HG Newsletter Issue: # 67

In This Edition:

My boyfriend at the time, a patched gang member was there. I thought that I would get bailed within the day and released so I took $20, smokes and a lighter with me. Unfortunately or fortunately as it turns out, I wasn’t bailed this time, the police opposed my bail, and they too had had enough of me and my constant disregard for the law. This was December 2016.

I was sent to Auckland Regional Women’s Correction Facility where my recovery began, even though I had no idea at the time. Prison was an awful experience. Even though I wasn’t scared of going there, it was a lot harder than I anticipated. Especially the part where I worked out that all my so-called friends on the outside didn’t give a damn about me. I was scared, sober and alone.

My lawyer had exhausted all angles trying to get bail; I had gone too far this time. He had been telling me that I clearly had a drug and alcohol problem, and was trying to get me to sign papers to get into Odyssey treatment programme, but I refused and continued to insist that I didn’t have a problem, that the police and the rest of society did.