The failure of law and order

The hidden costs of incarceration

Featured in

  • Published 20160202
  • ISBN: 978-1-925240-80-1
  • Extent: 264pp
  • Paperback (234 x 153mm), eBook

‘TWO-MINUTE NOODLES!’ Lee is leaning forward on the edge of her sofa, animated. She’d recently visited an old jail-mate who was still in the Emu Plains prison in Sydney’s west, and the two women had reminisced about the noodles. ‘They brought in pre-cooked meals, and you’d get dinner around 3.30 pm. We weren’t supposed to reheat the meals later, but we did because 3.30 was too early to eat. We’d get a little packet of chicken wings, three wings each. Later, we’d all put our chicken wings together, break the chicken off, andget the two-minute noodles and a can of mushrooms that we’d buy on buy-up, and a can of diced capsicum, and make up a meal from that that was more tasty than the pre-packaged food.’

Previously, things had been better. The women had been growing vegetables, some doing TAFE courses in horticulture, and they cooked their own meals from scratch in cottages. That was when they were at Berrima Gaol, in the New South Wales Southern Highlands. Berrima Gaol was, Lee says, ‘amazing’. She was a poker-machine addict who was jailed for fraud. It was at Berrima that she began to understand how the pokies blocked out earlier traumas. Just before she went to jail she had a breakdown, and through a family dispute lost contact with her young son. In jail she learnt techniques for managing her depression. Weighed down by shame and sorrow, she was encouraged to focus on things she could take pride in.

Already a subscriber? Sign in here

If you are an educator or student wishing to access content for study purposes please contact us at griffithreview@griffith.edu.au

Share article

More from author

More from this edition

The memory ladder

EssayTHERE APPEARS TO be a deep attraction to the naive idea that we can re-create ourselves and our societies at will, with no regard...

The limits of ‘new power’

EssayIN THE PAST decade, using the internet to harness people’s passion and direct it in support of issues and causes has become an important...

Teaching Australia

MemoirI AM THIRTY-EIGHT and tired. I’m only a third of the way through my class roll, a list that hurts my heart if I study it for too long. But I know what to do with these students. I’m an excellent teacher. I know how to bring them together. I am able to create a feeling of family and safety and security. In my classroom they know they can take risks and try new things and experience failure while being supported by me and by each other.

Stay up to date with the latest, news, articles and special offers from Griffith Review.