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Letters

One More Day Closer to Being Free

By
Luke

Luke writes from a prison in QLD.

Prasad Wijepala via Unsplash

Yesterday I went for bail and I got denied, which really, really sucked.

I had to waste two phone calls to my lawyer to find out I was denied bail. Why can’t the jail tell someone that their bail was denied? Everyone in my unit was asking, “did I get it, did i get it” and talking to my lawyer he told me my case was adjourned for another three weeks, so I told him to go for sentencing straight away.

I’ve already done 4½ months, my charges have been downgraded so why am I still sitting in jail? Why do the police get to take so long to get their submissions in?

My lawyer said I’ll get a sentence date in the next two weeks and I should be out on time served and I’ll never be coming back, this being my third time in. I’m well and truly over it.

The only good thing in here is going to church and going to programs when they are available. I’m doing an NA course but I’ll probably be out before then.

Today the whole centre is locked down, the reason no one knows. The guards don’t tell why. They leave or lunch out in the sun. Today is ham wraps so they are going off in the heat plus our buy up has been sitting out there all morning. The chocolate is melting, the milk going off.

It’s nearly midday and we are still waiting for lunch and buy-up but hopefully we get unlocked this afternoon. We just have to sit and wait for some news. One more day closer to getting out. One more day closer to being free.

Yesterday I went for bail and I got denied, which really, really sucked.

I had to waste two phone calls to my lawyer to find out I was denied bail. Why can’t the jail tell someone that their bail was denied? Everyone in my unit was asking, “did I get it, did i get it” and talking to my lawyer he told me my case was adjourned for another three weeks, so I told him to go for sentencing straight away.

I’ve already done 4½ months, my charges have been downgraded so why am I still sitting in jail? Why do the police get to take so long to get their submissions in?

My lawyer said I’ll get a sentence date in the next two weeks and I should be out on time served and I’ll never be coming back, this being my third time in. I’m well and truly over it.

The only good thing in here is going to church and going to programs when they are available. I’m doing an NA course but I’ll probably be out before then.

Today the whole centre is locked down, the reason no one knows. The guards don’t tell why. They leave or lunch out in the sun. Today is ham wraps so they are going off in the heat plus our buy up has been sitting out there all morning. The chocolate is melting, the milk going off.

It’s nearly midday and we are still waiting for lunch and buy-up but hopefully we get unlocked this afternoon. We just have to sit and wait for some news. One more day closer to getting out. One more day closer to being free.

Topics
This
letter
was originally printed in the
July 2026
edition of About Time.

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