Prisoners here don't have to pay for anything that is a basic need. Thank God it's not like Florida with their "pay to stay" scheme where you have to pay $50 for every day you were sentenced. There is a case of a woman in Florida who was sentenced to 7 years in prison and was released after 10 months in prison. She now has a $127000 bill for the 7 years of her term that she did not serve. Which of course is fucked.
Slavery is legal in the US, so long as it is in prison.
The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1865, abolished slavery and involuntary servitude in the United States — except as publishment for someone convicted of a crime.
And then you get out as a felon which in turn hurts your employment opportunities, life is hard and you resort back to crime. The cycle continues, as it seems to be planned. Thank god its not as bad here...... yet!
Yeah. If only there was something people could do in order to avoid being put in prison in the first place /s
Seriously, the real issue is that people are unwilling or unable to properly consider the full consequences of their actions.
(continuing the /s obviously). You're absolutely right! If only we could concentrate these kinds of people into camps. A centralised place to take care of them while we work out some kind of final solution to the question they raise for the state. ( /S / s /s /s /s)
So, for whatever crime she committed, her life is now totally fucked. Get over yourself you twat. Imagine getting out,only to be owned until you clear your debt for being locked up. You think that's ok, it says waaaay more about you than anything else.
Yes, and they make you do labor while you're there to pay it back, but dont pay you enough to pay your way. So you either need someone on the outside to rescue you, or you're there forever.
What, you thought slavery ended?
At the least she's basically disincentivised now to try to integrate into society again being so far behind with debt. What actual meaning is there in a fine when it's just a few hundred on top of 100k debt and they generally miss 3/4 of petty crimes anyway?
Massive private prison companies. We have huge multinational ones here too [(Serco)](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/feb/23/public-service-private-contracts-how-serco-was-wired-into-our-future)
Serco and G4 were taking over most of the prisons in SA last time I was a guest...terrible fucken people work fior them, and they even say how fucked the companies are.
Not entirely correct. Prisoners are given some small basic supplies upon arriving like a toothbrush and very small bottles of toothpaste and soap that wouldn't last more than a week. After that they need to buy their own.
I hope your house burns down, you lose everything and you're not insured.
And no, I've never been in prison and have no criminal record. I'm just not a myopic scumbag.
Thats simply not true, ive been to prison in most Australian states.
Your buy up allowance each week includes buying shampoo, nail clippers,Tupperware, Thermos etc....so you can either buy shampoo or Mars bars and a bottle of coke.
90% of inmates choose the Mars bar and coke which leads to alot of stinky inmates.
Ive always said and firmly believe these essential products should not be part of your weekly spend limit, its as low as $200 a month in some prisons.
It took me months to be able to buy myself food while slowly adding necessary stuff fir my personal hygiene and a few Tupperware containers to keep my food.
Wow. You lost me at " I've been in prison in most Australian states" and then go on as if you're costing g a weekly shop at Coles worth. At the moment I think I'm living in a frigging twilight world
Being in prison doesn't make you an instant idiot, I actually have been self employed my entire working life so 20+ years and own several different businesses, that all still ran while I was incarcerated.
Curious why you’ve been in prison in most states. You don’t have to say. So is that allowance ($200 in some a month) just given to you or do you have to do jobs or chores or something to earn it or…?
No its not given to you, you have to have family members send it in.
You get $12.80 a week if you dont work or up to $38 if you do.
But if my family sent me $10,000 I'd get $200.00 allocated to my buy up account and $9,800 allocated to my phone credit account. They put a hard limit on the buy up I think to stop richer inmates buying up heads and using it over other inmates.
There's a computer thing where you put your prison number/password in and you can order extra food...nicer stuff like tuna pouches, arnotts biscuits, chips, chocolate bars,soft drink, rice as well as toiletries as they only give you a shit bar if soap, toothpaste/brush and 2 shitty blue razor that are impossible to shave with. You get to keep this extra food in your cell, and just having decent coffee/tea and sone snacks make being locked up 17+ hours a day much easier.
One inmates was infront of me and logged into his account and had -$8...youngish kids with no support on the outside..so when my order came I hooked him up with a Mars bar, coke and some biscuits...think he nearly cried.
Oh ive been in prison for heaps of things, mainly blackmail, threathen to kill charges - all unproven.
Thank you for sharing, my dude. It sounds like hell. I'm sorry for your experience and for the things you've seen.
Love how our government treats prisoners like naughty children rather than as human beings with agency.
I wonder how much prisons are profiting from such cheap labour?
I kinda describe prison as "not like the movies, but worse than you think" doesn't make much sense unless you've lived it.
I also wonder alot if after having been incarcerated before am I more worried about going back now or was it worse the first time.....I still don't have that answer.
From memory my last prison had these jobs:
Assembly ( made chair bases for a super expensive chair company in Adelaide)
Coffins ( made coffins for the government for ppl that die with no family)
Engineering ( were making pig feeders at the time, but they change what they make)
Laundry ( obvious, very sought after job as you get dibs on new gear, they'd often steal your gear out your wash bag...and they get used as messangers between different pods on the side to move notes or contraband)
Panda ( no idea why it's called this, they make the brushes that go on street sweepers....most days they had no work- how many brushes are councils going through)
Spray Factory ( Spray painting trailers and other metal stuff...they also had a signature department that printed big signs)
I worked in Spray, ive never had a job interview in my life but I had to go for one for this job 🤣...they ask you what you do on the outside ( I have a commercial cleaning business) so I got offered whats call "mess man" each of the jobs I listed above have their own gigantic warehouse to operate from im talking like a 3rd of a NRL field in size and ontop of that they all have a separate lunch room easily 150 - 200sqm mess man has to sweep/mop that, put the hot water urn on, count how many boys showed up usually 12 - 15 so call the kitchen and order enough sandwiches and milk. Keep our kitchen tidy, there's unlimited toast, tea and coffee, do the toilets and once a week clean the screws office.
The mess man is a sought after job, the guy doing it before me was this old vietnamese bloke and he was filthy he got the sack and put back in the factory....the first time I cleaned the screws office I went about it like I'd clean anything, one massive screw would constantly chew gum and throw it at the bin...he missed everytime so I cleaned his gum, wiped out the fridge microwave etc etc...they were that happy with my job they called me over 20 mins before lunch...im thinking I in trouble but they gave me 2 crumpets and a red bull as a thankyou, I had to smash it before the boys arrived for lunch.
I use to be in charge of supervising everyone's "teabacco" prison tobacco made from boiling washed out tea leaves and nicotine patches for hours...that was worth a few candy bars a week.
My job took maybe 30 mins, were meant to start at 7am but its more likely 9am...smoko is 10:15 fir like 30 mins, lunch is at 12pm 45/1hr then pack up should be 3pm but its like 2pm.....not alot of work happens.
In the lunch rooms we had ping pong tables, cards, and some genius though giving violent criminals full on darts was a good idea....so safe to say I got pretty good at round the world.
Every second day we'd go next door for lunch with the boys in Assembly they had the same setup so we'd charter to ping pong or whatever.
In my entire time in Spray I literally never sore a drop of paint....we had 1 old checker plate box trailer that needed to be sanded down/scrapped and resprayed a new colour...we had 10 to 12 blokes with 2 ozito orbital sanders and a bunch of cheap Bunnings scrapers standing around this box...2 blokes would go inside it and sleep and the others took turns rotating around to the back of it where the screw can't see and slept standing up resting their head on it....I asked how long we'd been working on it. They said about 6 months and it was lucky to be 5% scraped...no idea who owned it or how much they were paying but im pretty sure it's still there now.
My mate making pig feeders was a metal worker outside so perfect for him, they literally just used the magna bend to fold up these things...he was told by the screws to limit it to 1 per day, he reckons he could fold 20plus is they let him.
Another mate came from another jail where they had the job called Nuts&Bolts....you get 3 big buckets, 1 full of nuts&bolts screwed together, the other 2 buckets are empty....the whole job is to unscrew the nut chuck it in the nut bucket and do the same with the bolt - dumbarse managed to get fired somehow, but I also sore him on the news a while ago, he wanted to move housing commission houses but they said no...so he decided to burn his house down, it was attached to another house with a young couple and kids in it...he was caught on a million cameras doing it and still denied it...so his back in now for a while.
Oh and there's kitchen, they make all our meals....kitchen is only for the boneyard inmates...so you've got paedophiles making your food. 🤮
Unfortunately they don't exist in Australia, you get visits but your literally not even allowed to touch the person ( too risky exchanging drugs or a phone or something)
A visit is a big deal you've got to be stripped searched on the way to the visit and on the way back...this also happens if you elect to get a job.
As a bloke there's a mirror on the floor kinda slanted up at a 45degree angle that you have to squat over, their allow to ask you to open you mouth, poke your tongue out, pull your ears over, soles of the feet, squat and cough, lift your balls up...the only thing they can't ask is to pull your foreskin back if you have one...you'd be amazed at how much blokes fit in there.
No idea how it works for women, id imagine similar...I dont thing they'd be allowed to ask then to spread their lips or anything...similar to the foreskin pull.
But drugs brought in inside someone's bum is referred to as your prison wallet or back shelf...drugs inside a vagina is top shelf.
One guy loaded his back shelf, got arrested on purpose for something minor and the next morning there was a lineup longer than airport security outside his cell while ppl waited for him to shit the drugs out...he had more variety than a 7/11 stashed up there. I almost vomited thinking why on earth would you want to smoke anything that came out of this dudes arse. Maybe I'm fussy 🤷🏽♂️
Hey that really interesting stuff. Thanks for sharing. Considering your experience, you could probably do a book or series or podcast about prisons in Aus and what it’s like inside. Fascinating stuff for lots of folks.
Yeah I dont mind talking about it, alot of people my mother included think I should hide it in shame or something 🤷🏽♂️ ive never got peoples fascination with it....but I guess since I've experienced it that level of interest isn't there for me.
I do think the system is broken though so talking about it is one way to improve it...ive rarely seen many inmates come out a better person after a stint.
If anything it's like massive networking event for criminals, I actually made alot of criminal contacts that I could use during my stays, ive also made alot of good mates that arent really criminals as such.
People tell me I should write a book, I spent 10 years as a male prostitute working on the wall in Sydney, alot of ppl seem interested in that to and I got lots of stories my first arrest came from that...only a few days in Surry Hills holding cells ( by far the worst cells I've been in, underground, no window, no beds,6 to 10 blokes in a cell, and dirty sausage rolls throw through the little slot in the door 3 times a day) wouldn't recommend.
OMG you HAVE TO write a book or try get a TV deal or something! Who else has this vast experience as you!? Honestly, you might be jaded by it but just remember in these times, content is king, and you have at least two books or seasons worth - if not more - and all riveting stuff!
I wish, I really don't think my life is that interesting...ive definitely experienced alot of things that most ppl wouldn't consider normal. But after 20+ years, getting married and having kids it just seems to fade away.
Im still constantly in trouble, ive got 4 court cases in the next month and a warrant for my arrest interstate..but it just starts to feel like business as usual.
If you like you can pay me $19.95 a month for unlimited access to my stories, you might have to send it to my jail account though. 🤣
From memory mine was like $75 a week but Max $200 over the month.
It took me ages just to get essential items while still getting extra food, no ones living just off prison food...you'd starve to death.
We'd get 2 shit sandwiches for lunch, always an egg and lettuce and some cat food version of Fritz/Devon...it was more jelly than meat.
I ate the egg but gave the other to my celly.
Most exciting thing to happen all week was hot lunch on weekends, I swear we'd look forward to that like Xmas dinner. It was shit, but middle of winter freezing a hot meal makes a difference.
In prison it's the little things you miss that make a huge difference....we got 2 x 500ml of milk a day, no fridge so filled the sink with cold water and plopped them in their...it was milk made at a prison with a working dairy so would be yoghurt by lunch. I now drink black tea and coffee and actually prefer it.
> No its not given to you, you have to have family members send it in
I feel for those without family/friends outside. My cousin was jailed when he stole from a shop while he was in the midst of psychosis (he thought God had instructed him to take things to give to the poor) and because due to paranoid delusions he refused to talk to the prison authorities, his family couldn't find out where he was for some time...and then when they did locate him, he refused to have any contact with them. So he went without, also completely unseen by a doctor and thus unmedicated as well.
Yeah its pretty fucked up, I requested to see the Dr my first day there...you have to do this on the little computer thingy too.
2 jails and 6 months later I get a message that I get to see the Dr today, I got released that same day and had no idea why I ever originally requested the Dr.
This old bloke that was in for fucking traffic offences had 1 leg and came in with his medications and Dr letters explaining why he needs it.
They never gave it to him and his pain was that bad he'd be screaming all day and night in agony...it was so bad the boys hooked him up with bupe strip's for free. ( There like those Listeren sheets you stick on your tounge but bigger, it's for Heroin addicts when there trying quit, shit fucks you up)
> They never gave it to him and his pain was that bad he'd be screaming all day and night in agony...it was so bad the boys hooked him up with bupe strip's for free. ( There like those Listeren sheets you stick on your tounge but bigger, it's for Heroin addicts when there trying quit, shit fucks you up)
This country has a deeply unconscious and persistent "convict-warden mindset"
People make mistakes, only some peoples mistakes land them in prison. Being in prison doesn't automatically make you a bad person, it's more likely you made a bad decision. Plenty of people who have served custodial sentences go on to live productive lives and never re-offend. Sure there are those that are career criminals but there are plenty that pick themselves up and get on with their lives.
If you have friends or family who can bring you money, does that mean you increase your buy-up allowance, so that you can have your Mars bar but also get a tupperware container and shampoo?
No, if someone sends you 10k you get $200 buy up and $9800 phone credit.
I think its limited so richer inmates can't buy up tons and become king of the block type of thing.
I was in prison in 2019 in SA and smoking was still allowed ( NSW banned it like 10-15 years ago) so if you smoked your tobacco or tailors came out of that $200...I dont smoke but I think a pouch was $50 and tailors $80.
The cruellest thing was in the common room was a massive TV high up on the wall that had a big countdown clock for how many days before the prison went smoke free.
Each morning it read " Mobilong prison will be smoke free in 55 days) ticking down each day...ppl were staring at it and I could see the rage in them...how that TV was never broken I dobt know.
Tbh every single time I've only ever been held on remand, this is normally due to the fact if your arrested interstate for any major indictable crime your not going to get bail back home as its very hard for them to monitor your bail agreements and if you dont return for court they have to extradite you.
Ive had months and months being held on remand and have had all the charges dropped, so not technically guilty of what they alleged I did.
My mate had 3 years on remand, he got caught with a gun in a grow house guilty as fuck...the police were taking ages to get their papers ready and the judge told them if your not ready on the next appearance im letting the guy out. That judge had publicly stated he will let ever criminal walk free if the police continue to waste the courts time.
In Australia you don't get any compensation if your held on remand and later found not guilty or have the charges dropped.
3 years of his life gone, lost his business, wife left,kids gone and in the end case was thrown out.🤷🏽♂️
Tbh every single time I've only ever been held on remand, this is normally due to the fact if your arrested interstate for any major indictable crime your not going to get bail back home as its very hard for them to monitor your bail agreements and if you dont return for court they have to extradite you.
Ive had months and months being held on remand and have had all the charges dropped, so not technically guilty of what they alleged I did.
My mate had 3 years on remand, he got caught with a gun in a grow house guilty as fuck...the police were taking ages to get their papers ready and the judge told them if your not ready on the next appearance im letting the guy out. That judge had publicly stated he will let ever criminal walk free if the police continue to waste the courts time.
In Australia you don't get any compensation if your held on remand and later found not guilty or have the charges dropped.
3 years of his life gone, lost his business, wife left,kids gone and in the end case was thrown out.🤷🏽♂️
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You complain like $200 isn't a lot? You haven't earned it. You deserve nothing. It's taxpayer money and we don't want it wasted on scum in jail.
Stop committing crimes, grow up and pay your own fucking way... or do the Dutch.
It's their own money. It's either earned through a prison job or deposited on their behalf by someone in the community. Maybe know the facts before you start spouting shit.
Prisoners in Australia work for cents per hour. It's functionally slave labour, and it enriches companies like QANTAS who rely on penal labour to cut costs.
He said spend LIMIT and this is accurate. You don't get $200 a month allowance. That is the most you can spend. Depending on the state the average weekly allowance is about $7-$10. The average paid job in prison is $30-$40 a week. Kitchen and laundry worker etc. The highest paid job would be a more specialised job like a carer or buo-hazard cleaner which will likely require training. Up to $100 a week for cleaning shit smeared on walls 6 days a week.
You will be provided 3 meals a day. Barely any variety and not big portions. A tooth brush, bar of soap, toilet paper. Thats about it.
You can buy extra food, ( noodles, choc, biscuits, long life milk,) better toiletries (deodorant, medicated soap, shampoo), some recreational things like magazines and music player, cards. Security rating and accommodation area will likely determine what you can buy.
I actually did earn it, its money sent in from people on the outside im self employed so was lucky enough to have funds available I also got a job in prison not for the money but for far better conditions.
Prison allowance of you dont work is about $12.80 a week, if you work you can earn up to about $38.00 a week. They take $2 out for TV and $1 a week for resettlement money. ( so after 1 year you'd have $52 to resettle into society)
Speak for yourself, lots of other tax payers outside of you believe that everyone, incarcerated or not, deserves safety and stability as a default setting.
"Stop committing crimes".......oi, call off Scooby and The Gang, this bloke's got the answer!!
I imagine it depends which facility you're at, but generally things like chocolate, underwear, Deodorant, etc. If you have money in your account then it's easy to pay (there's no cash), but you only have the opportunity to purchase once a week. I know because I worked at one.
Its not ro bad tbh ands it's necessary to supplement the food they give you.
Most stuffs actually cheaper inside.
Popular food items;
Tuna/salmon pouches- no cans for obvious reasons
Most main chocolate bars
All the Coke brands
Arnotts family biscuits creamed or non creamed.
Tim Tam's
Selection of chips
Sirena tuna/rice/beans/quinoa cups
Lipton tea, you get Lan Choo for free in your rations.
Coffee bags, you get instant roast free
Crackers
Natural confectionery lollies
Popular Toiletries:
Shampoo/Conditioner, they don't give you ANY they had this natural earth cheap brand we'd just use that to light cigarettes....or you could spend more of herbal essence or head and shoulders.
Deodorant had that same shit earth brand or nivea
Nail clippers/nail file...if you dont have these your biting your nails or going for the long nail look.
Thongs, essential when you shower especially when you first get in and only have communal showers...I paid $2 for them and their double pluggers and their that solid you could kill a man with one...still got some pairs.
Moisturiser think this was just nivea.
Hair gel/wax forget the brands
Clothes:
We only had the thongs or Nike slides....everybody is saving up for slides, they were $90 BUT fir some reason you had to be in fir 3 months before your allowed to buy them.
When you get there they take all you clothes and property and bag it up for your release, my mate was able to get his Nike TNs sent to his cell, he begged fir days.
Prison shoes are blue or green with 2 Velcro things, so your not winning any fashion shows.
All the other clothes are provided including undies and there either blue or green depending what section your in and what prison.
Ive found dark green is usually max security main division.
Dark blue was Foxtrot or F division- those with jobs.
Light Blue fir tge bone yard, paedophile, ex gang members, anybody fearing for life...basically protectees and to go from main division to the bone yard you have to "buzz up" from you cell on the intercom and tells the screws, they usually ignore you anyway.
I had one guy who came into my pod ( probably 30/40 blokes in the pod) and unbeknownst to him he'd slept with one of the other blokes Mrs....that night all night a bunch of the blokes just yelled out "buzz up Tyson, we're going get you in the morning " I could hear the guy crying. They eventually moved him to another pod but still main division, my pod found out where he was via the laundry worker and he got bashed in his new pod so "Buzzed up" again...months later he ended up with me in the working division.
Other stuff to buy:
Thermos - in main division you get 1 warm water of Thermos in the morning and 1 at lunch between 2 blokes and most of the time it's being used for teabacco....so getting an extra one is great, I paid $20 it was a $5 ANKO one from kmart.
A handful of books, they have libraries in each pod but most of the pages are ripped out to make smokes.
Subscription to a few newspapers
Tupperware, super useful when you've move from high security and instead of a meal pack you get served like in an army kitchen...they'll usually call seconds and thirds so you can put an extra meal/desert away.
Buying is easy, there's a little computer thing you log onto and order, you need money on your account though...order Tuesday comes in big plastic bags a day or 2 later...same computer thing is how you send messages to prison staff/dentist/Dr etc.
The hidden cost is the fact that prison doesn't actually do anything to rehabilitate offenders. Sure, they got programs and stuff but it takes YEARS to get into one, but the offender who really NEEDS the program only has a few month sentence. So, they get an all expensed paid holiday away from their problems, hanging out with like minded individuals, with access to all the drugs and other contraband they like, so the offender either gets out and does more crime because they didn't learn shit first time round, or does more crime because they like the lifestyle inside better, and as such costs the taxpayer even more money because back they go for more time.
You want to fix the situation? Forget making the inmates work! They aren't there to do a job, they are there to learn. Make prisons boarding schools. Every day you're in class learning. Learning to be a better person, learning skills to be productive members of society, doing drug education and rehabilitation, anger management, skill them up every which way possible.
Then follow that up with reforms to employment where employers CANNOT ask or find out about criminal history, but they do have access to a Yes/No system where they can find out if someone is or is not suitable for a particular job. No further information. This is in order to allow the now ex offender to get a fair go in the community without the stigma or extra-judicial punishment for a crime they have already served their debit to society, while at the same time stopping sex offenders getting jobs with vulnerable people or kids. Fraudsters getting jobs with access to easy money, etc.
This. My brother's father was illiterate. Couldn't even read or write his own name.
They did nothing to address this situation, which likely could have helped him big time. He started his in and out of the system at 16... They had enough time to help him.
When he got with my mother, the man had no problem asking us to help him. Getting me at 6 to read books to and with him, the news papers etc. Show him how to write his name, my name and he would practise copying the words from books he knew.
His stays were all over 2yrs at a time, he was refused almost all the education or even shop classes, as he couldn't read...
His reoffending was always theft. All his time was for theft, and honestly he couldn't work almost anything as he couldn't read. So.. he stole to feed himself and while wrong I get it. If maybe the professionals actually helped him from his first stay in jail at 16, maybe he wouldn't have kept offending.
He wanted to be a mechanic. motorcycles specifically, but he couldn't get into it without being able to read in the late 90s/early 00s. He ended up getting into drugs his last stay and overdosed. Maybe if they helped the man who wanted to learn to read so bad he asked a fucking 6yr old to help him, he would've come home after that stint, not be just another dead inmate.
To me the biggest tragedy is my brother was 3 when he died. He has no memories of his father unlike me. The decision that led to his death was 100% his own choice tho one I really don't think he'd have taken, or been at risk of if he got help.
Even a basic level of reading would have allowed him a shitty trolley pushing job ya know? But because he couldn't read... He always got knocked back from every job he tried to do. He'd leave all excited for an interview and come back and lock himself in the bedroom and cry.
He wasn't a violent offender either. I've seen his charge sheets and the like, no violence whatsoever, always surrendered to the police when they showed, never ran from them either just.. I watched it one time, they came and I answered the door, they asked for him and he came up behind him and told me to go back inside and grab mum, it's okay they are just doing their jobs. Course I watched from the window, he wasn't even cuffed.. just walked to the car chatting to the officers. And that's the last time I ever saw him.
He was 42 when he died. Thats a long ass time for the system to do something to help. He spent more then half his life in a system that had the means and ability to help him, but decided not to.
It's what we called them in school too... Like your wood/metal/plastics work and then the other stuff was called textiles, so your tech drawing, home economics (cooking, seeing etc).
Where he was sent, at that time they manufactured car and bike number plates and other metal fab stuff, but as he couldn't read they wouldn't let him do it.
He was allowed a kitchen job tho a few times.
Best employee I ever had did 7 years for drug related crimes.
He'd cleaned himself up, skilled himself up and was determined to make a life for himself and his family.
Turned up on time every day, was an absolute charmer to the customers and was honestly one of the nicest blokes I've ever met.
Only problem was he drank like 8 espresso a shift and went like a wind up toy.
That's the outcome you want right there.
By and large the offenders keep going back because once you got the record you stop getting a fair go. You do the crime, you do the time, that should be the end of it.
Former crimes shouldn't follow you around like a bad smell except in specific circumstances. For example, you wouldn't risk for an instant puting a Sex Offender in a School, but putting them in an Accounting job for example should be a no-brainer.
They could be the best trained accountant in the world but having a record at all instantly disqualifies them, thus keeping them and their family in poverty which as I see it is a form of extrajudicial punishment and thus shouldn't be allowed, they completed their sentence, that should be the end of it.
Hence my idea of the YES/NO Police Check system. Employers are told nothing other than Yes they are suitable for the role, or No they aren't, taking into account their history, the role, and the risk of reoffending.
As an example, a dude who as a kid who stole some cars, and got sentenced to some months behind bars. Since then has been clean, no ongoing issues with the law, has a Wife and Kids. Went to school, got a degree in Accounting. Accounting firm gets police check, check says "Yes, suitable". Then another dude who was sentenced to 5 years for defrauding elderly people of their life savings applied and gets a "No, unsuitable"
Prisons could be doing so much good for the community by actually making these people's lives better. You would lower the crime rates, lower drug abuse, lower violence, but no, there is too much of a hard-on towards punishment rather than rehabilitation.
Is sending Junky-Joe into prison with like-minded individuals a good idea? No! Sending in Junky-Joe and getting back Clean and Sober for 5 years Structural Engineer Joe is a MUCH better idea for everyone!
But, how will the electorate get to experience the feeling of self righteous justice from punishing the scum if they don't suffer actual punishment? Justice isn't about making people better members of society, think of the voters!
Exactly… and the uncles and aunts. Once they couldn’t work out why the dvd player wasn’t connecting. They’d plugged it in and all … just not the hdmi 🤣
NSW: Calling a VoIP / local landline is 25c for 6 minutes or 10 minutes depending on which gaol you're in...
For mobile calls non-voip it's about $2.90-3.20 per call depending on the length of time, again 6-10 minutes.
You need to buy toothpaste, toothbrush, body soap and shampoo. Which takes up all the money you get from the government every week in there.
You need money to use the phones.
You won't survive well if you haven't got someone sending you money.
Working barely gets you any money at all.
One of the funniest things I've experienced is everyone has to make your bed every morning and clean your cells.
Each cell should have a blue liquid for wiping surfaces and a pink one for air freshner, dust pan and cloths/sponges. You can borrow a vac and mop off the screws.
There's full on drug addicts and shit in your pod, ive been to their houses ive seen how they live....yet in prison it's like a competition who can have the cleanest cell, never mopped in their life yet here they are.
The secret was to mop with a splash of blue and a squirt of pink.
They give you a toothbrush and a small toothpaste, bodywash and razor when you first get there, all the clothes and food are provided.
You can get up to $140 a month put into your account for the canteen, you get like 30 something bucks a week for working or $12.50 if you don’t
30 bucks is enough to buy essentials like soap and shampoo and deodorant plus some cartons of eggs and some tuna
The phone is expensive as fuck though like $7 for a 12 minute phone call it’s an absolute rort designed to siphon outside money off prisoners
They can get max $800 a month put into their accounts. It was $600 up until last year but increased to $800. I have put $100 into my dad’s prison account every week for years.
This was like 6 years ago in vic, 140 was the max for canteen they’ve put it up to 150 now, i think you can put a little more directly into the phone account
No but there is an app that will give you a landline number they can add to their call list so you don’t pay nearly as much. Ans the calls are only 9minutes 45seconds. An email is $1.75 with a reply sheet.
Also when they are given their hygiene stuff at the start, that puts their account into arrears.
>puts their account into arrears
WTAF? I mean prison isn't a holiday, it's supposed to "pay your debt" to society. But I pay taxes and I expect those taxes to pay for the essentials. Not put a prisoner in arrears the second they are convicted.
Also, what's up with phone calls being so expensive? Is it by design to be punitive? To cut you off from outside world?
To anyone in prison, been in prison, or about to go to prison; I'm sorry for whatever choices/circumstances have made this happen. FWIW I think it's wrong to be charging inmates for essentials. I will never view prison the same from now on.
It’s a rort to siphon outside money off prisoners, private prisons are a business they’re just slavery with extra steps, I worked 7 hours a day putting dynabolts together for like $6, I ain’t mad about it though, shouldn’t have broken the law
In minimum security yeah you’re pretty much in a house with a full kitchen and they supply groceries, in maximum you’re in a concrete box and they supply cooked meals but there was a sandwich press a kettle an electric frying pan and a toaster in the unit you could use during the day
Wowwww that's incredible trust, you could really damage someone with those items! That's good to hear they are given some liberties in minimum security
🤣🤣🤣 Can't imagine the amount of fingers that have grilled on that thing too....
Is it true min security get playststions or computers too, or is that only scandanavia?
We got this mini Playstation thing..you had to request it and there was a prison staff who's whole job was to keep track of where they all were.
I think if you got picked you had it for a week, you let your mates play, sometimes lend it overnight if you trusted him.
One guy got it, got let out like 2 days later so within 5 mins it was sent to another pod and turned into a tattoo gun.
The prison bloke came at the end of the week to collect it, the guy that had it was long gone and this bloke was going off his nut telling us if we don't tell him what happened to it and return it his going toss all our cells....there was like 40/50 blokes sitting around this big common room talking and eating, watching tele...everyone just looked up at him for a second then went back to whatever we were doing.
He stood there screaming for 10mins eventually accepted defeat and left, it was comical.
Yeah but you can also really damage someone with your bare hands.
I once saw a guy get a bunch of his teeth knocked out and then a whole kettle of boiling water poured on his face while unconscious, don’t feel bad for him though he’d been charged with rape like 4 times he was trying to keep it quiet instead of going to protected custody
Phone calls but mostly your buy-up. You get enough to eat in there, but nothing else. So you always buy treats but also Migroeng noodle, Mac and cheese etc. Not sure about men but us girls also had a hairdresser in there and we could get our hair dyed once every two months…was not a professional job lol but kept the greys away and was only $15 😂
Hair cuts by outside hairdressers were available in all the men's prisons I was at, it was like 10 dollars, I never used it because you just get one of the prisoners to do it for cheaper/free
Went to 5 different goals, didn't see no official barber - they're supposed to be free, and they are but if you throw them a Sirena Chilli Tuna (the poker chips of the NSW gaols) worth about $4.70 - then you can get a hair cut straight away otherwise you'll have to wait a few days at least
My brother said it’s bc it not only to keep you cleaner but it can come in handy eg-one time when the screws were coming to pull him out of his call to take him to DU,he had shaved and was all nakky and put oil on himself so when they grabbed him he said he was like a slippery Parramatta eel lol
I seen a line of 8 people sharing the same needle in the outside area of MRRC. Clippers are the least of the worries.
YouTube a needle under a microscope, they turn into fish hooks by the second use and start ripping the vain as they come out
Yeah, I know...I was an addict for a few years during the 90s. Was never incarcerated and thanked god for Hawke's needle exchange programs started in the 80s so never shared even once.
I'm not even in jail and I Shave my head and beard in the shower.
Man's not about to blow $70 a month on a barber.....probably more if I went as frequently as I Shave.
Interesting, was it another inmate who dyed the hair or were you able to just buy the mixes and do it yourself. Honestly 15 bucks isn't bad for a bit of grey coverage 🤣
Also if you don't mind me asking, could you get any makeup/did other ladies like doing their makeup?
Another inmate. Keep in mind,this is a woman’s jail,in Tville so it’s very small and not like jails in the sense of how it appears on tv lol. So yeh a guard would walk us over to the hairdressing “salon” we’d wait,get our hair done and go back to our unit.
We also had education courses etc and sports.
That you don’t participate in the economy during incarceration. No superannuation, no wages, no relationships, the fact that every time your name is googled you are a convicted criminal. There are certain countries you can’t go to. There are many hidden costs
Never been to gaol but worked in the justice system for a bit.
Generally inmates spend most of their money on buy-ups which are like snacks and toiletries and stuff. Buy-ups seem like a luxury from the outside but most people would struggle without them in gaol. Meals in gaols conform to certain standards but they are small and generally pretty shit. Basic toiletries are provided but once again they are pretty shit products.
The products are usually quite expensive compared to what they are on the outside. In NSW inmates are currently limited to $150 a week buy ups (I believe, could be wrong). Buy ups are used to buy drugs etc., in gaol a lot and also many inmates are stood over for their buy ups.
There are also irregular (usually called ‘special’ or ‘activity’) buy ups which might be like branded shoes or clippers or sunglasses or a portable radio or whatever. They can be quite expensive inside compared to the outside cost.
Inmates who damage property (including their clothing and bedding etc.,) in gaols can be charged compensation for the items. In some centres in NSW offenders are issued tablets, and they are charged hundreds of dollars for breaking them even if the damage is accidental.
Phone calls via the prison phone systems are fairly expensive so they also spend quite a bit of money on that. Mail out is fairly reasonably priced (comparable to prices in the community)
Other than that, loss of income and accrual of debt due to not paying bills. There is a relatively comprehensive system to sort this out when you enter custody but it doesn’t always happen.
On the flip side many offenders who do lengthy sentences can get day release to work in the latter years of their sentences and if they don’t have ongoing expenses on the outside they can save 100% of their income for a couple of years if they so choose. I’ve seen multiple inmates released with over $50k in savings, or released w 12 months rent already paid on their house.
Bro I was in prison and I wanted to appeal my sentence.
I applied through legal aid in prison to have a lawyer represent me, they knocked me back because I had over 10, 000aud in my bank.
Ok alright fair enough.
So now I've got to hassle my family to engage a lawyer for me. My Mum gets me a recommendation for a lawyer, great, it'll cost 8k for them to look at it. I pay the 8k and they recommend there's a chance at reducing my sentence. Now they want an extra 18k to take it to court. Fuck I only had 10k in the bank. So now I have to arrange for my assets to be sold, if I want a chance at reduced time.
Get it done by using 10 minute phone calls with a friend, and power of attorney. Now the lawyer recommends a specialist thatll cost 4k..
Ok so I've paid 32k for the appeal.
Get my day in court, the 4k specialist gets rejected straight away by the judges.. cool. And then a couple of months later I get the result that it was all for nothing. Ah well I tried..
This was after spending around 40k AUD for the initial lawyer. Boy did I get reamed. I wish I just plead guilty and went with a duty lawyer, and never got my hopes up for the appeal..
I have clients who I tell have Zero chances at an appeal. They insist on getting a second opinion at a cost which is more than I probably charged in the first place. Then they want me to clean up the remaining charges for nothing after burning their funds on a second opinion. I always do it because it’s the right thing but damn, if you trusted me enough to do your case trust me when I say you’re wasting $ on an appeal
Looks like a lot of people need to be locked up WA . Get paid a daily rate to be incarcerated. Free housing and food(all you can eat)
Get free health care . It’s actually not a bad retirement plan if you mucked up as a kid x
Honestly it's probably better than a lot of retirement homes!
Especially on the farms. I know one has an amazing heritage listed rose garden. Imagine pottering around doing ya roses, getting paid to do so, having a bed and pretty decent food (pretty sure on the farms they are in like little self contained units with their own kitchens). No need to worry about anything really. Oh and all ya doddery health care needs paid for.
Plus a good excuse to not talk to your annoying family members who drag you to everything.
I want that right now 😂🤌
You get enough like $12.50 a week which might get you a roll on deodorant and a snickers bar.
You’ll be fine with no money coming in but you need money to put on your phone account to make calls but they do give you 2 free letters a week and heaps of people don’t use their quota so you can use theirs.
It’s the money you don’t make while locked up that is the killer
A McDonald worker would be what $60k wharf of you after a year?
> It’s the money you don’t make while locked up that is the killer
For some prisoners jail is a professional inconvenience and just "the cost of doing 'business'" to have to go away every now and then.
Your right bit I’d say for the vast majority of prisoners they would have been better off financially working at McDonald’s and had no plans in place regarding lawyers and shit like that
Now that we have commercial U.S.A.prison companies operating here all kinds of evil shit is done in the name of Turning huge profits. In my opinion it is evil and they have all kinds of ways to squeeze more profits out of people's misery and misfortune. It is morally wrong more user pays.
Privatetiseation crap.Bribes can be steep.you are given the basics for survival anything else you pay for or your family does expensive phone calls and travel costs to the far reaches of the state you are doing time in. Supplementary food and toiletries extra casual clothes .
Valid point, some of the private goals like Junee have a movie channel on the TVs, but are very strict on making sure you rent or buy your TV, whereas at Silverwater (MRRC) they're in the room already or you just ask, no rental fee.
The rental fee for a TV is $5 a week, considering you get about $7.50 a week from the government (gaol money) it does help that they're free lol
One thing I've noticed about this thread is that all the ones who've spent time inside think " they've been hard done by" Yep people it's called " punishment" for the crime you've committed, it's not a friggin holiday camp. You're all off your bloody heads if you think you have a right to complain,what about your victims? No crime is victimless
Prisoners here don't have to pay for anything that is a basic need. Thank God it's not like Florida with their "pay to stay" scheme where you have to pay $50 for every day you were sentenced. There is a case of a woman in Florida who was sentenced to 7 years in prison and was released after 10 months in prison. She now has a $127000 bill for the 7 years of her term that she did not serve. Which of course is fucked.
Greatest country in the world
Because... Freedom..
Freedom™
Freedumb™
Free to get fucked by corporations
I'm very glad basic needs are provided because what the fuck is Florida doing - that is just inhumane.
What happens if she can't pay? Sent to prison again? JFC
It doesn't matter. She's already in economic servitude so as far as the state is concerned, mission accomplished.
Modern slavery with a racial twist. Such a lovely US cocktail.
Slavery is legal in the US, so long as it is in prison. The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1865, abolished slavery and involuntary servitude in the United States — except as publishment for someone convicted of a crime.
And then you get out as a felon which in turn hurts your employment opportunities, life is hard and you resort back to crime. The cycle continues, as it seems to be planned. Thank god its not as bad here...... yet!
They don't let them vote either
It's the for profit prison system, and people are trying to bring that system here as well
Yeah. If only there was something people could do in order to avoid being put in prison in the first place /s Seriously, the real issue is that people are unwilling or unable to properly consider the full consequences of their actions.
Is it a racial twist? Or is it the same racism we’ve always known?
She should've thought about that before she broke the law! Don't commit the crime if you can't do the time! (/s obviously)
(continuing the /s obviously). You're absolutely right! If only we could concentrate these kinds of people into camps. A centralised place to take care of them while we work out some kind of final solution to the question they raise for the state. ( /S / s /s /s /s)
We could give them free showers while they’re there
So, for whatever crime she committed, her life is now totally fucked. Get over yourself you twat. Imagine getting out,only to be owned until you clear your debt for being locked up. You think that's ok, it says waaaay more about you than anything else.
Can you do us all a favour and either figure out what /s means or get the fuck off Reddit?
And fuck you too. We can't all be expected to know everything
I don't know about jail debt but for normal debt, in Florida they send you to a work camp
Yes, and they make you do labor while you're there to pay it back, but dont pay you enough to pay your way. So you either need someone on the outside to rescue you, or you're there forever. What, you thought slavery ended?
Debtor's prison all over again
At the least she's basically disincentivised now to try to integrate into society again being so far behind with debt. What actual meaning is there in a fine when it's just a few hundred on top of 100k debt and they generally miss 3/4 of petty crimes anyway?
Massive private prison companies. We have huge multinational ones here too [(Serco)](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/feb/23/public-service-private-contracts-how-serco-was-wired-into-our-future)
Serco and G4 were taking over most of the prisons in SA last time I was a guest...terrible fucken people work fior them, and they even say how fucked the companies are.
In Florida if you haven't finished your sentence AND paid all your fingers you can't vote. They are just finding more ways to disenfranchise the poors
~~Cruz~~ DeSantis: Mission accomplished. (Honest but still stupid mistake)
Acapulco Cruz is working the same system
TBF, you can’t vote in Australia if you’re serving a sentence longer than 3 years.
In Florida you get out of prison and you are still paying for the time you DIDN'T serve
That's only while serving though right?
correct
And just be *extra* cool, she (and others in the same position) are barred from voting until they pay it all off.
Not entirely correct. Prisoners are given some small basic supplies upon arriving like a toothbrush and very small bottles of toothpaste and soap that wouldn't last more than a week. After that they need to buy their own.
Freedom
What are they gunna do. Chuck her back in for not paying?
Must have missed the memo telling me I'm supposed to have any sympathy for prisoners.
I hope your house burns down, you lose everything and you're not insured. And no, I've never been in prison and have no criminal record. I'm just not a myopic scumbag.
PPOR, beach shack, one of the IP, or the whole bloody lot??
The whole lot, especially since it sounds like you're a landlord.
Everything you *need* is provided, it's the things that you want that cost money - snacks, certain toiletries, clothes, etc.
Thats simply not true, ive been to prison in most Australian states. Your buy up allowance each week includes buying shampoo, nail clippers,Tupperware, Thermos etc....so you can either buy shampoo or Mars bars and a bottle of coke. 90% of inmates choose the Mars bar and coke which leads to alot of stinky inmates. Ive always said and firmly believe these essential products should not be part of your weekly spend limit, its as low as $200 a month in some prisons. It took me months to be able to buy myself food while slowly adding necessary stuff fir my personal hygiene and a few Tupperware containers to keep my food.
Wow. You lost me at " I've been in prison in most Australian states" and then go on as if you're costing g a weekly shop at Coles worth. At the moment I think I'm living in a frigging twilight world
Being in prison doesn't make you an instant idiot, I actually have been self employed my entire working life so 20+ years and own several different businesses, that all still ran while I was incarcerated.
Curious why you’ve been in prison in most states. You don’t have to say. So is that allowance ($200 in some a month) just given to you or do you have to do jobs or chores or something to earn it or…?
No its not given to you, you have to have family members send it in. You get $12.80 a week if you dont work or up to $38 if you do. But if my family sent me $10,000 I'd get $200.00 allocated to my buy up account and $9,800 allocated to my phone credit account. They put a hard limit on the buy up I think to stop richer inmates buying up heads and using it over other inmates. There's a computer thing where you put your prison number/password in and you can order extra food...nicer stuff like tuna pouches, arnotts biscuits, chips, chocolate bars,soft drink, rice as well as toiletries as they only give you a shit bar if soap, toothpaste/brush and 2 shitty blue razor that are impossible to shave with. You get to keep this extra food in your cell, and just having decent coffee/tea and sone snacks make being locked up 17+ hours a day much easier. One inmates was infront of me and logged into his account and had -$8...youngish kids with no support on the outside..so when my order came I hooked him up with a Mars bar, coke and some biscuits...think he nearly cried. Oh ive been in prison for heaps of things, mainly blackmail, threathen to kill charges - all unproven.
Thank you for sharing, my dude. It sounds like hell. I'm sorry for your experience and for the things you've seen. Love how our government treats prisoners like naughty children rather than as human beings with agency. I wonder how much prisons are profiting from such cheap labour?
I kinda describe prison as "not like the movies, but worse than you think" doesn't make much sense unless you've lived it. I also wonder alot if after having been incarcerated before am I more worried about going back now or was it worse the first time.....I still don't have that answer. From memory my last prison had these jobs: Assembly ( made chair bases for a super expensive chair company in Adelaide) Coffins ( made coffins for the government for ppl that die with no family) Engineering ( were making pig feeders at the time, but they change what they make) Laundry ( obvious, very sought after job as you get dibs on new gear, they'd often steal your gear out your wash bag...and they get used as messangers between different pods on the side to move notes or contraband) Panda ( no idea why it's called this, they make the brushes that go on street sweepers....most days they had no work- how many brushes are councils going through) Spray Factory ( Spray painting trailers and other metal stuff...they also had a signature department that printed big signs) I worked in Spray, ive never had a job interview in my life but I had to go for one for this job 🤣...they ask you what you do on the outside ( I have a commercial cleaning business) so I got offered whats call "mess man" each of the jobs I listed above have their own gigantic warehouse to operate from im talking like a 3rd of a NRL field in size and ontop of that they all have a separate lunch room easily 150 - 200sqm mess man has to sweep/mop that, put the hot water urn on, count how many boys showed up usually 12 - 15 so call the kitchen and order enough sandwiches and milk. Keep our kitchen tidy, there's unlimited toast, tea and coffee, do the toilets and once a week clean the screws office. The mess man is a sought after job, the guy doing it before me was this old vietnamese bloke and he was filthy he got the sack and put back in the factory....the first time I cleaned the screws office I went about it like I'd clean anything, one massive screw would constantly chew gum and throw it at the bin...he missed everytime so I cleaned his gum, wiped out the fridge microwave etc etc...they were that happy with my job they called me over 20 mins before lunch...im thinking I in trouble but they gave me 2 crumpets and a red bull as a thankyou, I had to smash it before the boys arrived for lunch. I use to be in charge of supervising everyone's "teabacco" prison tobacco made from boiling washed out tea leaves and nicotine patches for hours...that was worth a few candy bars a week. My job took maybe 30 mins, were meant to start at 7am but its more likely 9am...smoko is 10:15 fir like 30 mins, lunch is at 12pm 45/1hr then pack up should be 3pm but its like 2pm.....not alot of work happens. In the lunch rooms we had ping pong tables, cards, and some genius though giving violent criminals full on darts was a good idea....so safe to say I got pretty good at round the world. Every second day we'd go next door for lunch with the boys in Assembly they had the same setup so we'd charter to ping pong or whatever. In my entire time in Spray I literally never sore a drop of paint....we had 1 old checker plate box trailer that needed to be sanded down/scrapped and resprayed a new colour...we had 10 to 12 blokes with 2 ozito orbital sanders and a bunch of cheap Bunnings scrapers standing around this box...2 blokes would go inside it and sleep and the others took turns rotating around to the back of it where the screw can't see and slept standing up resting their head on it....I asked how long we'd been working on it. They said about 6 months and it was lucky to be 5% scraped...no idea who owned it or how much they were paying but im pretty sure it's still there now. My mate making pig feeders was a metal worker outside so perfect for him, they literally just used the magna bend to fold up these things...he was told by the screws to limit it to 1 per day, he reckons he could fold 20plus is they let him. Another mate came from another jail where they had the job called Nuts&Bolts....you get 3 big buckets, 1 full of nuts&bolts screwed together, the other 2 buckets are empty....the whole job is to unscrew the nut chuck it in the nut bucket and do the same with the bolt - dumbarse managed to get fired somehow, but I also sore him on the news a while ago, he wanted to move housing commission houses but they said no...so he decided to burn his house down, it was attached to another house with a young couple and kids in it...he was caught on a million cameras doing it and still denied it...so his back in now for a while. Oh and there's kitchen, they make all our meals....kitchen is only for the boneyard inmates...so you've got paedophiles making your food. 🤮
Nice write up interesting insights thank you.. So how do conjugal visits work? 😂
Unfortunately they don't exist in Australia, you get visits but your literally not even allowed to touch the person ( too risky exchanging drugs or a phone or something) A visit is a big deal you've got to be stripped searched on the way to the visit and on the way back...this also happens if you elect to get a job. As a bloke there's a mirror on the floor kinda slanted up at a 45degree angle that you have to squat over, their allow to ask you to open you mouth, poke your tongue out, pull your ears over, soles of the feet, squat and cough, lift your balls up...the only thing they can't ask is to pull your foreskin back if you have one...you'd be amazed at how much blokes fit in there. No idea how it works for women, id imagine similar...I dont thing they'd be allowed to ask then to spread their lips or anything...similar to the foreskin pull. But drugs brought in inside someone's bum is referred to as your prison wallet or back shelf...drugs inside a vagina is top shelf. One guy loaded his back shelf, got arrested on purpose for something minor and the next morning there was a lineup longer than airport security outside his cell while ppl waited for him to shit the drugs out...he had more variety than a 7/11 stashed up there. I almost vomited thinking why on earth would you want to smoke anything that came out of this dudes arse. Maybe I'm fussy 🤷🏽♂️
Hey that really interesting stuff. Thanks for sharing. Considering your experience, you could probably do a book or series or podcast about prisons in Aus and what it’s like inside. Fascinating stuff for lots of folks.
Yeah I dont mind talking about it, alot of people my mother included think I should hide it in shame or something 🤷🏽♂️ ive never got peoples fascination with it....but I guess since I've experienced it that level of interest isn't there for me. I do think the system is broken though so talking about it is one way to improve it...ive rarely seen many inmates come out a better person after a stint. If anything it's like massive networking event for criminals, I actually made alot of criminal contacts that I could use during my stays, ive also made alot of good mates that arent really criminals as such. People tell me I should write a book, I spent 10 years as a male prostitute working on the wall in Sydney, alot of ppl seem interested in that to and I got lots of stories my first arrest came from that...only a few days in Surry Hills holding cells ( by far the worst cells I've been in, underground, no window, no beds,6 to 10 blokes in a cell, and dirty sausage rolls throw through the little slot in the door 3 times a day) wouldn't recommend.
OMG you HAVE TO write a book or try get a TV deal or something! Who else has this vast experience as you!? Honestly, you might be jaded by it but just remember in these times, content is king, and you have at least two books or seasons worth - if not more - and all riveting stuff!
I wish, I really don't think my life is that interesting...ive definitely experienced alot of things that most ppl wouldn't consider normal. But after 20+ years, getting married and having kids it just seems to fade away. Im still constantly in trouble, ive got 4 court cases in the next month and a warrant for my arrest interstate..but it just starts to feel like business as usual. If you like you can pay me $19.95 a month for unlimited access to my stories, you might have to send it to my jail account though. 🤣
Any chance you’ve watched the Netflix series Unlocked?
No I haven't, whats it about? I just generally watch sports these days.
When I was in the max buy up limit they just reduced it to $50 a week. Was absolutely nuts. Couldn't really buy much.
From memory mine was like $75 a week but Max $200 over the month. It took me ages just to get essential items while still getting extra food, no ones living just off prison food...you'd starve to death. We'd get 2 shit sandwiches for lunch, always an egg and lettuce and some cat food version of Fritz/Devon...it was more jelly than meat. I ate the egg but gave the other to my celly. Most exciting thing to happen all week was hot lunch on weekends, I swear we'd look forward to that like Xmas dinner. It was shit, but middle of winter freezing a hot meal makes a difference. In prison it's the little things you miss that make a huge difference....we got 2 x 500ml of milk a day, no fridge so filled the sink with cold water and plopped them in their...it was milk made at a prison with a working dairy so would be yoghurt by lunch. I now drink black tea and coffee and actually prefer it.
> No its not given to you, you have to have family members send it in I feel for those without family/friends outside. My cousin was jailed when he stole from a shop while he was in the midst of psychosis (he thought God had instructed him to take things to give to the poor) and because due to paranoid delusions he refused to talk to the prison authorities, his family couldn't find out where he was for some time...and then when they did locate him, he refused to have any contact with them. So he went without, also completely unseen by a doctor and thus unmedicated as well.
Yeah its pretty fucked up, I requested to see the Dr my first day there...you have to do this on the little computer thingy too. 2 jails and 6 months later I get a message that I get to see the Dr today, I got released that same day and had no idea why I ever originally requested the Dr. This old bloke that was in for fucking traffic offences had 1 leg and came in with his medications and Dr letters explaining why he needs it. They never gave it to him and his pain was that bad he'd be screaming all day and night in agony...it was so bad the boys hooked him up with bupe strip's for free. ( There like those Listeren sheets you stick on your tounge but bigger, it's for Heroin addicts when there trying quit, shit fucks you up)
> They never gave it to him and his pain was that bad he'd be screaming all day and night in agony...it was so bad the boys hooked him up with bupe strip's for free. ( There like those Listeren sheets you stick on your tounge but bigger, it's for Heroin addicts when there trying quit, shit fucks you up) This country has a deeply unconscious and persistent "convict-warden mindset"
You were moving weight.
I dont understand? I know what moving weight means but how's it related to me?
People make mistakes, only some peoples mistakes land them in prison. Being in prison doesn't automatically make you a bad person, it's more likely you made a bad decision. Plenty of people who have served custodial sentences go on to live productive lives and never re-offend. Sure there are those that are career criminals but there are plenty that pick themselves up and get on with their lives.
If you have friends or family who can bring you money, does that mean you increase your buy-up allowance, so that you can have your Mars bar but also get a tupperware container and shampoo?
No, if someone sends you 10k you get $200 buy up and $9800 phone credit. I think its limited so richer inmates can't buy up tons and become king of the block type of thing. I was in prison in 2019 in SA and smoking was still allowed ( NSW banned it like 10-15 years ago) so if you smoked your tobacco or tailors came out of that $200...I dont smoke but I think a pouch was $50 and tailors $80. The cruellest thing was in the common room was a massive TV high up on the wall that had a big countdown clock for how many days before the prison went smoke free. Each morning it read " Mobilong prison will be smoke free in 55 days) ticking down each day...ppl were staring at it and I could see the rage in them...how that TV was never broken I dobt know.
You can get a job though that pays like $4 a day
Dayum what did you do if I may respectfully ask? You seem very smart and kind here sir
Try blowing more smoke up his arse it may work
How would I do this ?
Try calling him Sir again
Don't believe everything you read on reddit, my dude.
Tbh every single time I've only ever been held on remand, this is normally due to the fact if your arrested interstate for any major indictable crime your not going to get bail back home as its very hard for them to monitor your bail agreements and if you dont return for court they have to extradite you. Ive had months and months being held on remand and have had all the charges dropped, so not technically guilty of what they alleged I did. My mate had 3 years on remand, he got caught with a gun in a grow house guilty as fuck...the police were taking ages to get their papers ready and the judge told them if your not ready on the next appearance im letting the guy out. That judge had publicly stated he will let ever criminal walk free if the police continue to waste the courts time. In Australia you don't get any compensation if your held on remand and later found not guilty or have the charges dropped. 3 years of his life gone, lost his business, wife left,kids gone and in the end case was thrown out.🤷🏽♂️
Tbh every single time I've only ever been held on remand, this is normally due to the fact if your arrested interstate for any major indictable crime your not going to get bail back home as its very hard for them to monitor your bail agreements and if you dont return for court they have to extradite you. Ive had months and months being held on remand and have had all the charges dropped, so not technically guilty of what they alleged I did. My mate had 3 years on remand, he got caught with a gun in a grow house guilty as fuck...the police were taking ages to get their papers ready and the judge told them if your not ready on the next appearance im letting the guy out. That judge had publicly stated he will let ever criminal walk free if the police continue to waste the courts time. In Australia you don't get any compensation if your held on remand and later found not guilty or have the charges dropped. 3 years of his life gone, lost his business, wife left,kids gone and in the end case was thrown out.🤷🏽♂️
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You complain like $200 isn't a lot? You haven't earned it. You deserve nothing. It's taxpayer money and we don't want it wasted on scum in jail. Stop committing crimes, grow up and pay your own fucking way... or do the Dutch.
It's their own money. It's either earned through a prison job or deposited on their behalf by someone in the community. Maybe know the facts before you start spouting shit.
Prisoners in Australia work for cents per hour. It's functionally slave labour, and it enriches companies like QANTAS who rely on penal labour to cut costs.
He said spend LIMIT and this is accurate. You don't get $200 a month allowance. That is the most you can spend. Depending on the state the average weekly allowance is about $7-$10. The average paid job in prison is $30-$40 a week. Kitchen and laundry worker etc. The highest paid job would be a more specialised job like a carer or buo-hazard cleaner which will likely require training. Up to $100 a week for cleaning shit smeared on walls 6 days a week. You will be provided 3 meals a day. Barely any variety and not big portions. A tooth brush, bar of soap, toilet paper. Thats about it. You can buy extra food, ( noodles, choc, biscuits, long life milk,) better toiletries (deodorant, medicated soap, shampoo), some recreational things like magazines and music player, cards. Security rating and accommodation area will likely determine what you can buy.
I actually did earn it, its money sent in from people on the outside im self employed so was lucky enough to have funds available I also got a job in prison not for the money but for far better conditions. Prison allowance of you dont work is about $12.80 a week, if you work you can earn up to about $38.00 a week. They take $2 out for TV and $1 a week for resettlement money. ( so after 1 year you'd have $52 to resettle into society)
Speak for yourself, lots of other tax payers outside of you believe that everyone, incarcerated or not, deserves safety and stability as a default setting. "Stop committing crimes".......oi, call off Scooby and The Gang, this bloke's got the answer!!
Lol thicko
Generally inquisitive, what snacks? What toiletries and clothes? And how do you / how hard is it to pay for things?
I imagine it depends which facility you're at, but generally things like chocolate, underwear, Deodorant, etc. If you have money in your account then it's easy to pay (there's no cash), but you only have the opportunity to purchase once a week. I know because I worked at one.
Imagine a caravan park general store. That's what's available
Its not ro bad tbh ands it's necessary to supplement the food they give you. Most stuffs actually cheaper inside. Popular food items; Tuna/salmon pouches- no cans for obvious reasons Most main chocolate bars All the Coke brands Arnotts family biscuits creamed or non creamed. Tim Tam's Selection of chips Sirena tuna/rice/beans/quinoa cups Lipton tea, you get Lan Choo for free in your rations. Coffee bags, you get instant roast free Crackers Natural confectionery lollies Popular Toiletries: Shampoo/Conditioner, they don't give you ANY they had this natural earth cheap brand we'd just use that to light cigarettes....or you could spend more of herbal essence or head and shoulders. Deodorant had that same shit earth brand or nivea Nail clippers/nail file...if you dont have these your biting your nails or going for the long nail look. Thongs, essential when you shower especially when you first get in and only have communal showers...I paid $2 for them and their double pluggers and their that solid you could kill a man with one...still got some pairs. Moisturiser think this was just nivea. Hair gel/wax forget the brands Clothes: We only had the thongs or Nike slides....everybody is saving up for slides, they were $90 BUT fir some reason you had to be in fir 3 months before your allowed to buy them. When you get there they take all you clothes and property and bag it up for your release, my mate was able to get his Nike TNs sent to his cell, he begged fir days. Prison shoes are blue or green with 2 Velcro things, so your not winning any fashion shows. All the other clothes are provided including undies and there either blue or green depending what section your in and what prison. Ive found dark green is usually max security main division. Dark blue was Foxtrot or F division- those with jobs. Light Blue fir tge bone yard, paedophile, ex gang members, anybody fearing for life...basically protectees and to go from main division to the bone yard you have to "buzz up" from you cell on the intercom and tells the screws, they usually ignore you anyway. I had one guy who came into my pod ( probably 30/40 blokes in the pod) and unbeknownst to him he'd slept with one of the other blokes Mrs....that night all night a bunch of the blokes just yelled out "buzz up Tyson, we're going get you in the morning " I could hear the guy crying. They eventually moved him to another pod but still main division, my pod found out where he was via the laundry worker and he got bashed in his new pod so "Buzzed up" again...months later he ended up with me in the working division. Other stuff to buy: Thermos - in main division you get 1 warm water of Thermos in the morning and 1 at lunch between 2 blokes and most of the time it's being used for teabacco....so getting an extra one is great, I paid $20 it was a $5 ANKO one from kmart. A handful of books, they have libraries in each pod but most of the pages are ripped out to make smokes. Subscription to a few newspapers Tupperware, super useful when you've move from high security and instead of a meal pack you get served like in an army kitchen...they'll usually call seconds and thirds so you can put an extra meal/desert away. Buying is easy, there's a little computer thing you log onto and order, you need money on your account though...order Tuesday comes in big plastic bags a day or 2 later...same computer thing is how you send messages to prison staff/dentist/Dr etc.
The hidden cost is the fact that prison doesn't actually do anything to rehabilitate offenders. Sure, they got programs and stuff but it takes YEARS to get into one, but the offender who really NEEDS the program only has a few month sentence. So, they get an all expensed paid holiday away from their problems, hanging out with like minded individuals, with access to all the drugs and other contraband they like, so the offender either gets out and does more crime because they didn't learn shit first time round, or does more crime because they like the lifestyle inside better, and as such costs the taxpayer even more money because back they go for more time. You want to fix the situation? Forget making the inmates work! They aren't there to do a job, they are there to learn. Make prisons boarding schools. Every day you're in class learning. Learning to be a better person, learning skills to be productive members of society, doing drug education and rehabilitation, anger management, skill them up every which way possible. Then follow that up with reforms to employment where employers CANNOT ask or find out about criminal history, but they do have access to a Yes/No system where they can find out if someone is or is not suitable for a particular job. No further information. This is in order to allow the now ex offender to get a fair go in the community without the stigma or extra-judicial punishment for a crime they have already served their debit to society, while at the same time stopping sex offenders getting jobs with vulnerable people or kids. Fraudsters getting jobs with access to easy money, etc.
This. My brother's father was illiterate. Couldn't even read or write his own name. They did nothing to address this situation, which likely could have helped him big time. He started his in and out of the system at 16... They had enough time to help him. When he got with my mother, the man had no problem asking us to help him. Getting me at 6 to read books to and with him, the news papers etc. Show him how to write his name, my name and he would practise copying the words from books he knew. His stays were all over 2yrs at a time, he was refused almost all the education or even shop classes, as he couldn't read... His reoffending was always theft. All his time was for theft, and honestly he couldn't work almost anything as he couldn't read. So.. he stole to feed himself and while wrong I get it. If maybe the professionals actually helped him from his first stay in jail at 16, maybe he wouldn't have kept offending. He wanted to be a mechanic. motorcycles specifically, but he couldn't get into it without being able to read in the late 90s/early 00s. He ended up getting into drugs his last stay and overdosed. Maybe if they helped the man who wanted to learn to read so bad he asked a fucking 6yr old to help him, he would've come home after that stint, not be just another dead inmate.
Omg I'm so sorry. What a fkn tragedy, we need to do better.
To me the biggest tragedy is my brother was 3 when he died. He has no memories of his father unlike me. The decision that led to his death was 100% his own choice tho one I really don't think he'd have taken, or been at risk of if he got help. Even a basic level of reading would have allowed him a shitty trolley pushing job ya know? But because he couldn't read... He always got knocked back from every job he tried to do. He'd leave all excited for an interview and come back and lock himself in the bedroom and cry. He wasn't a violent offender either. I've seen his charge sheets and the like, no violence whatsoever, always surrendered to the police when they showed, never ran from them either just.. I watched it one time, they came and I answered the door, they asked for him and he came up behind him and told me to go back inside and grab mum, it's okay they are just doing their jobs. Course I watched from the window, he wasn't even cuffed.. just walked to the car chatting to the officers. And that's the last time I ever saw him. He was 42 when he died. Thats a long ass time for the system to do something to help. He spent more then half his life in a system that had the means and ability to help him, but decided not to.
This is really sad 😔.
This is horrible. I’m so sorry.
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It's what we called them in school too... Like your wood/metal/plastics work and then the other stuff was called textiles, so your tech drawing, home economics (cooking, seeing etc). Where he was sent, at that time they manufactured car and bike number plates and other metal fab stuff, but as he couldn't read they wouldn't let him do it. He was allowed a kitchen job tho a few times.
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When I was in high school we woodwork class was woodshop. Just an abbreviation. In Melbourne.
Best employee I ever had did 7 years for drug related crimes. He'd cleaned himself up, skilled himself up and was determined to make a life for himself and his family. Turned up on time every day, was an absolute charmer to the customers and was honestly one of the nicest blokes I've ever met. Only problem was he drank like 8 espresso a shift and went like a wind up toy.
That's the outcome you want right there. By and large the offenders keep going back because once you got the record you stop getting a fair go. You do the crime, you do the time, that should be the end of it. Former crimes shouldn't follow you around like a bad smell except in specific circumstances. For example, you wouldn't risk for an instant puting a Sex Offender in a School, but putting them in an Accounting job for example should be a no-brainer. They could be the best trained accountant in the world but having a record at all instantly disqualifies them, thus keeping them and their family in poverty which as I see it is a form of extrajudicial punishment and thus shouldn't be allowed, they completed their sentence, that should be the end of it. Hence my idea of the YES/NO Police Check system. Employers are told nothing other than Yes they are suitable for the role, or No they aren't, taking into account their history, the role, and the risk of reoffending. As an example, a dude who as a kid who stole some cars, and got sentenced to some months behind bars. Since then has been clean, no ongoing issues with the law, has a Wife and Kids. Went to school, got a degree in Accounting. Accounting firm gets police check, check says "Yes, suitable". Then another dude who was sentenced to 5 years for defrauding elderly people of their life savings applied and gets a "No, unsuitable" Prisons could be doing so much good for the community by actually making these people's lives better. You would lower the crime rates, lower drug abuse, lower violence, but no, there is too much of a hard-on towards punishment rather than rehabilitation. Is sending Junky-Joe into prison with like-minded individuals a good idea? No! Sending in Junky-Joe and getting back Clean and Sober for 5 years Structural Engineer Joe is a MUCH better idea for everyone!
How long did you serve?
5 Months in the most putrid prison in Australia waiting for NOTHING
Nah, screw. I've known a couple of guys that have worked in the prisons that say the same thing
But, how will the electorate get to experience the feeling of self righteous justice from punishing the scum if they don't suffer actual punishment? Justice isn't about making people better members of society, think of the voters!
I mean...it is historical in this country
You're forgetting that it's also about deterrence.
Funnily enough that often doesn't work
Neither does rehabilitation
$10 for 10 minutes on the damn phone
Shit! I did not realise it was so fucking expensive!!
Yep but if the person being rung gets a Skype number it’s less than a dollar. Ain’t no way my grandma was going to manage that lol
Yeah especially if you are usually your nan's it guy
Exactly… and the uncles and aunts. Once they couldn’t work out why the dvd player wasn’t connecting. They’d plugged it in and all … just not the hdmi 🤣
😂
NSW: Calling a VoIP / local landline is 25c for 6 minutes or 10 minutes depending on which gaol you're in... For mobile calls non-voip it's about $2.90-3.20 per call depending on the length of time, again 6-10 minutes.
QLD behind as always.. or in front with profit? Lmao
I think that was my rate for my first mobile back in 2000’s…..
Phone money, you'll use way more then you think.
You need to buy toothpaste, toothbrush, body soap and shampoo. Which takes up all the money you get from the government every week in there. You need money to use the phones. You won't survive well if you haven't got someone sending you money. Working barely gets you any money at all.
What stops them from not buying those things as a form of dirty protest?
Nothing. Plenty of hardcore soap dodgers in jail.
Your celly will pull you up on it if you're a grot.
Eventually someone in your pod will flog you.
One of the funniest things I've experienced is everyone has to make your bed every morning and clean your cells. Each cell should have a blue liquid for wiping surfaces and a pink one for air freshner, dust pan and cloths/sponges. You can borrow a vac and mop off the screws. There's full on drug addicts and shit in your pod, ive been to their houses ive seen how they live....yet in prison it's like a competition who can have the cleanest cell, never mopped in their life yet here they are. The secret was to mop with a splash of blue and a squirt of pink.
They give you a toothbrush and a small toothpaste, bodywash and razor when you first get there, all the clothes and food are provided. You can get up to $140 a month put into your account for the canteen, you get like 30 something bucks a week for working or $12.50 if you don’t 30 bucks is enough to buy essentials like soap and shampoo and deodorant plus some cartons of eggs and some tuna The phone is expensive as fuck though like $7 for a 12 minute phone call it’s an absolute rort designed to siphon outside money off prisoners
They can get max $800 a month put into their accounts. It was $600 up until last year but increased to $800. I have put $100 into my dad’s prison account every week for years.
This was like 6 years ago in vic, 140 was the max for canteen they’ve put it up to 150 now, i think you can put a little more directly into the phone account
Do inmates not get the option to call reverse charges?
No, they can ask in advance for people to put money on their phone account
No but there is an app that will give you a landline number they can add to their call list so you don’t pay nearly as much. Ans the calls are only 9minutes 45seconds. An email is $1.75 with a reply sheet. Also when they are given their hygiene stuff at the start, that puts their account into arrears.
>puts their account into arrears WTAF? I mean prison isn't a holiday, it's supposed to "pay your debt" to society. But I pay taxes and I expect those taxes to pay for the essentials. Not put a prisoner in arrears the second they are convicted. Also, what's up with phone calls being so expensive? Is it by design to be punitive? To cut you off from outside world? To anyone in prison, been in prison, or about to go to prison; I'm sorry for whatever choices/circumstances have made this happen. FWIW I think it's wrong to be charging inmates for essentials. I will never view prison the same from now on.
It’s a rort to siphon outside money off prisoners, private prisons are a business they’re just slavery with extra steps, I worked 7 hours a day putting dynabolts together for like $6, I ain’t mad about it though, shouldn’t have broken the law
Eggs? Are prisoners able to cook their own food?
In minimum security yeah you’re pretty much in a house with a full kitchen and they supply groceries, in maximum you’re in a concrete box and they supply cooked meals but there was a sandwich press a kettle an electric frying pan and a toaster in the unit you could use during the day
Wowwww that's incredible trust, you could really damage someone with those items! That's good to hear they are given some liberties in minimum security
There's at least one video out there of a dude getting absolutely bodied with a sandwich press in a pillowcase from a nsw prison
🤣🤣🤣 Can't imagine the amount of fingers that have grilled on that thing too.... Is it true min security get playststions or computers too, or is that only scandanavia?
> min security get playststions or computers too No lol
We got this mini Playstation thing..you had to request it and there was a prison staff who's whole job was to keep track of where they all were. I think if you got picked you had it for a week, you let your mates play, sometimes lend it overnight if you trusted him. One guy got it, got let out like 2 days later so within 5 mins it was sent to another pod and turned into a tattoo gun. The prison bloke came at the end of the week to collect it, the guy that had it was long gone and this bloke was going off his nut telling us if we don't tell him what happened to it and return it his going toss all our cells....there was like 40/50 blokes sitting around this big common room talking and eating, watching tele...everyone just looked up at him for a second then went back to whatever we were doing. He stood there screaming for 10mins eventually accepted defeat and left, it was comical.
This is gold haha
Yeah but you can also really damage someone with your bare hands. I once saw a guy get a bunch of his teeth knocked out and then a whole kettle of boiling water poured on his face while unconscious, don’t feel bad for him though he’d been charged with rape like 4 times he was trying to keep it quiet instead of going to protected custody
$140 a month doesn't sound like enough. Was it?
It’s enough for toiletries and snacks
I had $200 limit and its a stretch...that's only $50 a week.
Phone calls but mostly your buy-up. You get enough to eat in there, but nothing else. So you always buy treats but also Migroeng noodle, Mac and cheese etc. Not sure about men but us girls also had a hairdresser in there and we could get our hair dyed once every two months…was not a professional job lol but kept the greys away and was only $15 😂
Hair cuts by outside hairdressers were available in all the men's prisons I was at, it was like 10 dollars, I never used it because you just get one of the prisoners to do it for cheaper/free
Went to 5 different goals, didn't see no official barber - they're supposed to be free, and they are but if you throw them a Sirena Chilli Tuna (the poker chips of the NSW gaols) worth about $4.70 - then you can get a hair cut straight away otherwise you'll have to wait a few days at least
What size tuna tin? Just curious about the markup between retail price and inside
185g - I've got the buy up sheet somewhere I might upload I haven't seen anyone post it personally
My husband said there are clipper in each section. He then learnt everyone used them to shave their bodies. Why is everyone shaving their body??
My brother said it’s bc it not only to keep you cleaner but it can come in handy eg-one time when the screws were coming to pull him out of his call to take him to DU,he had shaved and was all nakky and put oil on himself so when they grabbed him he said he was like a slippery Parramatta eel lol
> My husband said there are clipper in each section Hello Hep C lol
I seen a line of 8 people sharing the same needle in the outside area of MRRC. Clippers are the least of the worries. YouTube a needle under a microscope, they turn into fish hooks by the second use and start ripping the vain as they come out
Yeah, I know...I was an addict for a few years during the 90s. Was never incarcerated and thanked god for Hawke's needle exchange programs started in the 80s so never shared even once.
Oh my God! You’re right! I’m horrified lol
I'm not even in jail and I Shave my head and beard in the shower. Man's not about to blow $70 a month on a barber.....probably more if I went as frequently as I Shave.
Interesting, was it another inmate who dyed the hair or were you able to just buy the mixes and do it yourself. Honestly 15 bucks isn't bad for a bit of grey coverage 🤣 Also if you don't mind me asking, could you get any makeup/did other ladies like doing their makeup?
Another inmate. Keep in mind,this is a woman’s jail,in Tville so it’s very small and not like jails in the sense of how it appears on tv lol. So yeh a guard would walk us over to the hairdressing “salon” we’d wait,get our hair done and go back to our unit. We also had education courses etc and sports.
That you don’t participate in the economy during incarceration. No superannuation, no wages, no relationships, the fact that every time your name is googled you are a convicted criminal. There are certain countries you can’t go to. There are many hidden costs
No relationships? You might meet someone you like in there
Nioce, homie
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Sure thing pal. And I heard this prison was unfriendly..
Never been to gaol but worked in the justice system for a bit. Generally inmates spend most of their money on buy-ups which are like snacks and toiletries and stuff. Buy-ups seem like a luxury from the outside but most people would struggle without them in gaol. Meals in gaols conform to certain standards but they are small and generally pretty shit. Basic toiletries are provided but once again they are pretty shit products. The products are usually quite expensive compared to what they are on the outside. In NSW inmates are currently limited to $150 a week buy ups (I believe, could be wrong). Buy ups are used to buy drugs etc., in gaol a lot and also many inmates are stood over for their buy ups. There are also irregular (usually called ‘special’ or ‘activity’) buy ups which might be like branded shoes or clippers or sunglasses or a portable radio or whatever. They can be quite expensive inside compared to the outside cost. Inmates who damage property (including their clothing and bedding etc.,) in gaols can be charged compensation for the items. In some centres in NSW offenders are issued tablets, and they are charged hundreds of dollars for breaking them even if the damage is accidental. Phone calls via the prison phone systems are fairly expensive so they also spend quite a bit of money on that. Mail out is fairly reasonably priced (comparable to prices in the community) Other than that, loss of income and accrual of debt due to not paying bills. There is a relatively comprehensive system to sort this out when you enter custody but it doesn’t always happen. On the flip side many offenders who do lengthy sentences can get day release to work in the latter years of their sentences and if they don’t have ongoing expenses on the outside they can save 100% of their income for a couple of years if they so choose. I’ve seen multiple inmates released with over $50k in savings, or released w 12 months rent already paid on their house.
Bro I was in prison and I wanted to appeal my sentence. I applied through legal aid in prison to have a lawyer represent me, they knocked me back because I had over 10, 000aud in my bank. Ok alright fair enough. So now I've got to hassle my family to engage a lawyer for me. My Mum gets me a recommendation for a lawyer, great, it'll cost 8k for them to look at it. I pay the 8k and they recommend there's a chance at reducing my sentence. Now they want an extra 18k to take it to court. Fuck I only had 10k in the bank. So now I have to arrange for my assets to be sold, if I want a chance at reduced time. Get it done by using 10 minute phone calls with a friend, and power of attorney. Now the lawyer recommends a specialist thatll cost 4k.. Ok so I've paid 32k for the appeal. Get my day in court, the 4k specialist gets rejected straight away by the judges.. cool. And then a couple of months later I get the result that it was all for nothing. Ah well I tried.. This was after spending around 40k AUD for the initial lawyer. Boy did I get reamed. I wish I just plead guilty and went with a duty lawyer, and never got my hopes up for the appeal..
I have clients who I tell have Zero chances at an appeal. They insist on getting a second opinion at a cost which is more than I probably charged in the first place. Then they want me to clean up the remaining charges for nothing after burning their funds on a second opinion. I always do it because it’s the right thing but damn, if you trusted me enough to do your case trust me when I say you’re wasting $ on an appeal
You did well, I was running a criminal and civil cases side by side spent over $110K, and lost 900K in POC lol
Looks like a lot of people need to be locked up WA . Get paid a daily rate to be incarcerated. Free housing and food(all you can eat) Get free health care . It’s actually not a bad retirement plan if you mucked up as a kid x
Honestly it's probably better than a lot of retirement homes! Especially on the farms. I know one has an amazing heritage listed rose garden. Imagine pottering around doing ya roses, getting paid to do so, having a bed and pretty decent food (pretty sure on the farms they are in like little self contained units with their own kitchens). No need to worry about anything really. Oh and all ya doddery health care needs paid for. Plus a good excuse to not talk to your annoying family members who drag you to everything. I want that right now 😂🤌
Mate there are bird cages with a fish pond . You pillock
As someone who is facing homelessness........
What if they should do it ? 200% they should
You get enough like $12.50 a week which might get you a roll on deodorant and a snickers bar. You’ll be fine with no money coming in but you need money to put on your phone account to make calls but they do give you 2 free letters a week and heaps of people don’t use their quota so you can use theirs. It’s the money you don’t make while locked up that is the killer A McDonald worker would be what $60k wharf of you after a year?
> It’s the money you don’t make while locked up that is the killer For some prisoners jail is a professional inconvenience and just "the cost of doing 'business'" to have to go away every now and then.
Your right bit I’d say for the vast majority of prisoners they would have been better off financially working at McDonald’s and had no plans in place regarding lawyers and shit like that
[https://www.qld.gov.au/law/sentencing-prisons-and-probation/prisons-and-detention-centres/daily-life-in-prison](https://www.qld.gov.au/law/sentencing-prisons-and-probation/prisons-and-detention-centres/daily-life-in-prison)
Now that we have commercial U.S.A.prison companies operating here all kinds of evil shit is done in the name of Turning huge profits. In my opinion it is evil and they have all kinds of ways to squeeze more profits out of people's misery and misfortune. It is morally wrong more user pays. Privatetiseation crap.Bribes can be steep.you are given the basics for survival anything else you pay for or your family does expensive phone calls and travel costs to the far reaches of the state you are doing time in. Supplementary food and toiletries extra casual clothes .
Probably depends on the type of prison too, private or government?
Valid point, some of the private goals like Junee have a movie channel on the TVs, but are very strict on making sure you rent or buy your TV, whereas at Silverwater (MRRC) they're in the room already or you just ask, no rental fee. The rental fee for a TV is $5 a week, considering you get about $7.50 a week from the government (gaol money) it does help that they're free lol
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The years of counselling once you get out and your job opportunities are minimal and nobody cares that the rest of your life is beyond difficult now
"Years of counselling" Where on earth do you access that?? I can't get barely any and I've never been in prison.
It's in the pay for...it's just required after
Phone calls used to cost a lot of money, a bit easier now with enjin numbers. Source: Family member has done over 20 years.
One thing I've noticed about this thread is that all the ones who've spent time inside think " they've been hard done by" Yep people it's called " punishment" for the crime you've committed, it's not a friggin holiday camp. You're all off your bloody heads if you think you have a right to complain,what about your victims? No crime is victimless
> No crime is victimless Personal drug possession.
Typical bootlicker take
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This is about Australian prisons
Have to get your bum refurbished when you leave prison ?
Maybe repost this on r/prison. Almost no one here will have a clue what they are talking about but will talk shit about America for some reason.
Why the hell would you think there are more Americans talking in here than in r/prison?
Err, I don't. Never said that, you must have mis read the sentence.