About Time dedicates many of its pages to publishing the letters of people in prison, as well as from their family and friends.
This is the centrepiece of the paper: a platform for people to share their experiences and learn from each other.
I write to extend feedback – re: your monthly paper. I must say that it was with more than the usual measuring spoon of interest that most here @ MRC welcomed its arrival.
12 months into being remanded in custody. I’m still yet to be sentenced – hence I can’t see the end at all.
We are encouraged to maintain contact with our support people, our wives, our families, and our friends. This upcoming price increase will reduce the amount of contact we will be able to have with our supports.
What I’m hoping to achieve by writing this is awareness of the care I receive and the stubbornness of the exceptional circumstances parole in Queensland.
I’ve made the most of my time in jail this time and have made myself a promise to not just waste my time here, but to learn as much as I can, study, get fit, do as many programs as possible, and come out a better person than I came in as. I've achieved that, and more.
Why are jails so populated by people who are uneducated? What is being missed by the courts and cops and the community that the process of jailing people is formed around the process of not educating people or not identifying the problems in school?
GROW is a community-based national organisation that works on mental wellbeing using a 12 step program of personal growth of mutual help and support. It operates through weekly peer support groups.
I moved units about a month ago and we feed some stray cats here. One even let me pat her last night! It's been over a year since I've patted an animal, so you can imagine how excited I was!
Reading other prisoner’s stories inspired me to keep my head up and keep going now four months in, thank you all who share your stories and words of wisdom.
I have been incarcerated for 22 months of a four-year sentence in Queensland jails. This poem is about my own situation.
On 1 November 2025, QCS introduced a new pricing model: 20 cents per minute for all calls, mobile or local. A call that once cost 30 cents for 15 minutes now costs $3 – a ten-times increase.
The thing is, I love prison. I love it so much that I seem to be constantly on a reckless path when I'm out to either die, or come back to prison.
Ever since I made the change, I really started to see others and how their lack of control led themselves to their own demise, without even the slightest bit of realisation.
My name is Ruby. I am a subscriber of About Time on the south coast of NSW. I do not have any lived experience of incarceration, nor do I personally know anyone who has.
Prison is difficult enough when one is fit and healthy, it is almost impossible to get through when one is very unwell. I don't want inmates to experience unnecessary pain and discomfort as I did.
I thought I could write in to you so it can get posted in the newspaper and with any luck get some boys in any centre to push for a fundraiser for a local charity near them. It’s a great cause and everyone benefits from it.
I just saw you on ABC News talking about a newspaper for prisoners. I didn’t see the entire interview so I was left wondering a few things.
Our pay each week has been kept minimum for quite some time (years) despite prisoners raising their voice, there’s nothing being done about it.
As a person that has never been on the wrong side of the law, you may automatically believe that "guilty until proven innocent" is a fact of the justice system.
Have you ever been accused of being “nuts”? Have they told you that you are “crazy”? That you need to “get help” – meaning you need to see a psychiatrist?
I stumbled across Buddhist meditation in 2017 where I met Hojun, the Buddhist chaplain/monk who led the meditation and spiritual discussion. Since then, thanks to Hojun, I feel I have changed mentally and spiritually in nearly every way.
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Help us get About Time off the ground. All donations are tax deductible and will be vital in providing an essential resource for people in prison and their loved ones.
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