Finding Freedom Behind Bars
Reiley Amost helps clean up during the 2011 QLD floods. (Photo: Dean Saffron)
Sitting in a jail cell on his 21st birthday, Reiley Amos picked up the Bible and started to read: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…”
Reiley Amos describes himself as an “angry young man” for many years.
Today, it is hard to believe that the young man who is now volunteer manager of the Streetlevel coffee van was not so long ago homeless, addicted and imprisoned.
Talking of his background Reiley explains: “My mum was a single parent... Ten years ago I was 12 my brother was just born and a couple of years later my sister was born so I may have been a bit jealous of the fact that I didn’t get much time or anything with my mum.
“I was a bit of a delinquent .... I was always fighting with my mum. I’d been suspended in year ten about three times that year. I got arrested for the first time when I was 14. And that was the first time I ever got drunk too.”
Homeless for some time, Reiley had been going to The Salvation Army’s Youth Outreach Network in Brisbane for a meal and to use its shower and laundry facilities. It was there that he met Brisbane Streetlevel manager, Bryce Davies, who, he laughs, challenged him to a game of table tennis and won!
At that time, Reiley was a young man in a great deal of trouble.
He says: “I was living in a squat in the city. I’d bashed this guy...and I had previous offences for assault...I was drinking a lot.
“I went to court in 2010 for the assault ... and I got sentenced to six months in prison (I only had to serve two) ... Every fortnight Bryce Davies or Paul Maunder (from Streetlevel) came and visited me when I was in jail.”
His turning point came on his 21st birthday. Alone, in his prison cell, he began to read the Bible.
“I started reading the Bible from the front, so I started at Genesis,” he says. “What I got out of that was that I need to start again. Start over.”
Reiley has now been part of the Brisbane Streetlevel community for the past four years. He says: “I do talk to my mum a lot now and we get along really well ...but I can’t really see her cos she’s doesn’t live in Brisbane. Paul Maunder to me is like a father figure and so is Bryce ...They make me feel like I’m accepted and loved for who I am.”
Talking of his new responsibility managing the coffee van and helping others in need, he says: “I feel a lot better about myself.“
By Lauren Martin & Naomi Singlehurst.
Comments
As Reiley's mother i am very proud of Reiley reading all that he has said and done despite his ups and downs in life...All is forgiven and frequently talked about concerning family life and am so glad he found such awesome friends and family to trust and call upon in his time of need and help....Street Level you guys are the best and thankyou so much for caring for my son and alot of other people in the community and all the work you do from street work to reaching out even further not only just in your own community...and for loving unconditionally.....xx.xx.xx. Louise Amos..xx.