This section publishes stories about individuals’ experiences with the criminal justice system.
There are so many ways that people have interacted with the system, and so many stories to tell.
Experiences aims to tell those stories, presented as beautiful feature articles.
I still remember the haunting words of the old next-door neighbour when he saw it: ‘Young men die in green cars.’ Stupid old bugger, what would he know?
I support a number of clients – individuals, couples and families – who are experiencing homelessness. Like so many others in this field, I entered this work because I care deeply about people and community.
ABIs can be caused by many different things. It can be a car accident, a fall, can be from violence – the list goes on and on.
My brain seems to simply have wiped out part of my memory. I think it’s for the best.
I am a prisoner at Dame Phyllis Frost Centre and have been since February 2022. I have no family in Melbourne that can visit me in person. Nor do they drop off property or top up my account with money. I solely rely on my wages from working a full-time job inside the prison.
Jacob Hill, a young entrepreneur who found himself behind bars, discovered an unexpected truth during his time in prison: many of the people he encountered were talented and entrepreneurial but lacked the self-belief to translate their ideas and skills into reality.
How pleasing it was to witness 206 nations unite in peace & comradeship as their respective athletes showcased miraculous achievements on the world stage. Humanity’s greatest, inspiring us to be more.
Imagine being a prisoner of your own body. Unable to sit, stand or walk, looking down at your useless abs, legs and feet as you lie motionless for months.
During our interactions with numerous inmates these past 24 months, we have learned that we are not alone in the pursuit to rehabilitate through the medium of education.
At this year’s EnQueer Sydney Queer Writers Festival, author and community lawyer Sam Elkin joined formerly incarcerated trans woman Stacey Stokes and proud trans woman and manager of Open Doors Youth Service (Qld) Necho Brocchi on stage at Qtopia Sydney for an intimate discussion about trans incarceration.
Skip forward a month; a year; and an odd decade (or 5), and I realised that without embracing change in our lives (or how we see things) we only risk relegating ourselves to stagnation.
Even though it looks like Santa has forgotten us this year, we both have some ill-defined, unspoken hope that it will be a better day.
Monday: I've spent the last hour at the wing pool table losing badly to some madman from Amsterdam. I didn't imagine there'd be a pool table in maximum security but the prisoners enforce respect for it.
If parole was ever about rehabilitation, it’s not really the feeling I get now. It feels more like an exercise in assessing the risk to the community, not about reintegrating people.
Help keep the momentum going. All donations are tax deductible and will be vital in providing an essential resource for people in prison and their loved ones.
Help us get About Time off the ground. All donations are tax deductible and will be vital in providing an essential resource for people in prison and their loved ones.
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