It was not the finger-wagging he was used to. It pushed him to open up, and talk about buried shards of his life, episodes he would rather forget, like the five foster parents that walked away. The courses were run by Carniche, a Carlton-based company of psychologists that understood junkies did not get better by being brutalised. Such enlightened thinking was not available when Mike first went to jail seven years ago. But things are slowly changing.
Therapists are now inside with jailers.
If you do the crime, you can now use the time, instead of burning it. This is not a seamless or easy process. Prison officers are struggling with some loss of power, and a more complex role, and prisoners are struggling with the demands of self-responsibility and participation. The reform will not stop. It was clear, he said, enforcement alone could not address the drug problem.