Experiences

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.

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.

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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.

Rehabilitation is pointless without forgiveness and another chance at doing right.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

As a young person, I admired my grandfather so much that I feared him. He is the kind of man that commands respect; a military man who doesn’t put up with any funny business.