Killing Time Read Free Page A

Bill White in the County Court at Melbourne to an indefinite term because it was clear that this man refused to accept responsibility for his actions and that the prospect of any meaningful rehabilitation was negligible. Unfortunately, on appeal, that indefinite term of imprisonment was reduced to sixteen years with a minimum of fourteen before Davies was eligible for parole. Having lived in the same cell with Davies for a few months, it was apparent to me that he had absolutely no intention of ever changing, because you can’t change until you come to terms with and admit your own transgressions.
    Polonius, in Shakespeare’s play Hamlet , said “This above all: to thine own self be true.” This is the key to not reoffending. This man will be released and will reoffend. The logic from the Court of Appeal was that he will be in jail for such a long while that he well may think about taking sex offenders’ counselling while in jail. In my view the chances of that happening are a million to one and drifting. Davies had a record of twenty-nine prior offences, which included offences against three small children. I believe people with this sort of background do not deserve to live in our society again. Davies was in protection because in jail paedophiles (known as rock spiders because they can creep into very small crevices) are despised by the mainstream prison population. He would in all likelihood have been killed by other inmates in mainstream. The incomprehensible part was that I was in protection with him!
    It was interesting to note, however, that rapist/murderers such as Peter Dupas or Raymond Edmonds were not in the same danger within Sirius East because their offences weren’t considered by inmates to be as bad as those against children. Work that one out for yourself!
    The only thing I saw Davies do to fill his day while I was living with him was to work on nuts and bolts, which is the rehabilitation all inmates receive in jail. The work involved the assembly of a bolt with a sleeve and a nut, known by the trade name of Dynabolt. You take the bolt, you put the sleeve on, screw on the nut and throw the Dynabolt in a tub. Try doing that for hours per day without going nuts yourself. The other thing Davies did was take all the drugs prescribed for him, and they must have been substantial because he would be lucky to get past eight o’clock at night without becoming comatose. That is how people are treated in jail. Not once while I was in protection, which was fifteen months, did I see Davies speak to a counsellor or a psychologist about his problems, even after he had been convicted for the umpteenth time.
    The first thing you notice about jail is the complete futility of it all. Despair is all too common and some blokes opt out permanently. The rest of us are left to “kick along with it”, as they say in jail. It was during this period that depression and panic attacks first became known to me. All my life I have had been a bit of an optimist, with the view that the glass is half full rather than half empty, and depression hit hard. The panic attacks are the worst: an attack often hits as you lie awake in the middle of the night. You say to yourself that there is logically nothing to worry about, there is no reason to panic, yet it still goes on and you have to hang in there and sit it out.
    So here I stand completely bewildered, terrified. I’m like a rabbit caught in the headlights. I don’t know what’s going to happen here but this place is full of mad and bad bastards and anything could happen to me. I hold very real fears for my safety.
    I look around the cell block and try to get a grasp on who’s who at the zoo.

Chapter 2
    Who’s Who at the Zoo
    It is not usually considered a sign of robust mental health to be hearing voices from burning bushes.
    â€“ ROBERT SOPALSKY, JUNK FOOD MONKEYS
    I cast my eye around the unit. I recognise a number of faces I have