Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
By Kerry Tucker with Craig Henderson, Penguin Random House, $34.99.
Here’s an inspirational story about how one woman turned her jail sentence into an opportunity. From prison to a PhD student, Tucker was in prison for four-and-a-half-years after being charged with what was reported to be the biggest white-collar crime committed by a female in Victoria.
A mother of two, she had been stealing money from her employers and was sentenced to seven years in a maximum-security prison, alongside the state’s most notorious criminals.
She had two options when she arrived at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre to start her sentence. Instead of succumbing to defeat, Kerry chose the time in jail to make a difference by working collectively with inmates and corrections officers to improve the standard of prison life. She helped these women – many who lacked basic levels of education – with their parole applications and correspondence.
This memoir is full of absorbing stories of life behind bars and linked with dry humour, she divulges how one woman’s darkest hour can become a turning point in her life, the making of her.
A passionate advocate for educating women in prison, she was released with a Master of Arts degree. Tucker went on to get a doctorate and to become a lecturer at Swinburne University. She currently works for an educational institution in Melbourne.
In fact, her experience behind bars is the inspiration behind the critically acclaimed Wentworth, a remake of the long-running Australian drama series Prisoner.
Tucker realistically captures the unreal world she lived in behind bars through her ability to laugh at herself, interwoven with painful candour.
If you correctly tell us the number of years Kerry spent in prison, you could be one of two winners to win The Prisoner: How One Woman’s Jail Term Was The Making Of Her? Entries should be sent to competitions@psnews.com.au by next Monday, 23 July 2018. Names of the winners will be announced in Frank Cassidy’s PS-sssst…! column next week.
