Beating the odds
About Time for Justice co-founder Jacob Little turns life around
Jacob Little has been a survivor his whole life. At a young age his parents split up and when he was 10, his father Todd was sent to prison. Jacob and his mother lived in housing commission homes and Jacob witnessed a lot of anti-social behaviour at home - excessive alcohol consumption and sometimes violence. The young boy who loved playing footy and one day dreamed of playing for the Newcastle Knights felt lost. The regular visits to the prison to see his father were confronting. His father was facing a minimum sentence of 16 years, which felt like a lifetime to a young, impressionable Jacob. After high school he started drinking and hanging out with a bad crowd.
While on bail for assault, he broke his court-imposed curfew, went out with friends and committed a robbery. That landed him in the Brisbane Boys’ Yard, where he became the target of a prison guard. “The prison guard came into my cell,” Jacob said. “I was by myself and that’s when he sexually assaulted me.” Jacob remembers feeling scared and wanting the abuse to stop, but feeling powerless. “I have no doubt he would have done it to others,” Jacob said. He spent a few months there and was abused by the same guard on a number of occasions. When he turned 18 he was sent to a men’s prison. In the first of his two prison stints, he spent about six months behind bars. When he got out, Jacob admits he returned to his life of crime. He was embarrassed and felt ashamed about the abuse and kept it a secret.
Jacob became involved with a street gang and a bikie gang and began abusing drugs and alcohol to numb the pain he was feeling. “I don’t think I ever got to the point where I was doing drugs and alcohol consistently every day but on some weekends we would go on a three or four day bender,” he said. “Then we would recover and do it again.” Jacob’s gang associations landed him back in jail. This time - under the controversial Vicious Lawless Association Disestablishment (VLAD) law, he was facing a sentence of 20 years. The law made it a criminal offence for gang members to associate with more than one member. It was Queensland’s attempt to destroy gangs, but the law was ultimately repealed. “I was on parole and my friend and I (a fellow gang member) were at the gym. I saw another gang member at the gym and he called me a name that is sort of unforgivable when you’re in that life. I confronted him and I think he threw a punch at me and we had a fight.” The two shook hands after the fight, but police had been called. “We were under investigation at that time and I think they may have been following us around,” Jacob said. “The police were on their way. There were helicopters and multiple police cars, so we had no chance of getting away.” In jail, Jacob and his fellow gang member were segregated from other inmates. “We had no tvs in our cells, no books and we were fed through our cell doors every single day,” Jacob said. “We had one six-minute call to the outside world and one non-contact visit a week.” Two hours in the yard was all Jacob and his fellow inmates were allowed.
Exercise is the one thing that can help prisoners get through the day, Jacob said, but this was made difficult during this six to seven month stint. “We had everything stripped out of the yard,” he said. “We had no chin up bar, no dip bar, no pads, nothing.” Jacob wrote to his father, who was also in jail. “I remember us writing to each other and me asking ‘fuck is this what the rest of my life is going to look like?” Jacob’s charges were eventually dropped due to a lack of evidence. But when he got out, he went straight back to the life that had put him in handcuffs. “When I got out I didn’t slow down at all,” he said. “I was still caught up in that life of crime.”
When Jacob’s father was close to becoming eligible for parole, the reality that he would need to clean up his act to see him hit him. Todd would face the prospect of going back to jail and serving the remainder of his sentence if he associated with a member of a gang. “The worst case scenario was that I would put him back in prison,” Jacob said. That fear made him determined to turn his life around. But he admits it wasn’t easy. Exiting gangs rarely is. Jacob said for about a year he felt lonely, became paranoid and retreated from everyday life. “There was a long transition period,” Jacob said. “My whole life I had been hanging around bikies and criminals.”
When Todd was finally released from prison, Jacob decided to share his story about being sexually abused. His father, who was a victim of institutional sexual abuse at a young age, did the same. Over time, Jacob started sharing his story and developed a desire to help others “fucked over by the system”. “I started doing positive things, just turning up every day relentlessly and that’s what helped me,” he said. Jacob and Todd decided to use their lived experiences to help survivors of institutional abuse and started About Time for Justice. “I hate seeing people fail and seeing guys get fucked over by lawyers or legal services,” he said. “I really want to help people who have been through what I have.”
The two said seeing justice served and compensation awarded to clients whose lives were turned upside down by sexual abuse was extremely rewarding. Jacob is in contact with a number of people who are serving prison sentences. He encourages them to focus on fitness and recommends they study while inside. “The university that I used to attend - USQ - is one of the only universities that offers tertiary preparation and three other bachelors in the prison system,” Jacob said. “I’m always encouraging guys to do that.”
Jacob admits he still has challenges he has to overcome. He is completing a law degree, which is a mammoth task for someone who admits to struggling with learning from a young age. “Every single day it’s an uphill battle,” Jacob said. But he does it to help end the silence and ensure justice is served. Jacob said he regularly encouraged survivors to share their story and start the journey towards healing. “I think people should definitely speak up,” Jacob said. “If you don’t, you will stew on it, which can lead to drug and alcohol use, crime - it will affect everyone around you.”
