http://www.insideoutpathways.org/

InsideOut Pathways Inc, 7/220 Mt Glorious Road, Samford (2026)

04/09/2026

Never thought one of the people we'd be helping would be someone I literally grew up with.

On Wednesday night I was in the city with the fam, and while we were walking back to Central I spotted an old friend. This is someone I grew up with in Logan. As a young teen, he was actually someone I looked up to once upon a time. We've known each other through very different stages of our lives and eventually, we even ended up doing time together.

But I knew him long before any of that. I knew him before drugs took over his life, and I can pretty much pinpoint the period when everything changed for him. His world turned upside down, and drugs became a way of dealing with whatever was happening inside his head... and over the years they slowly took more and more from his life.

So I bumped into him at the train station. I almost didn't recognise him. He was homeless. He had no phone, no ID, no money and no where safe to sleep. He has lost relationships, stability and so much of what most of us probably don't think twice about having.

I'm not gonna pretend drugs haven't contributed to decisions he's made or things he's done over the years, and I'm definitely not trying to excuse any of it.. I just couldn't stop looking at him and thinking about the person I knew before all of this.

That s**t hit me hard. Most people walking through Central would see a homeless man affected by drugs and keep walking. Some will just think he made his choices and was now living with the consequences. They don't know the kid I knew growing up. They don't know what happened in his life, when things started going wrong or all the little steps between the person he was then and who he is now.

I can't help but wonder what might have happened if the right people, the right support or even just some kind of community had been around back then when he needed it. No one should have to deal with anything like that alone.

I met so many people inside who, in my opinion, should never have been sitting in a prison cell in the first place. What they needed was for their drug use to be properly addressed and whatever sat underneath it to be addressed, too.

Instead, these mf's lock people away for months or years and eventually release them straight back into the same circumstances they came from.

That same instability is there, many times the same people are there, the same problems haven't disappeared and the drugs definitely havent disappeared.

100% there will be someone who reads this who says "Everyone has choices".

Yes, everyone has choices and people have to take responsibility for the things they do. But anyone who reduces addiction down to just 'making better choices' probably doesn't understand how much of a hold addiction can have over someone's life.

I've seen people lose it all.. freedom, family, children, jobs homes... and still go back to using. If knowing the consequences was enough to stop addiction, losing all of those things should be enough. But for some people, it isn't.

This is why real support is so important. Community is so important.

Right now they just wait till someones life deteriorates almost completely before they decide it's serious enough to throw enormous amounts of resources at it.

As soon as there's an offence, suddenly we have cops, courts, watchhouses and prisons ready to respond. F*ck me, imagine if they put the same urgency into people much earlier... before addiction has taken everything and before somebody else potentially becomes a victim of what happens next.

Thankfully, this week there was someone willing to help.

After seeing my mate on Wednesday night, I got in contact with a good friend who was able to organise a room for him in a boarding house. We sorted him out today, and left him with a bag of snacks and a $50 Visa card to keep him afloat until he gets paid.

I can't thank my friend enough for making that happen. Coming out, and meeting us on her day off too!!

It doesn't solve everything and theres obviously a long road ahead, but tonight someone who's been sleeping rough the last couple of weeks has a roof over their head, a bed to sleep in and a door he can close.

There are so many people like him that you walk past every day. At train stations, in parks, outside shops, sleeping rough or caught in a cycle of prison and release.

You see someone for a few seconds, probably at the absolute lowest point of their life, and some will think thats enough to decide who they are.

But every one of them has a story. Someone knew them as a kid. Someone went to school with them. Someone loved them, laughed with them or once looked up to them. There was a whole life before the person you're looking at now, and probably a whole lot of s**t that happened in between that you'll never know about.

So seeing my mate this week has really made me think about something else.

On this page, our team talks a lot about what we should be doing earlier, before peoples lives even reach this point. But the reality is, there are already so many people who are here. People deep in addiction, sleeping rough, disconnected from family and community, coming in and out of prison and carrying years of s**t that can't be undone.

We can't go back and change what happened to them. We can't give them the support they needed five or ten years ago. So what do we do with the people standing in front of us now?

Are they too far gone? Do we tell ourselves they made their choices and whatever happens from here is on them? Or do we believe they're still worth showing up for?

Anyway. I'll be here for my mate. And if any of the boys from BTCC in 2022/23 want to help the brother out, please get in touch. He could use an old phone. And maybe some clothes. He literally has one Woolies bag with all his belongings.

V

** EDIT: If anyone would like to donate a few dollars before this Monday (7 Sept) it could go towards getting his ID, some clothes, bed linen, maybe even a phone? Bank details can be found below:

Account name: InsideOut Pathways Inc
BSB: 633 000
Account: 232 260 364
Reference: 4132

Anything over $2 is tax deductible so if you would like a receipt please email me on [email protected]

03/09/2026

Would you feel comfortable watching your own child being strip searched?

Vincent from InsideOut Pathways Inc is working alongside The National Network and Dan from Level Up With Law to support people with lived experience to have their voices heard as Parliament considers two bills introduced by Senator Lidia Thorpe.

One seeks to prohibit the strip searching of children.

The other seeks to prohibit shackling people during childbirth.

These are practices Australia is still being forced to confront in 2026.

A strip search can mean an adult in authority requiring a child to remove clothing and expose their body.

They may be frightened. Humiliated. They may desperately not want to do it. But they're in custody. They can't just walk away.

And we know these experiences can have lasting consequences.

Expert evidence examined by the NSW Law Enforcement Conduct Commission identified shame, guilt, intrusion symptoms and psychological distress following strip searches of young people.

For children who have already experienced physical or sexual abuse, the experience can be particularly retraumatising.

Then consider what happened at Tasmania's Ashley Youth Detention Centre.

In just six months in 2018, children were strip searched 203 times.

203 searches. Zero contraband found.

Tasmania's Commission of Inquiry later heard accounts of children being routinely strip searched, searched while isolated or restrained, and threatened with strip searches to force compliance.

The Commission found strip searches had contributed to long-term adverse effects on young people's mental health and wellbeing and found that many of the historical practices it examined amounted to child sexual abuse.

Tasmania has since moved away from the routine strip searching that occurred at Ashley, but there is still no absolute national prohibition on strip searching children in Australia.

We teach children that their body belongs to them. That adults shouldn't make them expose themselves. That they should speak up when somebody crosses those boundaries.

So why do those protections become negotiable when the child is in custody?

A child doesn't stop being a child because they're locked behind a door. And whether that child has broken the law doesn't make their body the property of the state.

We believe strip searching children should be abolished.

And this isn't the only practice currently before Parliament.

Senator Thorpe's second bill seeks to prohibit shackling people during childbirth.

Australia currently has no absolute nationwide prohibition. The Senate inquiry is examining the circumstances, extent and impact of the practice... which makes hearing directly from people who have experienced it incredibly important.

No one should be shackled while bringing a child into the world.

They use prison to deprive people of their liberty. That doesn't mean every exercise of control over someone's body becomes acceptable.

Both bills ultimately ask the same question:

Where should the power of the state over another human being end?

For us, strip searching children and shackling people during childbirth are well beyond that line.

Both bills are now before Senite inquiries and submissions close 14 September 2026.

And this part is important:

If this has happened to you, please consider sharing what you experienced with the inquiry. You don't have to speak publicly, and you can request for your submission to be kept confidential or published anonymously.

If no one speaks up, Parliament doesn't get the full picture.

Institutions can explain their policies. Departments can explain their procedures.

Your experience could decide whether somebody else should ever have to experience the same thing.

If you have lived experience of either practice and would like support putting your submission together, please contact Vincent at InsideOut Pathways, The National Network, or Dan at Level Up With Law.

Submissions can also be made directly to the Senate inquiries below.

Strip Searching of Children - Senate Inquiry:
https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Legal_and_Constitutional_Affairs/StripSearching2026

Shackling During Childbirth - Senate Inquiry:
https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Legal_and_Constitutional_Affairs/Shackling_2026

Senator Lidia Thorpe - sign the open letters / campaign information:
https://www.lidiathorpe.com/campaigns

Submissions close 14 September 2026.

Your experience can be the reason someone else never has one like it.

31/08/2026

Lived experience needs to be part of conversations like this.

If you have experienced strip searching or shackling while incarcerated and would like to contribute to this inquiry, please reach out to us privately.

30/08/2026

Just a little update on the young woman you all helped this week... and I want to ask our community for one last favour.

She got on the plane 🧡

She made it safely to Griffith, NSW, and is now with Alex & Mark, ready to start this completely new chapter.

I spoke to her after she arrived and honestly, hearing the smile in her voice made my day.

I know getting on that plane wasn't easy. It meant leaving behind people she loves and everything familiar to her, and heading somewhere completely unknown to start again. That takes a heap of courage.

Before she left, we gave her a copy of The Cat Who Taught Zen. Inside we wrote her a little message, and on the opposite page are the names of the people who donated and literally helped make all of this possible.

Which brings me to that one last favour.

She's going to read this post.

So if you've got a few words for her as she starts this next chapter, please leave them below. Something encouraging, some advice... whatever you think she might need to hear. I'd love for her to have a whole bunch of messages she can come back and read whenever she needs them.

I also need to give a massive thank you to Alex and Mark from Countrywide W**d & Timber Control.

I have been in touch with them for a while and have a tonne of respect for these two awesome human beings. Thank you both for taking her in, backing her and giving her this opportunity.

And finally, to every single person who donated, shared the original post, sent a message or offered support... THANK YOU.

The flights, the boots, the work gear, the clothes, the bag and everything else she needed to get there happened because of you.

I'm so humbled and grateful. You guys literally made this happen.

Whatever happens from here, this is her journey. She took a chance on something different, and now she gets to see where it takes her.

Now it's over to you guys...🧡

26/08/2026

EDIT: WE'VE REACHED OUR TARGET!! ❤️

We reached our target overnight... and then some. Absolutely blown away by the response. Thank you so much to everyone who donated or shared the post. We've got what we need, so we're closing off donations now.

So grateful and humbled by this community that's grown around IOP. We'll keep everyone updated 🧡🧡

Vincent

--

Hey guys, Vincent here. I need to ask our community for some help.

I've got a young woman here in Brisbane who is currently homeless. I've met her, I've spent some time talking with her and I've heard a lot about the life she's desperately trying to leave behind.

Through IOP, an opportunity has come up for her in rural NSW that I genuinely think could give her the chance to get away from the environment she's currently in and start building something different.

It's a job, somewhere to stay while she's working, meals, transport and an employer who knows about her past who is still willing to give her a chance.

I put the two of them in touch.

They spoke. She said yes...

Now I need some help getting her there.

We're going to need to pay for her flight and get her the basics she needs to walk onto that job...

And just to be completely transparent, IOP will organise the flight and purchase what she needs directly. We've set a target and when we've reached it, that's it.

But before I ask anyone to put their hand in their pocket, I think you should know a little bit about the person you're helping.

A few years ago, she went to prison for the first time.

By then, drugs had already been part of her life for a very long time. She'd struggled with addiction for years and had been through rehab trying to get clean.

When she eventually came home, she was trying to get away from that life and was placed into supported accommodation through a women's transition program.

She'd actually stayed at the same house once before, and back then she remembers there being structure, relapse prevention, activities throughout the week and support to help the women transition back into the community.

This time, she says it was completely different.

There was very little structure or support, and people inside the accommodation were actively using drugs. She remembers walking down the hallway on the day she arrived and smelling w**d coming from one of the rooms.

For someone who had spent years battling addiction and had just walked out of prison trying to get away from that life, she had been put straight back into an environment where drugs were right in front of her.

She wanted to work. She told the people supporting her that she was keen to find a job and start getting her life back together.

Instead, she says she was told she was unstable and unfit to work and needed to concentrate on getting clean. So she trusted them.

But the support she believed was coming never really eventuated and eventually, surrounded by drug use while fighting her own addiction, she picked up ice again.

She doesn't pretend somebody forced her to do it. She knows she made that decision.

From there, things spiralled.

Over the next few years she went through rehab after rehab, tried getting clean and tried getting herself back into work, but kept finding herself caught in the same cycle.

Then last year, she went back to prison.

This time, before she was released, she'd already made a decision about what she was going to do differently;

She was going straight to rehab.

But she says an organisation supporting her convinced her not to go because they had accommodation and support waiting for her.

She trusted them.

When she was released the second time, she says she arrived at an extremely run-down boarding house where people were visibly affected by drugs, people regularly came and went from the property and drug use was happening around her.

After everything that had happened following her first release, she was right back amongst everything she was trying to escape.

On her first day out of prison, she used again.

I'm not telling you this because she doesn't accept responsibility for the decisions she's made. She does.

I'm telling you because wanting to change your life and actually having an environment around you that gives you a fighting chance of doing it are two very different things.

Since coming home this time, she's applied for job after job. She's gone to interviews. She's tried again to get her life back together.

But things have continued to unravel.

And now, for the first time in her life, she's sleeping rough.

When we reconnected last weekend, she was sitting at 3rd Space trying to figure out where she was going to sleep that night.

"I've got no friends or family I can lean on this time when it comes to having a roof over my head

"I need new friends, a new circle, a whole new support network".

"I need to leave all that baggage behind and see what else is out there".

When we caught up, I could tell... she's tired.

She's tired of drugs, tired of instability, tired of starting again and tired of finding herself back in the same places she's desperately trying to escape.

I can see how badly she wants something different.

"When I work it gives me purpose".

I asked her what's the dream? What do you want to do with your life?

She talked about eventually using everything she's lived through to help young people who might otherwise end up caught in some of the same cycles.

"It's easy to look at a kid who's already f*cked up and call them a criminal, a gangster, a lost cause. What's harder is asking what happened to them before they even became that person".

She knows she's got to rebuild her own life before she can start worrying about changing anyone else's.

"I refuse to let the circumstances I've been through dictate the future I create. The pain, mistakes and experiences I've faced don't have to define me... they can become something meaningful".

"I wan't to use everything I've survived and learned to help others feel seen, supported and capable of breaking their own cycles".

"If I can turn the bad I've been through into something that gives another person hope, guidance or a chance to choose a different path, then it wasn't for nothing".

Right now, she's a long way from that life...

But she's just been given an opportunity to take some pretty massive steps towards it.

The employer I mentioned at the start is Alex from Countrywide W**d and Timber Control.

Have been in contact with Alex for a while. An absolute gem of a human being. Alex and her husband work across rural NSW and QLD.

They know this young woman's story. They know she's been to prison. They know she's struggled with addiction. They know she's currently homeless.

They've still said come and have a go.

She doesn't need experience. They'll teach her. She'll start with the basics and gradually learn the work. She'll have somewhere to stay while she's working, meals are provided and transport between jobs is provided.

I've had some great conversations with Alex, and one thing she'd said to me is, "Sometimes a job is more than earning a wage. It provides routine, purpose, self-worth and the chance to start looking forward again".

After the two of them spoke, I got a message from the young woman.

"I'm scared as f*ck. But I'm ready to leave this old life behind me".

She's prepared to leave Brisbane, get on a plane, go somewhere she doesn't know anybody and learn a completely new job because she knows something in her life has to change.

And now she has somewhere to go.

There's a job waiting for her. We just need to get her there.

And that's where I'm asking our community to help.

We need to get her from Brisbane to Griffith (NSW), and make sure she arrives with everything she needs to start work.

That means plane tickets, steel-cap boots, a few pairs of work pants, long-sleeved work shirt, socks, warm clothes for after work, toiletries, towels, a water bottle and travel bag.

Just the basics she needs to get there, walk onto that job and give this a proper go.

We've worked out that $1300 should cover everything.

And Alex has already kicked it off herself with the first $100 before I've even put this post up.

So now I"m asking if our community can help us cover the rest.

Account name: InsideOut Pathways Inc
BSB: 633 000
Account: 232 260 364
Reference: FRESH START

Any donation of $2 or more is tax deductible. If you'd like a receipt, just flick me an email at [email protected] with your name and donation details and we'll send one through.

IOP will organise the flight and purchase everything she needs directly.

If you can throw in $10, $20, $50... whatever you're comfortable with, thank you. It all goes towards getting her out of the situation she's in now and into the opportunity that's waiting for her.

She's already done the scary part. She's said 'yes'.

Now let's give that "yes" every chance of becoming the fresh start she's been looking for.

25/08/2026

BRING IN CASTLE LAW!!

Every time there's a home invasion story, the comment section fills up with that one line.

I can't help but click on some of their profiles and think, brother you ain't stoppin' s**t...!

Jokes aside, Castle Law is currently before QLD Parliament, so maybe it's worth asking a pretty basic question before deciding if this is somehow going to make Queensland safer:

Does it actually work?

Because your good friend America has already run this experiment for you.

Multiple US states introduced or strengthened Castle Doctrine laws, giving people greater legal protection to use force, including deadly force in certain circumstances, against intruders.

So did burglars stop breaking into houses?

No.

Research looking at US states that strengthened these self-defence laws found no evidence of deterring burglary, robbery or aggravated assault.

What some of that research DID find was an increase in homicide.

So if you're supporting Castle Law because you think it's going to stop people breaking into homes, where is the evidence?

I have a wife and kids. If someone came into my home and I genuinely thought they were going to hurt my family, I'd do whatever I had to do to protect them.

But if some kid pulled a gun to my face and said "Give me all your money"... Mate, take it. I mean, I don't know where any is, but if you find some let me know.

I'm not leaving my kids without a father over a couple of bucks.

I'm not saying people shouldn't be able to defend themselves or their families. If you want to be a hero, by all means.

I'm not even writing this against Castle Law. That's not the point I'm trying to make.

What I'm saying is there's so many out there who seem to have this idea that Castle Law is somehow going to make people stop breaking into houses.

I'll tell you right now... if I was desperate enough to kick your door in, I couldn't give a f*ck if you were standing on the other side with a baseball bat.

Lol it's like you're imagining someone standing outside your house doing a f*cking risk assessment.

"Hmmm, there's a chance the homeowner is armed now, better reconsider my life choices".

That's not how a lot of crime happens, buddy.

People commit offences knowing they could spend years in prison.

People run from police knowing they could wrap themselves around a tree.

People get involved in violence knowing the other person might have a weapon.

Yet somehow another THREAT is going to be the one thing that finally makes everyone stop??

YERRR MATTTTEEEE!!

At what point do you stop and ask yourself why all these threats aren't working?

Castle Law isn't going to help old Cheryl down the road. She's 74, she's not about to go full John Wick when three teenagers come through her door.

She doesnt need permission to fight back harder. She needs those three teenagers to never come through her f*cking door in the first place.

And this is what I find so backwards about what keeps being fed to you as "community safety".

SURELY you're getting to a point where instead of constantly asking how you make people pay for crime, you ask what actually reduces it?

Find out what's driving people towards crime and put the resources there.

They're spending BILLIONS dealing with crime after it happens while nowhere near the same urgency seems to go into preventing it.

That's not being 'tough', thats f*cking backwards.

You can 3-out every prison cell in Queensland and Cheryl's door can still get kicked in tomorrow night.

Double the sentence, make prison unbearable, give Cheryl greater rights to use deadly force... her door can still get kicked in.

I couldn't care less how many people this government can brag about locking up.

Tell me fewer people were victimised.
Tell me fewer homes were broken into.
Tell me fewer kids entered the system in the first place.
or fewer people went to prison.
Tell me fewer people who left prison never went back.
Tell me Cheryl slept through the night!

THAT'S community safety.

F*ck off with your crackdowns and your dog s**t slogans.

Build a Queensland where prisons are becoming less necessary, not more necessary.

Might not win as many votes when there's no fear to sell, though....

24/08/2026

"Prisoners have every opportunity in there. If they don't change, that's on them."

The following is an email we received from a former Prison Education Officer that we're sharing with permission. We've removed any identifying details and anything relating to specific incidents.

And given the latest audit findings about QCS's ability to actually deliver rehabilitation, maybe it's worth hearing what 'every opportunity' can look like from the other side of the classroom door.

--

I used to work as an Education Officer inside _______ Correctional Centre.

I went into the role because I genuinely believed education could make a difference. I thought if somebody wanted to learn to read, or get an education, then my job was to make that happen.

Well wasn't I in for a rude shock. I've been following your page for a while and have read comments from what I assume would be CCO's saying prisoners "have every opportunity"and just choose not to take them.

Well yes, there are opportunities available, they're just very, very limited. I have had people finally engage with me, only to be then told that they are now on the bottom of a very long waitlist.

What's more frustrating is that I have had people get to the top of that list, so I have them called and I have literally stood in the classroom waiting for them. They don't show up.

Why? Because a CCO or Supervisor has said "It's not for parole".

I would rather spend a day with prisoners than an hour with CCO's. I learned pretty quickly that caring too much makes you a target among staff. I was called a CARE BARE and CRIM LOVER just for treating the men in green like human beings, and it's almost like if you believed in rehabilitation, people think you're soft.

I've seen new officers come in with the best intentions. They speak properly to the inmates, and they try to de-escalate situations instead of immediately turning everything into a confrontation.

And then the comments they have to take after that; "You're too soft", "They'll walk all over you", "Stop being a care bear."

After that, they either leave, or change. From there you see the cliques, the boys club, the nepotism. They are all out for themselves and learn to play the game.

I felt like I was back in High School with all the gossip, the grudges and the politics. And as a woman, you notice another layer of it pretty quick. You hear all the conversations; who's attractive, who someone wants to sleep with, who's sleeping with who, who's apparently a "slut" because they dated someone at work.

If you're considered attractive, you notice that attention pretty quick with all the circling, the comments and the "jokes".

The hypocrisy of this environment where prisoners are expected to behave one way, and the behaviour behind staff doors really wears you down.

So does seeing the way some prisoners are spoken to. "Casual" disrespect and humiliation. Along with the assumption that because someone is wearing green, every interaction has to remind them who's in control.

There are absolutely prisoners who test boundaries. I have witnessed dangerous situations and there are times force is necessary. But there is a difference between maintaining safety and enjoying power.

After __ years, I left. I got over working inside an environment where trying to help someone could feel like you were working against the organisation you worked for.

I started that job believing prison was a place where people were sent to change, but I walked away questioning how anyone is supposed to change in that environment.

Everyone needs to remember that what happens behind those walls doesn't stay behind those walls. And most will eventually come home.

It was difficult to watch how hard prison made it for those who genuinely wanted to change. As well as how difficult it made it for people who were trying to help change them too.

When I was there I got to meet a lot of men who had been written off for most of their lives, and also got a glimpse of what it looked like when someone didn't write them off. This is what has stayed with me the most after leaving.

It has really made me wonder how different some of these lives may have been if somebody believed in them a little earlier.

- Former Prison Education Officer

InsideOut Pathways Inc

04/09/2026

03/09/2026

31/08/2026

30/08/2026

26/08/2026

25/08/2026

24/08/2026

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