ISSUE NO. 21
April 2026
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Letters

Jail is Home to Me Now

By
Kane

Kane writes from a prison in QLD.

To About Time,

My name’s Kane. I like your paper. I look forward to it when it comes. They deliver it under my door. It’s interesting to read what others have to say and their experiences. I like the paintings some of the other prisoners do. They have a gift. It’s sad how some people waste a talent like that by doing silly shit and wasting their life behind bars. Though I know what it’s like to feel you don’t always have a choice and you gotta do what you gotta do. Some blame others and try to give reasons why they’re stuck here. Like, no mate, you’re here because you alone put you here. So it’s my 8th time in. I don’t receive mail. No one comes to visit me. I have nobody. I used to think I had friends. I’ve learnt not to get close to people. I have people I hang out with.

You can meet 100 people in here. Out of the 100 you’d be lucky if one of them are as they say on the outside. There’s a lot of good people too in here – good-hearted people.

In prison, I have a TV, a bed, shower, 3 meals a day and buy-up every week. The jail taxes me half my pay, so now I get $8.50 a week – got 20 more pays to go.

It spun me out my first time in jail. You get paid to be in jail. And we get lollies, chocolate, coffee etc. I’m homeless on the outside. To me, now, it’s home. I’ve had more good times in jail than I had on the outside. When they gave me bail over 6 months ago I cried. I didn’t want to leave. I’m not in a hurry to get out back to the streets, sleeping in parks again. It’s funny, some people claim they have no one, yet they do. I haven’t got anyone I can trust. Who can you trust when you can’t trust nobody? You trust yourself.

To About Time,

My name’s Kane. I like your paper. I look forward to it when it comes. They deliver it under my door. It’s interesting to read what others have to say and their experiences. I like the paintings some of the other prisoners do. They have a gift. It’s sad how some people waste a talent like that by doing silly shit and wasting their life behind bars. Though I know what it’s like to feel you don’t always have a choice and you gotta do what you gotta do. Some blame others and try to give reasons why they’re stuck here. Like, no mate, you’re here because you alone put you here. So it’s my 8th time in. I don’t receive mail. No one comes to visit me. I have nobody. I used to think I had friends. I’ve learnt not to get close to people. I have people I hang out with.

You can meet 100 people in here. Out of the 100 you’d be lucky if one of them are as they say on the outside. There’s a lot of good people too in here – good-hearted people.

In prison, I have a TV, a bed, shower, 3 meals a day and buy-up every week. The jail taxes me half my pay, so now I get $8.50 a week – got 20 more pays to go.

It spun me out my first time in jail. You get paid to be in jail. And we get lollies, chocolate, coffee etc. I’m homeless on the outside. To me, now, it’s home. I’ve had more good times in jail than I had on the outside. When they gave me bail over 6 months ago I cried. I didn’t want to leave. I’m not in a hurry to get out back to the streets, sleeping in parks again. It’s funny, some people claim they have no one, yet they do. I haven’t got anyone I can trust. Who can you trust when you can’t trust nobody? You trust yourself.

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.

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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.

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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.

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ISSUE NO. 22

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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

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Welcome to About Time

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

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