http://www.insideoutpathways.org/

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

17/10/2026

Only the Queensland Government could have a prison system that's failing and decide the answer is to give the people inside it fewer human rights protections.

And that's pretty much what's being proposed under its latest prison and parole legislation.

And of course.. the justification is public safety.

Under the proposed changes, prison authorities would no longer have to meet certain obligations under Queensland's Human Rights Act when making a wide range of decisions about people in their custody. The law currently requires authorities to consider people's basic human rights and whether restrictions on those rights are justified.

The Government wants to remove those requirements from many prison management decisions, including decisions affecting people on remand who haven't even been convicted of a crime.

The Government also wants to introduce tougher restrictions around parole, including preventing certain prisoners from applying for years at a time.

But here's what I don't understand...

How does any of that make the community safer??

I don't think people really understand how much control you lose over your own life when you're in prison. Pretty much everything you do depends on someone else's decision. Where you're housed, when you get to see your family, whether you can get into a program, whether you can work, the colour of your shoes...

Prison authorities already have an enormous amount of power over people in custody. So why tf would removing some of those obligations that keep that power in check be a good thing?

Going to prison is already the punishment.

You're separated from your family, your kids grow up without you, relationships fall apart, and you lose years of your life that you're never getting back. And somehow, all of that is supposed to make you a better person?

This whole idea that you can take someone who's already struggling, lock them away from society, strip away almost every bit of independence they have, and expect them to come out better equipped to deal with life has never made much sense to me.

And now the Government wants to weaken some of the protections that are supposed to stop that power from being abused?

Then there's the parole changes.

Being eligible for parole doesn't mean someone is automatically getting out.

It means their circumstances can be assessed and a decision made about whether they're suitable for release.

But imagine spending years trying to do everything that's expected of you.

Staying out of trouble, working, completing programs when you can actually get into them, maintaining relationships on the outside and trying to give yourself something to look forward to.

And then being told that you might not even be allowed to apply for another 5 or 10 years. What does that do to someone?

What happens when people start believing that nothing they do matters anymore? That no matter how hard they try, how much progress they make or how much they've changed, they're no closer to getting another chance?

I'm not saying everyone is suddenly going to give up.. but it's not difficult to understand how taking away someone's hope can affect their mental health, their behaviour and their willingness to keep trying.

And don't forget the consequences of that don't just affect the person inside. Their families are living through it too.

Now heres what makes this whole thing even more frustrating.

In July this year, the Queensland Audit Office released a report identifying serious failures in rehabilitation and reintegration.

More than 1000 prisoners were waiting to access rehabilitation programs. Thousands more were waiting for wellbeing programs. Fewer than half of those leaving custody had received pre-release support.

The average waiting time to get on a rehabilitation program was one year and four months.

Have a think about that for a second.

People are expected to address their issues, complete programs. demonstrate progress and prepare themselves to return to society.

But the very 'system' thats supposed to give them those opportunities isn't providing enough access to them.

And instead of addressing those failures, the government is proposing more restrictions...

How tf does that even make sense?

And this is where their whole public safety argument falls apart...

Most people in prison eventually come home. They're coming back into the community, looking for work, finding somewhere to live, reconnecting with their familes and trying to build a life.

What happens to someone while they're inside doesn't just disappear the moment they walk out the gate.

And neither do the circumstances that may have contributed to them ending up there in the first place.

Poverty, addiction, homelessness, trauma, lack of opportunity... Locking someone away doesn't automatically fix any of those things.

So if the Government is genuinely concerned about public safety, why isn't it putting the same energy into addressing those problems?

Why aren't we talking about housing, healthcare, education, employment and proper access to drug and alcohol treatment and mental health support?

Why does the answer always seem to be more punishment, more restrictions and more time behind bars?

Making people's lives harder is not going to make the community safer.

16/10/2026

This photo was taken 2.5 years ago.

We all caught up for breakfast, fresh out of prison. We all sat and spoke about our experience and struggles, and shared a laugh at our own expense. I even needed help with learning how to use my phone again. Despite all of that, we were all hopeful. We were ready to start our new chapter and build a new life.

Now what a lot of people won't see is what it's actually like to walk out of the QLD prison system. You grab your bag of belongings, cop a cheeky 'See you when you come back' from chiefy at the gate, then you're on your own. No job lined up. For many, no housing security. No real plan to rebuild your life. Centrelink gives you enough to choose either a roof over your head, or food in your belly.

'We're FREE!!', but without support or work, most people are set up to fail before they even make it home.

We all helped each other out the best we could. I did my best to write up resumes for two of the boys. One had a trade, the other had a solid background in hospitality. Another one of the guys wanted to study Cert III & IV in Fitness with me - he had so much potential but couldnt afford the downpayment to start.

The motivation and willingness to change was there. But without opportunity, motivation alone isn't enough to keep you free. It's like trying to run a race with your shoelaces tied together. No matter how hard you try, you just can't get ahead. How long do you keep pushing until you go back to what worked for you?

Today, only two of us remain on the outside. The only two who managed to find a way to make a living.

Employers - every time you give someone a chance, you're re-writing the course of a life, a family, and a community. Recidivism is complex, however a steady job plays a big part in giving people the stability they need to build a life outside prison.

When you open a door - as well as helping someone break the cycle, you're also making our communities safer, stronger, and more connected. It's the difference between another statistic, or another success story.

Want to make a real difference? Get in contact and help someone take their next step.

20/09/2026

This is Krystal… one of our own… and she has just been named the 2026 Queensland Training Awards Equity Student of the Year.

The award recognises her achievement, but no trophy could tell the full story of what it took to reach that stage.

She is such an inspiration to me. Her road hasn’t been easy, and she has experienced things that can change a person’s entire future. She’s been knocked down in ways most will never see, fought battles most will never know about and had to rebuild herself more times than anyone ever should.

Nearly 20 years after beginning her apprenticeship, Krystal went back and finished what she started.

But determination alone couldn’t have brought her here. Somebody had to look beyond her past, recognise what was inside her and give her an opportunity.

Someone opened a door… Krystal f*cking ran through that mf.

It didn’t erase her past or make the road easy. It just gave her the chance to prove what she could do.

And look what she’s done with it.

But her achievements aren’t the reason we love her as much as we do.

I love the way she treats people. She knows what it feels like to be judged by your past, and she refuses to judge anyone else by theirs. She offers her chair, her time and her skills to people rebuilding their lives. When she sees someone struggling, her first thought is always about how she can help.

She has been there through some of my hardest moments too, always checking in and reminding me I don’t have to carry everything alone.

Then, during a moment that belonged entirely to HER, she stood on that stage and chose to speak about second chances and InsideOut Pathways.

Even in one of the biggest moments of her journey, she was still thinking about lifting other people up beside her.

After the gala, she told me, “It’s all swings and roundabouts. We’ll make it to the top together.”

And that is Krystal.

Krystal, we are so f*cking proud of everything you have overcome, but even prouder of the human being you are.

Having you on the IOP team is an honour, and calling you our sister is something we will never take for granted.

We love you, Krystal!!! You deserve every bit of this 🧡

18/09/2026

Hey guys.

We've had a few people reach out lately who are understandably unhappy that we haven't responded or haven't been able to help, and I've noticed a few comments about it on our posts too. And I totally get the frustration.

If you've reached out because you're struggling, looking for work, you're trying to help someone or you're in a s**t situation and nobody gets back to you... I understand why you'd be pi**ed.

But what I'd like people to remember is that we're all volunteers.

There isn't a team of paid staff sitting in an office answering messages. There's no case workers being paid to manage a certain number of people each day. We don't have people to cover when another person is struggling or unavailable.

I mean, it's the goal... I'd love to one day have a place IOP can call home and no longer have to take Zoom calls from my daughters bedroom. But for now, we're just ordinary people trying to help where we can.

Lately, we've been down a couple of volunteers, and since then I"ve also had to take a step back myself. We've had to deal with some pretty heavy situations in the last little while.

You wouldn't believe some of the s**t people are going through behind closed doors while the rest of the world just keeps moving around them. Its pretty hard to put the phone down and just forget about it.

On top of that, I've had some things going on in my own life as well, so between everything else, it became too much.

So yes, we've fallen behind.

Our email and DMs are backed up. And I got a heap of unread texts. There are people I've told I'd call who I haven't called yet... and I'm sorry to those who have been left waiting.

Opportunities have been missed, as employers have reached out and I just haven't been on top of things enough to follow through.

And that's a f*cked feeling.

People have trusted us enough to ask for help, sometimes telling us things they probably havent told many other people. Employers have trusted us enough to offer someone an opportunity.. and knowing that either of those things might have gone unanswered because I haven't been able to keep up doesn't sit well with me.

Anyway, we've had a pretty promising week. Had some really good conversations with people who want to get involved and help us build some proper capacity around what we're doing.

We are going to spend the next week working through everything, and hopefully by the end of next week we'll be pretty close to being caught up.

If you're waiting on us, please feel free to follow up!

And while I'm here I may as well put this out there too;

If you've followed Insideout Pathways for a while, believe in what we're trying to do and have a little bit of time or skills you could volunteer, I'd love to hear from you.

That could look like helping someone build a resume... calling employers... following up referrals... finding services or accomodation options... helping with fundraising or partnerships... or maybe you've got a completely different skill that could be useful.

You don't need to have worked in this space before.

What matters to me more is how you see people.

Been to jail? Supported someone who has? Or neither? Doesn't matter. If you'd like to have a discussion about what you could bring to InsideOut Pathways, send me an email.

Just don't get angry if it takes me a little while to reply haha

Vincent
[email protected]

17/09/2026

Get out of jail. Find a job. Stay off the gear. Find somewhere stable to live. Surround yourself with better people and start rebuilding your life.

That's pretty much what people expect from someone the moment they leave prison.

Sounds easy enough when you put it like that.

We're currently trying to help a young 24 year old who was released from Woodford earlier this year.

Growing up, his parents weren't able to care for him, so a lot of his childhood was spent either living with his grandmother in kinship care or in different placements through child safety.

As he got older, he found something he enjoyed and started an apprenticeship as a Small Engine Technician, working on motorbikes. He completed 2 of the 3 years before being involved in a motorcycle accident that left him injured. He struggled to physically keep up at work and eventually lost his job.

Things became pretty unstable from there. Substance abuse became part of his life, he struggled to maintain employment and housing, spent a heap of time homeless and eventually ended up in prison.

When he was released earlier this year, there wasn't stable housing waiting for him. He spent the first few months couch surfing before his aunt gave him somewhere to stay. He's finally got some stability and routine back in his life and has decided he wants to go back and finish the apprenticeship he started years ago.

And he has found an employer willing to give him that opportunity.

He's got a year left to complete, but before he can start he needs his own tools. He's currently receiving the Disability Support Pension, which means there isn't a lot of funding available to help cover the cost of the tools he needs, and unfortunately Insideout Pathways isn't in a financial position to purchase the lot for him either.

So we're putting it out to the community to see if between all of us, we can get this young bloke what he needs to start work.

We're looking for a socket set, hammer, screwdriver set, impact wrench and a toolbox.

None of it needs to be brand new either. Whether you're a mechanic or tradie with some decent tools sitting around, or you own or work for a business that could help us out with something on that list, please reach out!

One thing we've learned through IOP is just how much people are willing to do for someone they've never met when they're actually given the opportunity to help.

There is something pretty powerful about that.

This young man has spent a chunk of his life feeling like he was on his own. He didn't have the stability growing up that a lot of people take for granted, he's experienced homelessness, he's been through prison and now at 24 he's trying to put some decent foundations underneath himself.

He doesn't need someone to come along and save him. He just needs people in his corner.

His aunt has given him somewhere to live. An employer has given him an opportunity. And now theres a chance for a few complete strangers to help him with the last thing standing between him and getting back into his trade.

Nobody has to do too much. And that's the whole point.

Community: people who don't have to know you to care what happens to you.

This young bloke is having a crack at rebuilding his life. Let's make sure he knows there are plenty of people in his corner while he does it 🧡

** EDIT: If anyone would like to donate a few dollars to go towards getting this young man started, bank details can be found below:

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

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

We'll close this one off by 12pm tomorrow (friday 18/09) and I will let you guys know how we went 🙏

11/09/2026

If you believe sentences are too soft, young offenders need to be locked up for longer, and "adult crime, adult time" is the answer, I'd like you to read this woman's story.

Because if there's anyone who should agree with you, it's her.

Her father was killed by a drunk driver.

Years later, her husband was murdered by a teenager, who went on to reoffend after being released.

Two heartbreaking losses, both caused by other people's actions.

I'd say most people who argue for harsher laws have never lived through anything close to that level of pain. But she has. Twice.

And not one person would blame her for wanting the system to hit harder.

You'd expect someone with her history to be the loudest voice saying longer sentences are the answer. You'd think she'd be the first to argue that the only way to stop people is to keep them locked away for as long as possible. You'd think she'd be cheering for "adult crime, adult time" louder than anyone else.

But shes not.

Before I go any further, I'd just like to thank this person and acknowledge the strength it would take to relive and share her story. She doesn't owe us any of it. She gave her story so people could understand what really happens behind the headlines, and I'm genuinely grateful she trusted us with something this personal.

When her father died, her mum fell apart.

There was no support, no counselling, no intervention.

She turned to he**in.

That addiction turned her family's whole world upside down. It led to a life of crime to support her habit, resulting in years of prison sentences. Six months. Twelve months. Eighteen months. Over 13 years.

And every time mum went inside, her childhood got ripped apart again.

She grew up in cars, caravan parks, drug houses and strangers' places. There was no stability. She went to over 10 different primary schools. Always on the move, always on the run from DOCS.

She was a child looking after her younger siblings, trying to protect them from a system she'd watched fail countless kids.

At 9 years old, she was made to stay with her mum's partner's parents. She begged not to be placed there.

No one listened.

She ended up living through abuse no child should ever see. She was beaten, often unfed, and eventually hospitalised with scabies and malnutrition.

But that was the state's solution.

Remove her mum. Punish her mum. Send her to prison again and again.

And leave the children to live with the consequences.

She ran away at 13 and found her late father's family. They loved and cared for her, but she struggled to believe she deserved it because she'd spent her whole life carrying the judgement that came with her mum's addiction.

Most of the kids she knew grew up around housing commission and were going through the same things. She's lost friends to drugs, prison and exploitation.

When she got a bit older, Wesley Mission gave her a house so she could raise her siblings properly.

She worked 3 jobs. At a Chinese restaurant, a Thai restaurant and a seafood shop.

Her brother developed schizophrenia after years of trauma and she spent 6 years battling a mental health system that wanted to over medicate him rather than help him.

Today, her sister is in the Navy, another sister has a family and career, and her brother is stable, medicated and living independently.

She held that whole family together when she was still a kid herself.

After surviving all that, she finally built a safe, stable life.

And then her husband was murdered.

During the trial, she listened to the young man's upbringing.

He also had a he**in addicted parent, and a lot of his story was similar to the conditions she survived.

It didn't excuse what he did. But because of everything she'd lived through herself, she understood how someone raised in that environment could end up making the wrong choices.

He did his time, in maximum security.

No support. No rehab. No structure.

"Prison turned him into a monster just to survive", she says.

Not because he wanted to become one, but as a young person, that's what the environment demanded of him.

So when he was released, he didn't walk out better.

He walked out worse.

And he reoffended.

The length of his sentence didn't matter, because nothing about locking him in that environment addressed what brought him there in the first place.

Prison didn't undo the trauma. It didn't teach him how to live differently. It didn't give him stability, connection or belonging.

It punished him.

Then eventually sent him back into the community.

For her as a victim, the sentence did nothing for her pain.

"No matter how long the sentence is, it will never change the impact on your life."

"You still have to navigate your pain."

"Longer sentences don't fix behaviour. They deepen the damage."

She described a moment of hatred that almost consumed her during the two year trial.

Her grief, her childhood trauma and her anger collided.

She collapsed on the kitchen floor imagining ways to make him feel what she felt. She said she could feel hate taking over her body.

And in that moment, she realised the hate was going to destroy her long before it destroyed anyone else.

"Forgiveness wasn't about him. It was about saving myself."

She learned to understand a truth that the "tough on crime" gang refuse to see.

If prison doesn't change people, the length of the sentence doesn't matter.

You can add another year. Add five. Add ten.

Eventually, most people come home.

And if what happens inside leaves them more traumatised, more disconnected, more institutionalised and less equipped to live outside, what exactly have we made safer?

What actually keeps communities safe, she believes, is human connection. Support. Stability. Understanding.

"One person caring can change someone's whole life direction."

And she knows this because she's lived it.

When someone reached out for her; Wesley Mission... or her father's family, her life shifted.

When no one reached out to her mother, everything fell apart.

That's the part punishment keeps missing.

Her mum didn't need another prison sentence.

She needed help.

Her children didn't need their mum repeatedly disappearing behind a prison wall.

They needed safety and stability.

And locking that young man in a violent system for years didn't undo what had already happened to him. It just added more to it.

None of that means pretending what people do doesn't matter.

It means asking a much harder question.

Do we actually want fewer victims?

Or do we just want harsher punishment after another victim has already been created?

She is exactly the person pollies imagine when they argue for tougher sentencing.

She is the person the public thinks they're defending when they call for harsher punishments.

She is the person who could justify carrying hate for a lifetime.

But she's the one saying,

"Longer sentences won't fix anything if people walk out more broken."

She doesn't want revenge.

She wants change.

Real change that stops the next child from going through what she did. The next teen from ending up where her husband's killer did. And the next family from losing someone they love.

There's nothing tough about waiting until another person is dead, another child is traumatised or another family is destroyed, and then demanding a longer sentence.

Tough would be doing something before it gets to that point.

05/09/2026

To my kids 🧡

Father's Day is supposed to be the day you tell me how much you appreciate having me as your dad.

But really, I'm the one who should be saying 'Thank You'.

Being your dad has probably given me way more than I could ever give you.

You've given me a reason to grow up in ways I probably should have much earlier. You've made me question the man I am, the example I set, the things I prioritise and the way I spend the time I have.

I know I won't always get it right.

There will be times I'm distracted when you're trying to tell me something. Time's I'm tired and impatient. Times I work too much, or get caught up in whatever else life demands of me.

There will probably be things I look back on one day and wish I had done differently.

But I hope when you're older, you never have to wonder whether you were loved.

I hope you remember that I showed up.

I hope you remember my awesome jokes, the math quizzes in the car, the arguments, the holidays, my 5-star lunches I pack for school and all those completely unremarkable days that none of us realise are important while we're living them.

Because one day you'll have lives of your own and you wont need me in the same way anymore.

And I know there'll come a day when I'd give absolutely anything to have one of these ordinary days back.

So I use this day to remind myself that while I've been so busy trying to give you guys a good life, this is your childhood. And I only get one shot at being there for it.

Thank you for letting me be your Dad.

Of all the things I'll ever get to be in this life, that will always be the one that matters most.

Happy Father's Day to all the dads just trying to get it right 🧡

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]

InsideOut Pathways Inc

17/10/2026

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20/09/2026

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