Prisoner separating his whites from his darks

This next story is not one of my own but tells of times when you believe you are doing well, and something knocks you down, and you have to somehow find a way to pull yourself back up and start again.

It was late January, and the program rooms in the prisons were hot and stuffy. The thought of sitting in there with a dozen sweaty prisoners was not appealing on these sorts of days. But I loved my job and always found it rewarding. It was the type of job I would do even if I didn’t get paid. I looked forward to Monday mornings; I would bounce out of bed, looking forward to what the day would bring and the characters I would meet. The room was set up and the prisoners were flowing in. Jason bounced in the room, with a big smile across his face.

“I am ready to go home, Miss”

“Ok, Jason, let’s go through everything to make sure you stay home this time.”

Over the weeks we covered housing, education, employment, and independent living, along with many other topics, to ensure Jason and the other prisoners in the group had the best opportunities once they were released.

This particular day we began the discussion on independent living skills. We talked about things like how often you should clean your house or change the sheets on your bed. We discussed budgeting, along with healthy eating. We ended up getting into a group discussion on how often you change your bed sheets and how you sort your washing. It was general stuff that most of us learned from our parents, but for many in prison, no one had ever bothered to teach them these basic living skills. Many were often homeless and didn’t even have the luxury to ensure they washed their clothes or changed their sheets. During these sessions, many prisoners would often say, why didn’t anyone tell me about this shit before?

Jason was engaging in the group discussion, asking questions about washing his clothes. He had said that as he was homeless most of his life, and as a result he didn’t wash his clothes, he would just wear the same ones. At times different Salvation Army workers would give him new clothes when he went to the food bank, and he would throw his old clothes in the bin.

Fast forward two months and Jason’s release went well. He was motivated to stay on the right path and was very enthusiastic to learn as much as he could with his post-release case worker by his side, to ensure he stayed out this time. Jason grew up in a very dysfunctional family and later bounced from foster home to foster home until he eventually ended up on the streets homeless and eventually found himself in prison just surviving. His mother wasn’t in his life, and he had never met his father. The friends he did have were in prison themselves.

As Jason had learning difficulties, prior to release, he was allocated a post-release worker to support him over the next 12 months to ensure he settled into the community. The only housing we could find for Jason was in a caravan park. He was happy just to be out and have a place to call his own for a while. The caseworker touched base with him a couple of times a week to make sure he stayed on track and had all the support he needed. They went shopping together and planned Jason’s meals for the week to ensure he saved money and ate well. He was excited to keep his home clean, as now he knew what he needed to do and was eager to please his case worker.

It was a sunny day and Jason thought; Today is the day I will do my washing. Nicole told me to sort out my whites from my colours and wash my towels separately. Jason had brought his washing powder and a new washing basket. He made his way over to the caravan park laundry room with his $2 in hand ready to do his washing. He was loading his darks into the washing machine and looked down and realised that he had been wearing the same clothes for the last three days. As he was loading his clothes into the machine the group discussion instructions were ringing through his ears. Whites with whites and darks with darks—don’t mix the two. He had his dark clothes loaded in the machine and powder in the top ready to go and thought to himself, I better throw these darks in with the load too. Thinking he was doing the right thing, he stripped off naked, wrapped a towel around him and waited for the machine to wash his clothes.

Jason stood with a big smile across his face, feeling very pleased with himself. He was standing there feeling very proud as he had never done this before, and he was putting into place one of the new skills he had learned while in prison. The next minute his heart started to beat hard as he heard the familiar sound of a police siren. He thought to himself he hadn’t done anything wrong; he had done everything everyone had told him to do since leaving prison. He looked over to see two officers getting out of their car and walking his way. He had been in this same situation many times in the past, and he started to feel anxious.

The officers walked into the laundry room and asked him.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“I am washing my darks,” he said.

“We have had complaints about a naked man standing in the caravan park laundry room.”

Jason started to get upset as he was trying to explain that he was doing exactly what he was told to do. The officers were trying to explain that he just can’t strip off naked and stand in a public place to do your washing. Jason kicked off and started to get aggressive as he had really tried this time, and he was still in trouble. He started throwing things around the laundry and at the officers. They ended up taking Jason into the station to sort out just exactly what was going on.

The post-release caseworker arrived at the police station to sort it all out. The officers said all they could get out of him was that he needed to separate his whites from his darks. The situation was sorted, and Jason was allowed to go home. Stories like Jason’s are common, his life story is a sad one, but it all ended up well for him in the end with his newfound knowledge of life’s simple things along with the support of his case worker.

For my colleagues and me, Jason’s little outing in the caravan laundry mat with him yelling out the police car window. “But they told me to sort my whites from my darks” allows us to release some stress and create some lightheartedness around difficult situations. Respectful dark humour in the world of working with prisoners allowed us to stay sane in this crazy world.