Emma Pritchard, Clarence Valley Independent

When Clarence Valley resident Paul MacNamara decided to transition from an everyday teacher to an education officer in the prison system, he found himself in an unfamiliar classroom with strict settings and new students.

Some were sex offenders and murderers, others were serving time for armed robbery, drug offences, or breaking and entering. And their literacy and numeracy skills varied as greatly as the crimes which brought them to their current predicament.

As he commenced the next stage of his teaching career, Mr MacNamara began to encounter strange and confrontational situations.

And there was no shortage of questions and curiosity. “I noticed that people of all ages would ask me about my job and what is was like to teach in a gaol,” he recalled.

“I thought to myself, maybe I should write some things down while I still remembered them.”

Fast forward to 2022, and Mr MacNamara is a published author.

After spending five years working in the Silverwater Correctional Complex and the old Grafton Gaol, he has collaborated many of his on-the-job experiences into a 270-page paperback entitled The Criminal Class: Memoir of a Prison Teacher.

As he takes his readers on a day-to-day journey through his profession, sharing his compelling life as an outsider on the inside, Mr MacNamara also reflects on the most satisfying aspects of his role, and how his teaching helped to make a difference to the lives of the inmates.

“One thing that stood out to me was the vast majority of people in gaol had received very minimal education,” he said.

“One story I related in the book was about a prisoner who was always getting in trouble.

“He was always late, and always getting out of the routine that exists in the prison system.

“He could hardly read or write, and he couldn’t read a clock as well. “He was almost innumerate.”

As an educator, Mr MacNamara said transforming the man’s knowledge through teaching was “very rewarding.”

During his official book launch at Botero Maclean on September 3, Mr MacNamara revealed overall feedback for his work has been very positive, and the event was well supported by the local community.

“For the general public, it’s an interesting insight,” Mr MacNamara said.

Mr MacNamara is presently working as a teacher in the juvenile justice system and drafting a new book “on a completely different topic.”

Published by Big Sky Publishing, The Criminal Class: Memoir of a Prison Teacher is available for purchase at the Book Warehouse in Grafton, Yamba Newsagency, and Flots and Jets in Yamba.

This article appeared in the Clarence Valley Independent, 7 September 2022.