Talking about prison once you’re out in the community can be challenging. It’s difficult to know the right thing to say, or how people might react.

You had questions, we listened! These answers are from my life (and are supposed to make you smile a bit!).

You may be following in an age-old tradition of this county by languishing in one of his Majesty’s prisons, but you are not forgotten!

What you need to survive in prison is different to what you need on the outside. Many people have said that the first few weeks out were harder than their time inside. Coping with money problems, dealing with other people and feeling like you don’t belong in society can take a toll.

Walking out of jail here in Perth wasn’t the moment my life changed.

When the walls close in, both physically and mentally, it is easy to feel like the person you once was has been lost. For many, incarceration becomes not only a punishment but a pause. A disconnection from one’s true self.

At first, it felt like nobody wanted to give me a chance. But, eventually, one employer took a chance on me. That warehouse job may not have looked like much to others, but to me it was everything: it gave me purpose, structure and, most of all, hope.

Prison is endured, not processed. The trauma often goes unrecognised and unacknowledged. Many of us hide the damage, even from ourselves. Without validation, we carry it alone – mistaking struggle for weakness, layering self-blame on top of trauma and finding no clear path to relief.

Simon Fenech is the General Manager/Director at social enterprise Fruit2Work in Victoria. His transformation from a drug addict, buried deep in Australia’s criminal underworld, to an inspirational figure, intent on changing the lives of others, is remarkable.

Release can feel like a distant flicker – filled with both hope and uncertainty. But, when the gates open, freedom isn’t just liberating; it can be overwhelming.