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It spun me out my first time in jail. You get paid to be in jail. And we get lollies, chocolate, coffee etc. I’m homeless on the outside. To me, now, it’s home.
I won’t even mention how expensive basic vegetables have gotten for us for the risk of sending somebody into shock.
The real reason that I'm writing is not to whinge about our calls or our pay per week, it is about the lack of pen-pal services to give prisoners like myself connection and community whilst incarcerated.
One thing to keep in mind (and is also relevant) is the unemployment or hygiene wages ($15 approximately).
As you can see there is not much cash to spend. So there is always someone worse off than you.
I thought I could enlighten you on how this prison's day to day works.
Our pay each week has been kept minimum for quite some time (years) despite prisoners raising their voice, there’s nothing being done about it.
While corrections departments around the country report that more than 80 per cent of people in prison are working, in reality only about half actually have employment while in custody. This is because of how these departments are reporting the rate of employment and who is counted as being “eligible”.
The men at Fremantle Prison learnt how to grow fresh food by planting concentrated rows of sturdy cabbage, corn, carrots, spring onions and other edible plants that could withstand the harsh WA sun. At its peak, the garden supplied the prison kitchen with more than 10,000 kilograms of fruit and vegetables each year.
Prison work differs across the country.
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.
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.
Getting a job after prison is hard for most people. If you had a job before you went in, you may not be able to go back to it, or you might not want to.
It was November 2025. I had zero dollars in my jail account. Mum sent me some Christmas dollars. I’d just started working and was earning $47.00 per week, plus $9.95 hygiene allowance.
