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Letters

Fences Inside and Around Me

By
D.

D writes from Dame Phyllis Frost Centre, Victoria.

Stephen Irwin on Unsplash

It’s my first time being inside. My anxiety, fear, depression and mental health are heightened with extra volume.

I have a wall similar to the Gaza wall that keeps me inside and fences that are all around me. A cell that gets locked everyday and ‘count’ that is three times a day, where I must be ready with my ID and be quiet. How the routine of my life has changed.

People make mistakes, we all do. We are humans. And when the system is a broken one, as are yourself…it fails you, and you fail yourself.

Remember: when the mind has been darkened by grief, loss, betrayal – rational thought sometimes loses the battle and mistakes are made. But mistakes are part of us all trying to get back on our feet after everything that has thrown us down!

It’s my first time being inside. My anxiety, fear, depression and mental health are heightened with extra volume.

I have a wall similar to the Gaza wall that keeps me inside and fences that are all around me. A cell that gets locked everyday and ‘count’ that is three times a day, where I must be ready with my ID and be quiet. How the routine of my life has changed.

People make mistakes, we all do. We are humans. And when the system is a broken one, as are yourself…it fails you, and you fail yourself.

Remember: when the mind has been darkened by grief, loss, betrayal – rational thought sometimes loses the battle and mistakes are made. But mistakes are part of us all trying to get back on our feet after everything that has thrown us down!

This
letter
was originally printed in the
February 2025
edition of About Time.

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Welcome to About Time

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

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