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Letters

Let Them Go Home

By
Ed

Ed writes from a prison in QLD.

Willy Pleasance

To About Time,

How’s it going down there in the south?

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 witnessed a lot of parole being granted, but then the problem is that accommodation is the one thing holding inmates in prison. In most cases we have a place to go with family and friends, but then corrective services deem it unsuitable for reasons they will not disclose to us.

How can we rectify this if we don’t know how to rectify the problem? It’s a dead-end road.

Most of the time we can go to our family for support, but in some cases they say no because there has been police contact at that address. I can’t understand why we can’t go to a place to live if the people are willing to have you live with them.

On some occasions they let us go to a parole house in public housing which is full of paroled inmates. So my question is: why can we live in a house full of criminals but cannot return to our family?

This is a problem that needs to be addressed.

Thanks for listening. I guess I will have to do my full time because my partner has a criminal record. We have been together for 32 years.

To Corrective Services, why is your family home, which is full of support and security to stay on the right path, not an acceptable place for accommodation?

Stay real,

Ed

To About Time,

How’s it going down there in the south?

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 witnessed a lot of parole being granted, but then the problem is that accommodation is the one thing holding inmates in prison. In most cases we have a place to go with family and friends, but then corrective services deem it unsuitable for reasons they will not disclose to us.

How can we rectify this if we don’t know how to rectify the problem? It’s a dead-end road.

Most of the time we can go to our family for support, but in some cases they say no because there has been police contact at that address. I can’t understand why we can’t go to a place to live if the people are willing to have you live with them.

On some occasions they let us go to a parole house in public housing which is full of paroled inmates. So my question is: why can we live in a house full of criminals but cannot return to our family?

This is a problem that needs to be addressed.

Thanks for listening. I guess I will have to do my full time because my partner has a criminal record. We have been together for 32 years.

To Corrective Services, why is your family home, which is full of support and security to stay on the right path, not an acceptable place for accommodation?

Stay real,

Ed

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

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