Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Hey folks, this little story I'd like to tell you is probably a good one for the youngins, the 18 year olds going to jail, probably not even committing crime, just doing silly things.
[00:00:15] At this stage during my sentence I was at Cadell Training Centre, a minimum security jail.
[00:00:22] It's a working jail, has no fences or anything like that.
[00:00:27] There's lots of different jobs there as a dairy, it grows fruit, olives, etc.
[00:00:37] But anyway, at that stage I was working in the laundry with a lifer.
[00:00:43] Him and myself did all the washing for the inmates that lived in the cells.
[00:00:50] That prison had cell, had a cell block, also had dormitories, houses and cottages.
[00:00:57] So I was in there with this lifer, we're doing the washing and located just outside the laundry was a big long bench that people could sit at when they were in the yard and you had to couldn't smoke in the laundry because back then we were allowed to smoke in jail.
[00:01:16] So I happened to just go outside for a cigarette and there was a couple of blokes there and then right down the very end was this real young lad, he was 18 and he was looking scared shitless.
[00:01:31] So I went and sat down next to him, he was shaken, he didn't know what to say to me. So I introduced myself, said hello, things like that.
[00:01:40] And I was rolling a smoke and then I said, you smoke? And he said, yeah, yeah, but it's not going to cost me anything, is it? And I said of course it's not mate, would you see having a yarn, mate?
[00:01:53] So I wrote him a racy, we call them a racy in jail. They're like a very small, very small rolled up cigarette because, you know, you've got to make your smokes last.
[00:02:04] So he had that and I had mine and we, we got talking and he seemed really scared, really scared.
[00:02:14] So after we finished our smoke I said look, I'll work inside the laundry here, there's only me and another bloke in there. Would you like to come in and you know, you can give us a hand or we can have continue having a chalk talk and things like that. And he said yeah, yeah, yeah, please, please.
[00:02:28] So he came in and one of his first questions to me was, has anyone ever escaped from here?
[00:02:36] And I said, well yeah, they have.
[00:02:39] Which is, which is a funny story. You know, we've seen people trying to escape on right on lawnmowers at the front gates but they get caught. So I explained to him like, you know, why do you want to escape? What, what, what's going on here.
[00:02:57] And he said, oh, I don't really want to talk about it, but I'm really scared. Etc. I said, it's all right mate, you know, I'm your mate.
[00:03:05] Yeah. So continued doing the laundry and stuff like that. He gave me a hand and folding up some clothes and whatnot. And then, then he, then he broke down and he said, I took some, someone offered me something and I took it from him.
[00:03:18] And after I took it from him, they said that I own a pouch of cigarettes, a pouch of white ox. And he goes, I have no money, I can't pay that back and I'm going to get bashed. And I'm so scared.
[00:03:32] I thought to myself, oh, here we go, the old stand up trick in jail, stand over someone.
[00:03:40] So we kept talking and whatnot. And he was located in the cell blocks upstairs. I was downstairs.
[00:03:48] So what I did was I went and spoke to the supervisor, the chief supervisor that was on staff and I said, listen, can we have a bit of a yarn?
[00:03:57] And she invited me into her office. Yes, she was a female officer, invited me into her office and I said, look, I'm going to call him Pete. Let's say that I'm going to call him young Pete.
[00:04:09] I said, look, I met young Pete today and he's scared. He's scared shitless, man.
[00:04:15] He, he's thought about running away and this, that and the other because he's scared. He's a young lad in jail, he doesn't know anyone and you know, look at some of the people around here, you know, I know it's a minimum security jail, man. And me and the supervisor had a yarn.
[00:04:40] And then it was decided that young Pete would be moved into my, my cell.
[00:04:46] So Pete moved into my cell that night and I think it really eased him down a lot because we, we'd had that chat during the day.
[00:04:55] Pete didn't know anything that transpired from my conversation with the supervisor and neither did anyone else in that jail.
[00:05:07] But we got talking and things like that. Now, now Pete's story is very interesting. Pete's story is very interesting because one, Pete lived with his mum on the outside and Pete's mum, like a lot of other mums, had just had enough. She was a single mum. She'd had enough for the fact that young Pete, she'd go to work to earn the money to pay the rent and the food and the Internet connection and whatever. And young Peter just sit on his PlayStation all day and play games and smoke cones. Yep. Pete used to smoke cones and play PlayStation all day. And it had just become enough for his mum. Like, she. She couldn't deal with it no more. That young Pete just wanted to smoke cones, not do anything with his Life and play PlayStation. So she'd had enough one day and she kicked young Pete out.
[00:05:59] She said, go on, go on, get. Young Pete didn't have a father, but, yeah, this was in Elizabeth, but that doesn't, you know, happens anywhere.
[00:06:10] So young Pete was on the streets and young Pete couldn't eat. Mum didn't want him, he didn't want to go back there because Mum kicked him out and all the rest of it.
[00:06:23] So young Pete needed to eat, obviously. So what he did was he found a service station. I'm not going to name the service station because that'd be rude.
[00:06:32] They throw out, you know, a lot of businesses throw food out, you know, after being the Bama Reef for so long or the, the. The pie warmers and all that. Young Pete learned that this servo used to throw food out at 11 o' clock at night behind a barrier and into a dumpster. And then that dumpster would be collected, obviously, later by the garbage truck.
[00:06:55] But young Pete jump. Jumped the barrier, grabbed a couple of pies out.
[00:07:00] He got caught. Anyway, he got into a bit of trouble by the police and they told him it was trespassing and theft and whatever, which I don't know. I think that's if you're throwing food out, then let a kid eat if he's hungry.
[00:07:15] So anyway, Pete done this for three days in a row and got caught three days in a row. So he got sent before a magistrate.
[00:07:23] Pete still didn't speak to his mum about this. He was too embarrassed and too scared and whatever. Pete got sent into 14 days in jail. Fancy that. The old beat gives him 14 days in jail for stealing a pie because the lad's hungry. That's how he ended up in jail.
[00:07:41] So during that time, because he obviously went to. Everyone goes to Yatla straight away after they're sentenced for a sentence plan. And then he was immediately shipped off to Cadell for the other 13 days.
[00:07:55] But during that time, me and Pete, you know, we spoke a lot and I got a social worker involved. I went and seen the social worker and told her about Pete's situation because Pete was gonna do his sentence, which was a straight sentence, meaning he had no parole, just 14 days, that's it. And he was gonna be sent back, straight back to the streets.
[00:08:18] He'd be sent straight back to the streets.
[00:08:21] He Wouldn't even get a Centrelink check or any assistance because you only receive that if you do three weeks in jail. More, more than 14 days in jail.
[00:08:32] So he was going to be released with no money, no accommodation, no nothing.
[00:08:37] So I spoke to the social worker and we came up with a plan. We thought the best thing is to do is to speak to his mum.
[00:08:46] So the social worker, Pete, I didn't speak to his mum, obviously, because I was a convicted criminal and I can't speak to people on the outside that aren't on my own phone account.
[00:08:59] But we organized for Pete to be reunited with his mum and Pete was going to change his life, which is a good thing for Pete.
[00:09:12] So the last remaining few days, Pete used to help me in the laundry and things like that. By then, everyone used to, all the other, the other crims, they used to call Pete my shadow.
[00:09:26] How's your shadow going? He's a good lad.
[00:09:30] We really like him. And you've helped him, helped him a lot, Don.
[00:09:34] You know, we wish him to wish him well and all that sort of thing.
[00:09:38] On Pete's last day, the morning that Pete was being released, you have to go and you've got to get your, your bedding ready and you put it all into a bag. You put your prisoners clothes into a bag and the, the night before they give you back your, your, your outside clothes, the clothes you came into jail with. So I washed Pete's outside clothes for him, you know, so he, you know, wasn't smelling like a pig to go back to his mum and things like that. So he packed up all his stuff and I was in the laundry and, and I knew Pete was going to come see me before he left, but it was by day at the same time.
[00:10:16] So what, what we did for Pete at Cadill Training center, the canteen isn't like it is in other jails where you have to put in a buy slip and order things and all that. It's actually more like a delicatessen. You can. Everyone lines up and you can just walk into the deli a few at a time and you can go, yeah, I want that, I want that, I want this, that and the other. So Pete was a smoker, as I told you before. So we bought him a packet, a, a 25 gram white oxygen, a couple of packs of papers and then when he comes see me, I gave, I gave that to Pete and I said, listen, I know you're getting out with no money, mate, you don't want to sponge off your mum straight away. So here's some cigarettes. You need to really help your mum out now because you don't want to be kicked out again and you need to try and get yourself some kind of employment or do some training and things like that. So, so mum thinks you're really trying to put an effort in now. Like I said to you, Pete didn't have a dad.
[00:11:17] And this is one of the things I remember about this story. Pete walked up to me and he put his arms around me and he said to me in front of some other blokes, I don't know my dad, I've never had a dad, but if I did have a dad, I wish he was you.
[00:11:35] That's a powerful message from a young 18 year old who was on the wrong side of. You know, he didn't even do anything wrong other than smoke some cones, play on his PlayStation too much and didn't do what his mum said. This is a thing you young people need to understand.
[00:11:53] You can't just play on online games all the time. You can't smoke cones all the time. You've got to go out, you've got to do something constructive with your life.
[00:12:02] Now I gave, I didn't even have a phone number on the outside. This, that and the other.
[00:12:07] I never ran into Pete ever since.
[00:12:10] But I truly wish that ever since then that Pete succeeded in life and he made something of himself.
[00:12:21] That's the story, folks.
[00:12:23] It's a hard one for someone that's just entering jail.
[00:12:27] But you got to understand, you young kids can't sit around and around on PlayStations all day and smoke cones and expect your mum, your dad or whoever not to get shitty with you. You got to get off your ass and you got to do something with your life, otherwise you're just going to be a doll bludger all your life.
[00:12:45] That's the story, folks. Don't be a doll bludger. Do something with your life. No matter what it is. Volunteer somewhere. If you can't get a job, help someone else out in the community.
[00:12:58] Anyway, folks, love and respect Don Barron.
