Woman reveals what it was like to have her boyfriend in prison
A 21-year-old beauty therapist has revealed what it was like to have her boyfriend in prison for eight months.
A woman has revealed what it was like to have her boyfriend in prison for eight months.
Alice Jane met her boyfriend Kyle through a friend. Kyle needed a house mate and Ms Jane’s friend was it. Ms Jane was helping her move in when she saw Kyle. Immediately, she thought he was cute.
The pair ended up connecting. Ms Jane’s friend moved out and she moved in. Ms Jane was aware her boyfriend was a small-time drug dealer. He sold drugs such as cannabis and MDMA. It was a world away from what Ms Jane grew up in.
“When I first met him, it wasn’t as intense as it got two years into it,” Ms Jane told news.com.au.
“We live in a small town and people talk.”
Things ramped up quickly. Soon, “hectic” people started showing up at their home. She never touched the drugs. She never even saw them.
Eventually their home was raided by police. Ms Jane was locked up because she lived in the house. Kyle was sent to a watch house. Her goal was just getting him out on bail. The bail cost $3000.
“A week in, I moved back into my mum’s house. It was really hectic. He was mentally spiralling,” she said.
For close to four months, she stayed at her mum’s house . The couple were fighting. They were together but also not at the same time.
Ms Jane was mad they’d lost their house. The last thing she wanted to do was move in with her mum.
“I was just really mad we’d lost everything. I didn’t really take into consideration he’d lost everything too,” she said.
But, a month before Christmas, they reconnected. They knew jail was coming. And, they were right. Kyle was sentenced to eight months in March.
For the first month he was at a lower staffed prison. It meant Kyle was in his cell 22 hours a day. They never got to speak.
Then, he got moved to another prison where he wasn’t allowed to use the phone after 4pm. Other prisoners then threatened Kyle and Ms Jane repeatedly. Eventually, she sought help from the prison. The prison transferred Kyle as a result.
At this new prison, Ms Jane was able to visit twice a week. She joked they talked “20 million” times a day on the phone.
Ms Jane, who goes by @aliceswonderland__, documented the couple’s journey online. She posted a video sharing the reality of Australian prisons and it blew up.
“I was getting really nice messages from other women who had people in prison,” she said.
“They were telling me to keep making my videos, saying they were helping. I was getting a bit embarrassed of people I know seeing the videos.
“But I knew people were enjoying them and I was enjoying making them.”
She said she’s met nice people through her page. Now, she just wants to help others.
“When your partner first goes in, you genuinely feel like your whole life is over,” she said.
“You’re still alive and you have to keep doing life. You don’t even get to hear from them for the first two weeks so you don’t even know if they’re alive.
“But, I want everyone to know, everything’s going to be OK. You do get through it. It just becomes a lifestyle you get used to.”
She also said if anything is happening, you should speak up. She said prison guards are actually there to help.
The beauty therapist’s boyfriend has been released. She feels as though she blinked and he’s home.
“Sometimes it can get a bit full on because I am used to doing my own thing,” she said.
“If I just go out — and it’s not going for a drink or food — I just hop in the car and go. He needs to do his hair and look at himself for 30 minutes.”
She said the pair are just used to doing things differently. At the moment, they’re both just focusing on not getting overwhelmed. She said at first she was trying to plan dinners but Kyle said he just wanted chill time. So, Kyle, Ms Jane and her daughter have been spending a lot of time at the park.