I’ve spent the best part of last week and a lot of this weekend getting cross with people for conflating their voluntary self isolation with home detention, or worse imprisonment in jail. (Thread)

I got to thinking that maybe people think being simply asked to stay home is what Home D is like, so thought I should debunk that a little.

First, home detention mob wear a very clunky, heavy monitoring bracelet (see pic). This requires charging every 24 hours and can take up to two hours to charge. You must sit next to a power point for that whole time as the charger has a short cord.

And if you are unlucky like me, yours will burn your skin forever “branding” you.

The bracelet means you can’t wear shorts, or a dress or leggings, so if you want to keep it disguised you wear long pants ALL THE TIME and us mob usually wear an ankle strap over it to keep it covered and from bashing against our ankle bone causing bruising and pain.

This means by the end of a full day our foot aches from being strapped. Not covering it results in accusing stares, people hugging both their handbags and their children tighter...or for us women, sexual advancements from men on public transport...

who think we might want a bit of them as if we are desperate for human touch...in fact when I was first released I was assaulted in my home by a man who thought I must be gagging for it since I’d spent so long in jail...we live alone and everyone knows it (think about the risk

that poses for us single women, and how vulnerable we are). While I’m discussing vulnerability, as a single woman, I am obliged to let 2 community corrections officers, nearly always men, enter my home without reason, at their whim, randomly at any time of day or night including

very late in the evening when you are in your pjs in bed. The officers inspect the home d hardware which involves me lifting my trouser leg and letting (nearly always) a male officer to touch my leg to inspect the bracelet.

If the charger is in my bedroom they will follow me to my room to inspect it. ...my bedroom ... where I am alone with a man I do not know or trust....in the home on my own....

I am required to submit to random drug and alcohol testing. This involves being taken into a room the size of a broom closet with two officers, always at least one male, dropping my pants and peeing in a little cup in full sight of the two officers.

It also involves random swab testing, breath testing and spit testing, often in front of my children, in my home. I must declare any prescription medication I take or have in my possession, and what i am taking them for.

I must carry my home detention orders on my person at all times and failure to produce them for an officer of the law results in a breach and I will be put in jail.

I am allowed ONE shopping leave PER WEEK (this inc travel time) for three hours total to a shopping centre they designate. I must take a direct route there. I may not eat or drink in any cafe at that shopping centre (they will review the GPS data and breach).

I may attend essential medical appointments with their prior approval and permission. They have the right to call the practice to confirm my attendance, meaning all health personnel inc the receptionist knows I am on home D

Side note: When I had my heart surgery they insisted my monitoring device was placed back on me despite me being in ICU and immobile and against the surgeons advice.

I am not able to take my kids to sports or after school activities or the Library or museum or anywhere for their well-being or to, you know, be a normal family.

When my son gave a speech at his school I was not even allowed to go to that...at his school...to support him...for him to have his parent in the audience with all of the other parents

I cannot visit my dad where he lives in the country. I only have my dad, no other family. In fact, I cannot visit anyone or go anywhere. This is unrelenting loneliness

Any request I put in that is uni related takes a minimum of 48 hours approval and if it is anything other than an essential class or workshop, it is denied. And I must provide written proof of any uni related activity.

I must maintain a working phone service and have my mobile charged and with credit and on me at all times. Failure to do so results in a breach and back to jail.

I cannot associate with or have contact with anyone with a criminal record. I want you to think about that for a second. Anyone I made friends with inside is out of the question, any of my Aboriginal brothers or sistas with a record are off limits

I must attend community corrections each week to beg for “pass outs”. If this appt coincides with work, too bad, you miss work to sign in.

I must discuss my criminogenic risk factors with my officer. If I voice a truth not recognised by the courts I won’t get parole

Any breach, warning, infraction, deviance results in me going back to jail. And they will put you in jail and investigate later. So many women lose everything (inc their kids) for false breaches & don’t even receive an apology after.

And let me tell you living under the threat of jail, within the regulations and under the orders of faceless men who wield their power in an unfettered way as a blak woman is scary. It is life or death stuff. And I am not exaggerating. I fear police.

And this tale I’ve told you is just the tip of the home d iceberg. Speaking out too much against the system comes at great personal risk to my liberty and my wellness, so I’ve skimmed the surface.

Pls think twice about conflating ur Covid self isolation exp with Home D. & let it make you kinder to criminalised mob who have been forced into social isolation by a system during a time where no one wrote cute articles about surviving loneliness or the brutality of social

isolation. Let it fuel you to work towards or argue for the abolition of cruel, reductive carceral solutions. We are treated like disposable humans, but we are anything but
And if you can, please support @DebKilroy campaign to #freeher

{thanks for hanging in there through this long thread}

And please don’t @ me with your prejudice. I know home d is a privilege compared to jail...I’ve done both, and they are both inhumane and cruel and unsafe