Long Bay to Redfern: Inmate given day release to play footy final
HE is serving a 15-year sentence for armed robberies but Samuel Hampton walked out of Long Bay Jail on Sunday morning to play in a rugby league grand final with a security bracelet on his ankle and redemption in his heart.
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SAMUEL Hampton, serving a 15-year sentence for multiple armed robberies, walked out of Long Bay jail to play in a rugby league grand final on Sunday morning with a security bracelet under his footy socks and redemption in his heart.
The 35-year-old has been in and out of prison since 2004 over a series of robberies on a KFC store, a TAB, two eastern suburbs pubs and a Surry Hills 7-Eleven convenience store.
He played in South Sydney juniors A-grade grand final for Redfern All Blacks against Mascot under his coach and mentor Dean Widders, the former Parramatta Eels, Roosters and Rabbitohs NRL star.
Redfern pulled off a 28-12 win to claim the title.
Now reformed and rated a model prisoner, Hampton is regarded by the club as a role model and leader because he often talks of his previous life on drugs, alcohol and shocking crime as a deterrent to young, up-and-coming players.
His leadership role is backed by local police and Long Bay jail governor Pat Aboud, who has overseen the transformation of a difficult and once drug-addicted inmate into a man of whom they are immensely proud.
Hampton now has enormous remorse and regret for the decade of horrible crime that landed him behind bars.
“Some of the stuff I did was terrible. Really nasty and evil,” he said.
“It wasn’t until my nan passed away a few years ago that I started to reflect. What if it was her house someone had broken into and stolen from?
“What if it was my mum behind the bar at the pub we robbed? Desperate criminals don’t think of those things until it’s too late.”
A low-risk, minimum security prisoner now 11 years into his sentence, Hampton is now allowed out to work on the wharves, play football and train — always with the ankle bracelet. But he’s locked into a cell like other inmates at 9pm.
“Rugby league has given me a pathway back into society,” Hampton told The Sunday Telegraph.
“I used to get my highs out of methadone — now it’s by playing footy. To be at training. To be in a team and to throw the footy around. That’s where I now get my highs from.”
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The tale of the Redfern All Blacks and the role Widders has played is a remarkable sporting story.
How the former NRL star arrived in 2013 and set about changing a club culture in one of the country’s most notorious crime regions.
He introduced tough new rules including a zero tolerance to domestic violence, no alcohol before games and a strict no job, no play policy.
One week in Widders’ first year, the team ran out with only 10 players. The others had been caught drinking the night before and stood down. It got the message across.
Widders approached the local police commander Superintendent Luke Freudenstein to join the club as A-grade trainer to help mend relationships after years of confrontation between indigenous youth and law enforcement officers.
Indigenous leader and club life member Shane Phillips got on board too. He runs employment programs for the players and gave Hampton a job on the wharves.
The crime rate has since plummeted in Redfern by 65 per cent. Kids who used to wander the streets at night now aspire to wear the club jersey.
“It’s all about trying to change the culture in Redfern,” Widders says.
“We mentor kids and try to build their aspirations and a lot of our best results have occurred away from football.
“We’ve been really focused on a lot of the social issues around the community. In any Aboriginal community if you address the issues off the field you’re going to have success on it.”
His crackdown and stance on domestic violence is actually tougher than the NRL’s.
“It’s absolutely zero tolerance,” he says.
“It doesn’t matter what the circumstances are, you don’t hit a woman. Full stop.”
As for Hampton, Widders can’t speak highly enough of his contribution to the club. From the day he walked onto Alexandria Oval for his shot at redemption.
“Sam had a history of drugs and violence and he’s been in jail for a long period of his life,” Widders said.
“That means he can deliver a more powerful message than I can because I’ve never been there to experience it.
“He’s actually a really positive role model and very articulate in getting his message across to the younger kids not to go where he did.
“When he first got out it was a shock to him how Redfern had changed and how our footy club had changed. He could see it was nothing like the old days when all they knew about was drug deals, alcohol abuse, crime and violence. For some of these guys it was their way of life.”
In March next year, Hampton hopes to be released on early parole for the beginning of a new life.