When too many young Aboriginal men come to see prison as a normal stage of growing up, the question is not only what has gone wrong with them – but what has happened to the society around them.

An Aboriginal prisoner once leaned towards me with a mischievous smile and whispered, “We’re Australia’s Uyghurs. Tucked away here, out of sight, out of mind.” His remark has stayed with me, not because of the comparison itself, but because it revealed how clearly many inmates understand the contradictions of the society that imprisons them.

The numbers help explain why his provocative comparison lingered. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people make up just under 4 per cent of Australia’s population, yet they account for 37 per cent of the nation’s prisoners and are imprisoned at around 15 times the rate of other Australians.

“Komla! Komla! Come and meet my missus!”

I was hurrying through a Cairns shopping centre when a young Aboriginal man called my name and hurried over with his partner.

“This is Komla,” he said proudly. “I’ve been telling you about him.”

“And this is my missus. We’re family again. Our little boy’s happy. Things are really going good.”

It had been more than two years since we had seen each other, yet I immediately remembered the goal he had written for himself: to reunite with my family and become the best dad I can be.

We had first met inside Lotus Glen Correctional Centre, where Father Les Baird and I were facilitating Family Wellbeing. Seeing him now, not as a prisoner but simply as a proud partner and father, reminded me how unpredictable change can be. It also carried me back more than three decades to another moment........

© Pearls and Irritations