Dear About Time,
Thank you for the gift of your newspaper. A simple idea to spread a good word or thought via written media to the Australian prison population – and beyond – makes more of a difference to us, than anyone who hasn’t done prison time could ever know – especially in the modern era of ever-increasing custodial restrictions and ever-reducing services & many aspects of proactive engagement, compared to, say, 20 years ago when the word “rehabilitation” met the kind of services that were on offer.
In many ways, some prison advances, particularly in Queensland, are going backwards. Meanwhile, thanks to trailblazers and persistent innovators on both sides of the muster line – inside and out – their tenacity is deeply admired and appreciated by us, whom they fight for.
That was a long run-up to the theme I wanted to touch on and that is: Connection – services working together instead of hoping for government to act to provide one large service.
In my previous life at the height of politics and government, I learned many things about not only the mechanics of government, but the various methodology, practices, systems and theoretical applications of department and agency actions.
More than that, it taught me how, right here today, that even if a 100% nationwide government-funded, legislated and embedded prisoner administrative and support service came to pass addressing our every concern, issue and service gap, its merits and pluses would not even come close to a well-collated, committed and engaged network of various legal, prisoner aid services, not-for-profit, violence prevention, men’s rehabilitation, end-to-end, women and men inside and transitional support programs, etc – but with the difference of meeting holistically with co-operatively provided throughput – and these orgs already exist.
For e.g. “I can’t get help for bail application because I can’t get funding”.
This is common. So let’s break this down. There are quite a few former practitioners in the system, myself included. Even so, many centres nationally have a Bail and Parole Prisoner Peer Support program in centre operation. They can help you prepare a detailed bail application and supplementary support packet for court. On top of that, Legal Aid can, at the very least, provide telephone or videolink advice (even if they won’t represent you on bail hearing due to a failure of the assets or merits test).
There is Law Right for prepared document production. They are a great legal clearing house in Queensland with a history of service they can be rightly proud of. Next, there is Prisoners Legal Service (PLS) who, like Legal Aid cannot support by way of representation for resource-limited reasons, but are a wealth of resource and support in terms of providing written advice, tips and strategic goal-setting to best prepare and litigate your application. Each alone – limited. Working cohesively – a powerhouse.
So yes, certainly in Queensland we are indeed short on end-to-end wholesale prisoner support services. However, what we are not short of are compassionate, intelligent and diligent not-for-profit (and even commercial organisations uplifting their social and community credentials). Tip: More QLD lawyers should advertise.
What would turn what we have to make “best” is enough organisation and collaboration between all of these services to work together formally as part of a national prisoner services network. From those services spoken about, to out-of-centre allied and specialist health, accommodation, transition to post prison life, end-of-life care, transgender – in fact all LGBTIQ+ services – many organisations, one table working as one to solve and provide prisoner services.
It is cheap, if not free to “get together”, it is a charitable and fundraising power-move, governments would respect the greater collective negotiating and grant power through the collaborative effort and each organisation maintains their unique independence and mission identity.
Quoting Ernie Hudson from the original “Ghostbusters” and “Ghostbusters: Afterlife”, “we have the tools and we have the talent”.
It’s time to work smarter and not harder.
I appreciate everyone’s thoughts and convey my respect to all fellow prisoners across the country and the world, and all orgs who help us. Salus populi suprema lex esto – “The welfare of the people is to be the highest law”.
Regards,
TJ in Brisbane
Dear About Time,
Thank you for the gift of your newspaper. A simple idea to spread a good word or thought via written media to the Australian prison population – and beyond – makes more of a difference to us, than anyone who hasn’t done prison time could ever know – especially in the modern era of ever-increasing custodial restrictions and ever-reducing services & many aspects of proactive engagement, compared to, say, 20 years ago when the word “rehabilitation” met the kind of services that were on offer.
In many ways, some prison advances, particularly in Queensland, are going backwards. Meanwhile, thanks to trailblazers and persistent innovators on both sides of the muster line – inside and out – their tenacity is deeply admired and appreciated by us, whom they fight for.
That was a long run-up to the theme I wanted to touch on and that is: Connection – services working together instead of hoping for government to act to provide one large service.
In my previous life at the height of politics and government, I learned many things about not only the mechanics of government, but the various methodology, practices, systems and theoretical applications of department and agency actions.
More than that, it taught me how, right here today, that even if a 100% nationwide government-funded, legislated and embedded prisoner administrative and support service came to pass addressing our every concern, issue and service gap, its merits and pluses would not even come close to a well-collated, committed and engaged network of various legal, prisoner aid services, not-for-profit, violence prevention, men’s rehabilitation, end-to-end, women and men inside and transitional support programs, etc – but with the difference of meeting holistically with co-operatively provided throughput – and these orgs already exist.
For e.g. “I can’t get help for bail application because I can’t get funding”.
This is common. So let’s break this down. There are quite a few former practitioners in the system, myself included. Even so, many centres nationally have a Bail and Parole Prisoner Peer Support program in centre operation. They can help you prepare a detailed bail application and supplementary support packet for court. On top of that, Legal Aid can, at the very least, provide telephone or videolink advice (even if they won’t represent you on bail hearing due to a failure of the assets or merits test).
There is Law Right for prepared document production. They are a great legal clearing house in Queensland with a history of service they can be rightly proud of. Next, there is Prisoners Legal Service (PLS) who, like Legal Aid cannot support by way of representation for resource-limited reasons, but are a wealth of resource and support in terms of providing written advice, tips and strategic goal-setting to best prepare and litigate your application. Each alone – limited. Working cohesively – a powerhouse.
So yes, certainly in Queensland we are indeed short on end-to-end wholesale prisoner support services. However, what we are not short of are compassionate, intelligent and diligent not-for-profit (and even commercial organisations uplifting their social and community credentials). Tip: More QLD lawyers should advertise.
What would turn what we have to make “best” is enough organisation and collaboration between all of these services to work together formally as part of a national prisoner services network. From those services spoken about, to out-of-centre allied and specialist health, accommodation, transition to post prison life, end-of-life care, transgender – in fact all LGBTIQ+ services – many organisations, one table working as one to solve and provide prisoner services.
It is cheap, if not free to “get together”, it is a charitable and fundraising power-move, governments would respect the greater collective negotiating and grant power through the collaborative effort and each organisation maintains their unique independence and mission identity.
Quoting Ernie Hudson from the original “Ghostbusters” and “Ghostbusters: Afterlife”, “we have the tools and we have the talent”.
It’s time to work smarter and not harder.
I appreciate everyone’s thoughts and convey my respect to all fellow prisoners across the country and the world, and all orgs who help us. Salus populi suprema lex esto – “The welfare of the people is to be the highest law”.
Regards,
TJ in Brisbane
