September 28, 2018
The trouble with prison, even if you are only there for a short time, is that you lose trust in strangers. At Beechworth Correctional Centre there were only about 120 inmates. In a very short space of time you get used to seeing the same faces, you know who to talk to, who to wave or nod to, who to avoid.…
August 17, 2018
I could never look my dad in the eye when he was angry. We would sit at the kitchen table, or he would perch on the side of my bed, and I would stare at his mouth. I would watch the words form and push and escape. His mouth was bordered by a well-trimmed bread, speckled with black and grey…
June 19, 2018
Wil Patterson answers our 11 questions in 11 minutes. Get to know the author of Mr Ordinary Goes to Jail before it’s July release. 1. What is your idea of bliss? Getting up first while camping, preferably on a cool spring morning, starting the fire going, still in my pjs, and the smell of the coffee starts to mingle with the…
June 19, 2018
Today is the second Monday in December. Monday’s at Beechworth are one of my favourite days because we get to leave the prison. On a Monday a small group of kitchen workers leave the jail, with a guard of course, and spend most of the day cooking at the community centre. On a normal week we make around 150 meals…
June 14, 2018
Gwen “It’s been a tough weekend at our place”, Robin said, “Gwen has Cancer.” Shit, I thought, Which one of Robin’s kids is Gwen? I knew I only had about four seconds before I had to contribute something. In that time I wanted to show Robin what a good mate I was, by recalling something about his daughter Gwen. “All…