writing to you from the Metropolitan Remand Centre just after lock in at approximately 5pm.

I read your paper the night previous, and a part of me that previously was dead or dying suddenly felt alive and connected to others with similar struggles and trauma.

I am 28 years old and come from a single mother with three other step siblings. My mum had me at 21 and at an early age, I was given a Criminal Reference Number. I have spent two years out of prison since the age of 19, roughly 8 years. I feel like there is no future for me until I read an article in your paper about post release stress disorder that lit a light of hope in myself that previously no one else could. I have been incarcerated for two weeks now, and awaiting sentencing in three months time. The reasons for these offences I put down to mental health issues such as PTSD, PRSD, depression, anxiety and an extremely poor peer support network and so on and so forth, lack of housing, drug substance abuse that all seemed to feed each other and when I live like this, it is impossible to find the one thing that could save me a proper healthy relationship. They say loneliness is like a hunger, and though my life was shit, is shit, I feel like the law of attraction brought the worst of people and situations. So I just want to say thanks for your newsletter/prison paper.

Zayne

Greetings, prison newspaper.

I am writing to you from the Metropolitan Remand Centre just after lock in at approximately 5pm.

I read your paper the night previous, and a part of me that previously was dead or dying suddenly felt alive and connected to others with similar struggles and trauma.

I am 28 years old and come from a single mother with three other step siblings. My mum had me at 21 and at an early age, I was given a Criminal Reference Number. I have spent two years out of prison since the age of 19, roughly 8 years. I feel like there is no future for me until I read an article in your paper about post release stress disorder that lit a light of hope in myself that previously no one else could. I have been incarcerated for two weeks now, and awaiting sentencing in three months time. The reasons for these offences I put down to mental health issues such as PTSD, PRSD, depression, anxiety and an extremely poor peer support network and so on and so forth, lack of housing, drug substance abuse that all seemed to feed each other and when I live like this, it is impossible to find the one thing that could save me a proper healthy relationship. They say loneliness is like a hunger, and though my life was shit, is shit, I feel like the law of attraction brought the worst of people and situations. So I just want to say thanks for your newsletter/prison paper.

Zayne

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.

Letters

ISSUE NO. 22

2 MIN READ

Albany Prisoners on Lockdowns

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

ISSUE NO. 22

1 MIN READ

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

2 MIN READ

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

2 MIN READ

Welcome to About Time

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

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