Doin' Time: Everyone deserves a second chance (Australian Stories) - Softcover

Porter, Rachel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1925429210 ISBN 13: 9781925429213

Publisher: Rockpool Publishing, 2016

Synopsis

Some kids get all the breaks. Some dont. This book is about the ones who ended up in prison the ones who had been abused or taken away from their families who had given up on society. Doin Time tells the stories of nine men who came from troubled and turbulent backgrounds who got offered a second chance and grabbed it. Many of them now work with vulnerable young people to give back as mentors or welfare officers motivational speakers and community leaders. Everyone deserves a second chance. Doin Time tells the stories of nine men who came from troubled and turbulent backgrounds who got offered a second chance and grabbed it.

About this title

About the Author

Rachel Porter is general manager of Whitelion, a charity supporting thousands of vulnerable young people across Australia. She is on the board of Family Access Network and is an Australia Day Ambassador. She has been involved in the not-for-profit sector for over 20 years, working with various children's causes, including World Reconciliation Day events with Nelson Mandela. Rachel has been recognised for her charity work as a finalist in the 2009 Australian of the Year awards and receiving the Patch Adams Humanitarian of the Year award in 1999.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Doin' Time

Everyone Deserves a Second Chance

By Rachel Porter, Mary Trewby

Rockpool Publishing Pty Ltd

Copyright © 2016 Whitelion Incorporated
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-925429-21-3

Contents

Prologue, 
Preface, 
The Whitelion Story, 
PART I, 
1. John, 
2. Todd, 
3. Jeremy, 
4. Arthur, 
5. Jeff 'Joffa', 
6. Stephen, 
7. Glenn, 
8. Peter, 
9. Tony, 
PART II, 
10. The view from law enforcement, 
11. Facing the law, 
12. The children's commissioner, 
13. Street beat: outreach workers, 
14. Working in the prison system, 
15. Mending broken minds, 
APPENDICES, 
Appendix 1: The ice issue, 
Appendix 2: The youth justice system, 
Appendix 3: Youth justice centres in Australia, 
Appendix 4: Resources for youth at risk, 
Acknowledgements, 

CHAPTER 1

JOHN

John has a burning desire to help young people who might find themselves in the same situation as he did when he was their age. When I arrived to talk to him, I was greeted by his partner and a healthy happy little tot scooting around on his three-wheeler.

It had taken John some time to agree to be interviewed and I could feel his emotional state from the moment I entered the room.

He described the last time he stole a car, where he and his cohorts drove the vehicle and where it was found. Strangely, I'd had my car stolen around the same time and it was recovered in the same place John mentioned. Could it have been my car they had stolen? They never found the culprits but I remembered my feelings when I saw the empty space where my car should have been and I never thought about who stole my car and what their lives were like. My world was very one-dimensional; my car was gone and I was hoping it would be found and the thieves punished.

As I listened to John, I started to understand why he engaged in criminal activities and how he escaped the temptation to continue a life of crime.

John: in his own words

I was born in a small country town. My parents got divorced when I was about two years old and we moved around a bit, to different towns, states, schools, just my mum and I and my three brothers. It was tough for my mother having to work and look after all of us and she did a good job. But it was still unsettling for us kids. I'm not sure why we moved so much. Mum had different boyfriends and became engaged a couple of times, so there were different men coming in and out of our lives.

There was no stable house or school life in those days, and no proper role model or mentor like a father would be, and that was pretty tough. She drank a lot and most of the boyfriends drank to excess, so with the drinking there was a lot of violence against her and us kids. These are the memories I have from when I was about four. Mum was always in abusive types of relationships that she couldn't get out of. If you don't change your habit you are always going to be in that same situation. I don't know much about what her life was like growing up — she was one of ten children, three sisters and six brothers growing up on a farm — but I think there were hard times, particularly after her father passed away. Her brothers were alcoholics for a long time and that's what she may have been used to — so it wasn't surprising she was in those kinds of relationships herself. She always tried her best to look after us, but she couldn't always achieve that.

I was the second youngest of four. My younger brother had a different father to us other three, which was a bit of an issue when we were little but it's not now — he's no different to my older brothers and we all feel the same about each other.

I started to get into trouble when I was about 10 or 12. Looking back, I think what I was doing was acting out trying to get attention, because I didn't want to be there. I started lighting fires on vacant blocks and in paddocks and that kind of thing. I wasn't trying to get caught, but it was just something I did. I don't know why. I did nothing for a while, and then I went through a time when Mum had no boyfriends and I had to deal with my brothers. My older brother tried to play the father role and help Mum keep me in line, but he was too overbearing and even tried to tell Mum what to do. He was only 16 at the time and he started to become abusive towards me, belting me if I came home late or grounding me for whatever. I felt scared all the time, and was depressed living at home. I was just waiting to escape but had nowhere to go.

One thing led to another and I started hanging around with some friends and we'd get into drinking and smoke drugs. That went on for a while and me not being home caused a lot of tension. My brother was always looking for me and Mum would call the police to try to find me. They never stopped to think why I was out all the time and why I didn't want to come home. They just thought it was me and my problem.

I have never told this story to anyone before. I took the opportunity and ended up doing a burg and assault. I just walked into people's backyards to see what I could find to sell or take away. It wasn't thought through at all and it was done in desperation. I thought if I could get money I could get away, but that didn't really turn out. I got charged two weeks later. I was only 13. My mum called my uncle and they came down to the police station. I was scared, not knowing what to do. I was being interviewed by the cops and trying not to get my friends in trouble. The police asked if I was under the influence — on drugs, drinking, and so on — and I was saying no to everything, even though I had been drinking and taking drugs. I found out later that if I had told the truth it would have been easier for me. But I didn't want to dob in my friends so I went through the whole process of being charged with assault, burglary, theft and going into the holding cells. Juvenile justice.

Once I was in the juvenile system I became more isolated with no friends or family. Mum came to visit a few times — it may have only been three or four times because it was a bit of a travel. It also must have been hard for her to visit her 13-year-old in jail. She probably thought she was a failure and she would cry herself to sleep, which she told me about — that was hard to hear. I didn't mean to upset or hurt anyone else or get into trouble but I just didn't know what to do and just wanted to be out of there and gone and thought life would be better.

I went to Parkville Juvenile Justice Centre on remand. I went to court and got sentenced to seven months in Parkville. I was in there for about three or four months and with remand it could have been five months total. Going into Parkville was a real experience. I was obviously scared and had to face the reality that now I had no control over my life — someone else was not just telling me when to go to bed or go to my room but everything I had to do. But at the same time, I know it's not as bad as the adult prisons, so I think myself lucky I wasn't in there.

Inside it was very industrial, with a lot of glass with metal frames around the windows and all fairly modern, apart from all the doors and locks. Some people were intimidating and I guess I had my moments in there just like the others. I didn't get picked on but you have confrontations. I got put into isolation for fighting but I didn't get singled out like a lot of the other kids did, the smaller ones.

The first time I walked into this room where they play pool, there are all these kids and I thought it was great and started chatting. It was kind of cruisy, then one of the kids was really mouthy to the staff. I asked him why he was talking to them like that and he just said they were arseholes and I said I wouldn't do that. I was talking to the staff the next day and mentioned he had been so rude to them. They said that I would end up being rude to them too. And within a couple of weeks I was like that too. I'm not sure how much good it does for someone being incarcerated like that. You are putting a heap of criminals together and I don't think it's a great idea. I don't know what the solution is, though.

You just go through the system and the daily grind of it. I didn't have to do anything that hard. They set a routine and they give you some sort of resemblance of life outside: education, fitness, social stuff. They offer what they can with what they have inside the framework.

I was 14 when I got out on parole, but I couldn't go back home. They decided the best thing for me would be to go into residential care with McKillop Family Services in Carlton with two or three other kids. That was okay — you have a bit of freedom. I ended up being there a year-and-a-half and I ended up going to school but I didn't really settle into it.

Mum didn't want me back because of all the tension. The family basically disowned me, so I was dealing with that as well. Everyone I got along with in the family — my aunties and uncles — were gone. I thought it was obviously all just bullshit and they didn't care about the family at all. This is something I have grown to appreciate about other families, Greek families and Italian families — they are very family-orientated, which is fantastic. I wish more Australian families were like that. It doesn't matter what happens, it's important that you support your family — but that wasn't a priority in my family. If you are going really well, your family is very supportive — like with my other brothers who were achieving and getting their Year 12 VCEs etc — but if something goes wrong they disown you. It's a very shallow attitude when you think about it.

I reflect a lot about it now, about how I felt isolated. I told one of the guys I was hanging around with a bit and I stayed at his house sometimes. But the more educated you become, the more experiences you have and the different things you see, then the more you learn from other people and why you did what you did. I look at it and analyse the situations and come up with my own conclusion.

I only went back to school on and off. It didn't really work and I went back to drugs and stealing cars. Drugs were being smuggled into Parkville so I was on and off drugs during that time. While I was in the juvenile detention centre, I met kids from all different units and once we were out we were stealing cars together and would all hang out together.

Luckily I never got caught again. I was only in trouble that once. I'm not sure if we were smarter about how we did it or if it was just dumb luck. I remember one time we stole a car and we decided I would drive because I looked older. We had put up 'P' plates that we'd found in the glove box and were sitting on Nepean Highway and a cop car pulled up beside us. The cop looked at us. She looked young. I smiled and waved, the light went green and we just casually took off — that was the closest I ever came to getting caught again. I will never forget that, I was only 14 with my little baby face. It was a VH Holden and I ended up breaking the gear shift because we thrashed it.

We took a car from Port Melbourne and went over West Gate Bridge heading towards Geelong. We were searching around in the car and pulled out a wallet from under the seat. It had $400 in it, so we spent the money on drugs and alcohol. The last one was when we filled the car with petrol in Hastings and we pulled out onto the road from the service station. There was a heap of cars approaching and it was an 80 zone. I told the kid who was driving to watch out for the traffic. As he pulled out a 4WD hit us from behind flat out and we were pushed sideways across into the other lane and they ran off the road. So there is a major collision involving three or four cars. So this kid is trying to drive flat out. We ended up in a side street and had to dump the car. After that I thought no more because it had got too real. I don't know what happened to those people in the accident. But that was enough for me and I never drove a stolen car again.

The gang would come around at 2 am, knocking on my window and asking me to go and get a car, but I always said no.

Eventually I went to live with my dad. I hadn't lived with him since I was two, even though I had seen him on and off over the years. He wasn't much better — not a heavy drinker but firm and old school. When I was little he would get the jug cord or aerial or whatever and strap me, then his girlfriend would get on the rum and carry on with the spoon and so I would end up with welts, like most kids I guess.

My dad would belt me with a jug cord over anything — like breaking something, not eating my dinner or whatever. I was about 15 when I went to live with him — to his credit, he was the only one who decided to take me on. It took a bit of adjusting because he lived out on a farm, which was a bit isolated from everything, and he is very independent and set in his ways so we clashed a bit. I was off the drugs at this stage, although I was never overly addicted to them — it was more a social thing.

He wanted me to get a job, on paper it was good but he was still verbally abusive towards me and a bit physically abusive. I'm amazed I'm not like that. I have my moments when I get agitated, but I calm myself down. I can't work out how people can treat other people like that, it's terrible. I was there for four or five years and overall it was good — my dad had it worse than I did when he was a kid and I never feel hard done by because there are always others out there a lot worse off. I just try to get on with it. I think you should try to be an improvement on your parents. The next generation will hopefully be better placed if everyone tries to not make the same mistakes as their parents did and break the cycle.

My dad went to live with this woman and I stayed and started paying the rent. I had a youth worker through Cutting Edge Youth Services who tried to get me to do distance education, but I didn't do the work because there was no one keeping me in line. I ended up enrolling in a course in Cobram and got my Year 10, then I got a job on an orchard in between the TAFE stuff. Everything took off from there.

When I was at Parkville, this guy called Mark Watt, who was a manager there, reached out and helped me. He organised for Jim Stynes from Reach to have a one-on-one chat with me and he told me about this walk he was doing. They had mentors wanting to mentor young people and had business people involved — they wanted to connect and break down the barriers that divide people in the community. I was lucky enough to get invited to go on the trek, along with two other girls and staff. I didn't know what to expect. Jim said it was going to be an epic life-changing experience and if I let it, it will change my life. It will be a big deal. The other inmates were jealous because I was going to get to go out.

This trek did change my life. I think I was chosen to go because I ticked all the boxes as far as they were concerned: I wasn't high risk, I didn't have any family and I was isolated.

I got buddied up with a guy called Martin on the trek. At one of the stops this little bloke comes over and says, 'How are you going, mate? I saw you walking around over there chatting earlier. Do you want to walk and talk a bit?' His name was Keith, then Martin got sick and dropped out and I did the rest of the trek on my own or with Keith. It was an amazing experience and made a big impression on me. It opened my eyes to so many things, seeing the possibilities and positives that can come from just one weekend — something like that can give young people that spark to change their lives forever.

Keith ended up coming in to visit me a couple of times and so did one of the other trek guides, Tim, who befriended me. When I went out into resi care, he came to visit. The first time he took me to Rathdowne Street for breakfast, which was sausages and bacon. I had two mouthfuls then spat it out and said, 'I'm not eating this shit, mate.' He said, 'You've been locked up. I thought it would be good to take you out and give you something nice.' I guess he saw I was very straightforward. The next time we caught up was at Macca's and we had an egg and bacon roll and we worked each other out a bit and he said, 'Anytime you need someone to talk to, just call me.'

I would give him a call sometimes and have a chat and catch up. Keith became a constant positive thing in my life. Once I moved up to my dad's I still chatted with Keith and he arranged for me to stay with him a couple of times. I also stayed at Mark's house a bit and got to know his family. This was about two years later. I was living in a bungalow.

I started to have constant people in my life. After I had done my Year 10 course I went down to Keith's house in Mount Eliza which looked over the beach and he had other people come over for a barbecue. One of them was a girl named Carla, who used to work for Whitelion. Carla and I started talking and we came up with this idea of having young people doing a trek together. A couple of weeks later I got a call from Carla wanting to take our idea further.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Doin' Time by Rachel Porter, Mary Trewby. Copyright © 2016 Whitelion Incorporated. Excerpted by permission of Rockpool Publishing Pty Ltd.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Edition details

• Publisher: Rockpool Publishing
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1925429210
• ISBN 13: 9781925429213
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 264