James Frey insurance

I recently read this article about James Frey and his book A Million Little Pieces. Frey’s ‘memoir’ talked about a lot of the same things as mine – crime, addiction, prison, rehabilitation – and while a lot of these things did happen to Frey, they were embellished on in the book. (‘Embellished’ feels like the […]

Crime is going down in NSW but inmate numbers are skyrocketing, old prisons are reopening and it’s almost election time. Should we be worried?

After three years of dropping numbers, the prison population in NSW rose to over 10,500 between 2012 and 2014. The maximum capacity of NSW prisons is 11,000. Crime rates are mostly falling but changes in bail laws and higher rates of arrest and incarceration mean the numbers behind bars are likely to keep growing. Attempts […]

Oh Varuna, can’t I just live there?

Varuna, Oh Varuna. It doesn’t feel like words will suffice but I suppose I can convince them to. I was sharing the house with five other women. On the first night when we all met around the open fire, Janisis, the Varuna CEO said to us: ‘It’s not so much the lack of interruptions here, […]

A decomposing rat – or happy fourth birthday to my prison trauma

There is a dead rat lying in the gap between my psychiatrist’s building and the medical centre next door. It’s a big rat, at least 30 cms head to butt. It’s been there for a long time, skin is rotting off it in silvery shreds, white stick ribs glowing behind and between them. There’s pot […]

Gaol behind closed doors: What the media can’t show us when it comes to Home Detention

Paper presented at: UOW Presents: Crime, Cameras, Action, University of Wollongong, 18 February, 2012 Angela Williams A GET-out-of-jail free card will be given to 750 violent and dishonest criminals under a State Government plan to let them serve prison sentences in the comfort of their homes. As criminals were celebrating yesterday, victims groups were outraged […]

Police pay $5m for false imprisonment and assault

Sydney Morning Herald Anna Patty February 08, 2012 The NSW Police Force was forced to pay out more than $5 million to compensate people it had falsely imprisoned and assaulted last financial year. Figures provided by Police Minister Mike Gallacher’s office in response to questions from the Greens, show this was a $1 million increase […]

Mental health behind bars (part two): why women prisoners are set up to fail

Freelance journalist Inga Ting writes: Incidents of mental illness in our prison system are disproportionately high — particularly among female inmates. In part two of a special report into the NSW female prison population (read part one here), Inga Ting examines how they find themselves behind bars and why they are disadvantaged while they are […]

Mental health behind bars: why women prisoners are set up to fail

Inga Ting, Crikey, 9/12/2010 Jennifer (not her real name), a mother and university graduate, says she would not have considered herself at risk of suicide or self harm when she entered the prison system earlier this year. Before February, when she was arrested for a crime committed more than 12 years ago, Jennifer was enjoying […]