First Time in Prison
By Adam
If you feel like you’ve lost everything and have nothing to look forward to, it is very important that you don’t lose hope for your life.
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.
If you feel like you’ve lost everything and have nothing to look forward to, it is very important that you don’t lose hope for your life.
I’ve now been in for over a year – it’s my first (and last) time in. I still haven’t been sentenced but my lawyer has told me I’ll be doing a “substantial” sentence.
Why would anybody want to come back to the system and add to that statistic?
We have an active veterans’ affairs type meeting here every month and an outside group called “Buddy Up” that sends two of their volunteers in.
I’m only 23 years old but I feel like I’m 43. Being in prison definitely preserves your body but makes your mind and soul feel so much older if you know what I mean.
I’ve been in prison for 14 years now, and lockdowns have always been a feature of prison life, but I have also noticed that over the years they have gotten worse and worse.
Has anybody purchased a watch recently or in the past and wondered what happens when the battery dies?
My name is Greg, I am 60 years old and I have spent almost 48 years in various institutions and prisons.
We will all have our freedom one day, so until then keep your head up, you got this and take it one day at a time.
My name is Maude. I am a young Jabbir Jabbir woman – I was born in Broome, Western Australia.
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.
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.

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.

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.

GROW is a community-based national organisation that works on mental wellbeing using a 12-step program of personal growth, mutual help and support. It operates through weekly peer support groups.

Hello to everyone in Australia. My name is Tricia. I was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I am serving a life sentence, and, for those of you who don’t know, a life sentence in Pennsylvania means your entire life.

In New South Wales, there were previously three levels of protective custody for vulnerable inmates, such as myself, who have autism spectrum disorder and other mental health issues.

I am writing to you about my one and only older sister, Alithea. RIP. It’s been 2 months since I lost you.

Well, I’m writing this letter in relation to the housing crisis, which is a problem for many inmates trying to find a place to live.

I have a short poem as well as a mindfulness technique called “Distress Tolerance”.

I encourage everyone who is incarcerated not to identify with your crime. Rather, identify with something higher, wider and greater than that.


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