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In short:
Prisoners across Australia often struggle to get legal advice, news and information while inside jail.
A newly-launched national prison newspaper features writing and art from dozens of current and formerly incarcerated people.
What's next?
The paper is calling for submissions from across the country for future editions.
Entering prison is a particular kind of informational lockdown: almost no access to the internet, limited TV and radio, and two copies of magazines or papers for a population of hundreds.
While not plugged into the digital age, a newspaper can offer prisoners a connection to the outside world and to each other.
Prison newspapers exist in some states and territories of Australia, but a new national newspaper hopes to connect current and former inmates to a community and share knowledge on making it through the experience of being incarcerated.
News, investigations, a culture section featuring poetry and visual art, mental health strategies and general legal advice all feature in About Time's first edition, which launched this week across Australia.
Managing director and co-founder Joseph Friedman said the paper was imagined as a way to give a voice and expression to people often silenced behind bars.
"We want this to be a paper for incarcerated people, by incarcerated people," he said.
"We don't want to tell them things, we want them to share their own experiences because they know best."
A need for a tailored news source
About Time's content needs to be approved by each corrections authority in Australia, which governs how prisons in each state and territory operate, and what material can be distributed inside.
So far Victoria, the ACT, Tasmania and New South Wales have said yes to the paper, with the latter taking an interactive PDF version that can be viewed on tablets available from NSW prison libraries.
Visually impaired people will be able to access About Time through a prison radio program by Vision Australia, with a presenter reading out the content.
Both Mr Friedman and fellow managing director Rosie Heselev have backgrounds in criminal and community law, and said their experiences working with clients in prison had informed the push to get the project off the ground.
"During COVID, there was such a lack of information going in and out from people I was talking to in prison, and that was such a source of stress and suffering," Ms Heselev said.
"Imagine being in the middle of the lockdown and not having access to the internet."
"Prisons in of themselves are their own worlds, their own economies, like they have their own need for a tailored news source," Ms Heselev continued.
Prison libraries provide news and entertainment for many, but access to them can vary wildly depending on staffing, opening hours and available books, as well as strict rules on borrowing for different security-level prisoners.
Ms Heselev used the example of a facility she was familiar with, where the library was only open two hours a day and served only 10 people at a time, out of 500 inmates.
"A lot of the requests that I was getting was for basic information, not necessarily legal assistance. And I just felt there must be a better way to reach people inside rather than me being on the phone to individuals," she said.
Mr Friedman said the UK prison newspaper Inside Time, which launched in 1990 as a 12-page black and white edition published every quarter, was the model for the Australian paper.
The UK paper's coverage ranges from experiences of prisoners with disabilities, and voting eligibility for the UK general election, to a guide for people entering prison for the first time.
Today, it runs to 60 pages in colour and is distributed in every prison and detention facility in Britain.
"We really want to have a platform for people who are in or who interact with the system in disparate ways to write about their experiences, and not be edited and not be restricted on what they can say," said Mr Friedman of producing and editing the first edition of About Time.
Stories range from sombre yarns of the difficulties faced in dealing with trauma while in prison, to advice or hope for the future.
They are currently looking for submissions for the second edition through the paper's website.
The first edition of the paper has been funded by donations from two charitable foundations and individual donors, but the newspaper wants to be entirely self-sufficient through advertising revenue.
Eventually, the directors hope to be able to employ a number of incarcerated people to edit and produce future editions.
Media can be an 'avenue of empathy'
For the first issue, Daniel Vansetten, a formerly incarcerated man now studying law, wrote about his "brick" — a 10-year non-parole sentence.
"It's really important to have stories shared by people that are living the experience themselves," Mr Vansetten said, in writing about the administrative and informational black hole that life in prison can feel like, with many not knowing their rights inside and how to exercise them.
"We're all wearing the same colour clothes in prison … and so just having that little sort of avenue of expression and individuality really assists with the dehumanisation," he told the ABC.
"I guess it's sort of an avenue of empathy."
Mr Vansetten said knowing your rights, and prison rules and processes meant people were able to better navigate the corrections system.
While incarcerated, he spent time working on several South Australian prison papers, published monthly or bimonthly.
"The library was never more busy than those days, people were coming in [saying], 'Is it done yet? Is it done yet?'" he said with a smile.
"And you know, there'd be hundreds of copies go out, and there was never enough copies. People wanted copies. People wanted to send their articles out to their families.
"I imagine the excitement around a national paper would be even higher."