Money is tight. People are struggling. We hear about it on the news. We read about it in the newspapers daily.
In some respects, we’re lucky not having to deal with the daily cost of living pressures that those in the general community are facing.
But what happens when the cost of living pressures creep into the prison with us?
For myself, I am currently incarcerated in a privately run prison. This prison does not run their own canteen. Instead, they outsource to a third party that purchases products from the local IGA supermarket, then place their own percentage increase on the products before selling them on to the prison population.
With inflationary prices being what they are on the outside, you can just imagine what we are being charged!
Our top wage is only $38.40 per week from working six hours a day, five days a week.
I also reside in a self-catered lodge, where we are responsible for ordering and cooking our own meals.
This is a fantastic way of ensuring our meals are healthy, fresh and have flavour.
However, our weekly budget is only $52 per person to cater for all of our kitchen needs. And this is purchased through that same third party previously mentioned.
As an example to the price increase, something as simple as sausages advertised in the paper for $5.33 per kg, we are charged $15.99 per kg. Bolar Beef Roast advertised for $10.99 per kg and we pay $21.99 per kg. The same with chicken breast at $10.99 per kg versus $16.20 per kg.
I won’t even mention how expensive basic vegetables have gotten for us for the risk of sending somebody into shock.
Then to add insult to injury, as from the day I am writing this, we have been informed the prison’s very own bakery will no longer supply the lodges with bread. We must now purchase bread along with the rest of our self-catering needs, with absolutely no increase in our budget.
I’m sure we can’t be the only prison going through such a budgetary and shortage of food crisis. And I know many of you out there can relate to the poor diets inflicted upon us in the prison system and how our complaints/constructive feedback always seem to fall on deaf ears.
Perhaps I was a little premature suggesting that in some respects we are lucky, in this cost of living crisis affecting our nation.
It seems even in prison, inflation has us hurting.
Worse for us, because in prison we don’t have the luxury of options.
I hope you all can keep your chins up during these trying times with the knowledge that the unfairness is being felt in other places as well.
Anon
Ravenhall
Money is tight. People are struggling. We hear about it on the news. We read about it in the newspapers daily.
In some respects, we’re lucky not having to deal with the daily cost of living pressures that those in the general community are facing.
But what happens when the cost of living pressures creep into the prison with us?
For myself, I am currently incarcerated in a privately run prison. This prison does not run their own canteen. Instead, they outsource to a third party that purchases products from the local IGA supermarket, then place their own percentage increase on the products before selling them on to the prison population.
With inflationary prices being what they are on the outside, you can just imagine what we are being charged!
Our top wage is only $38.40 per week from working six hours a day, five days a week.
I also reside in a self-catered lodge, where we are responsible for ordering and cooking our own meals.
This is a fantastic way of ensuring our meals are healthy, fresh and have flavour.
However, our weekly budget is only $52 per person to cater for all of our kitchen needs. And this is purchased through that same third party previously mentioned.
As an example to the price increase, something as simple as sausages advertised in the paper for $5.33 per kg, we are charged $15.99 per kg. Bolar Beef Roast advertised for $10.99 per kg and we pay $21.99 per kg. The same with chicken breast at $10.99 per kg versus $16.20 per kg.
I won’t even mention how expensive basic vegetables have gotten for us for the risk of sending somebody into shock.
Then to add insult to injury, as from the day I am writing this, we have been informed the prison’s very own bakery will no longer supply the lodges with bread. We must now purchase bread along with the rest of our self-catering needs, with absolutely no increase in our budget.
I’m sure we can’t be the only prison going through such a budgetary and shortage of food crisis. And I know many of you out there can relate to the poor diets inflicted upon us in the prison system and how our complaints/constructive feedback always seem to fall on deaf ears.
Perhaps I was a little premature suggesting that in some respects we are lucky, in this cost of living crisis affecting our nation.
It seems even in prison, inflation has us hurting.
Worse for us, because in prison we don’t have the luxury of options.
I hope you all can keep your chins up during these trying times with the knowledge that the unfairness is being felt in other places as well.
Anon
Ravenhall
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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.
I have been incarcerated for 22 months of a four-year sentence in Queensland jails. This poem is about my own situation.
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 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!
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