Mount Gambier Library will host former journalist turned teacher Ralph Jackman to discuss his debut memoir Detention on Tuesday 30 June 2026 at 6:30pm.
Brother to Australian actor Hugh Jackman, Ralph enjoyed a distinguished 25-year career as a sports reporter and broadcast journalist across Australia, London and New York, before making a significant change in his early fifties, swapping the newsroom for the classroom. Transitioning into teaching, he anticipated a routine role involving yard duty and parent-teacher interviews. Instead, he landed his first teaching job behind the razor wire of Melbourne’s Parkville Youth Detention Centre, teaching literacy and numeracy to some of the nation’s most vulnerable kids.
Entering a challenging and highly secure environment, Ralph said his initiation included confronting accounts of riots and assaults on staff, with a threat to his safety within hours. His students, held in remand, often came from backgrounds marked by trauma, dysfunction and abuse, and were facing uncertain futures within the justice system.
“When I started at Parkville I expected upturned desks, thrown chairs, verbal abuse, and violent threats. There would be a bit of all of that. But it was the surprising moments that made the biggest impression: the time a 15-year-old car thief told me he wanted to learn to read, the student who took his campaign for a precinct library all the way to the Victorian Education Minister and the repeat offender whose poetry nearly moved me to tears,” Mr Jackman said.
“These young people, I quickly realised, weren’t irredeemably bad. They were like other teenagers, the main difference being that many of them had childhoods few of us could imagine.”
While there were moments of progress and connection, conditions within Parkville increasingly concerned Ralph. He observed systemic issues including inadequate facilities, staffing and a funding crisis that resulted in students being confined to their rooms for days on end. Believing these conditions contravened the Children, Youth and Families Act of 2005 and Victoria’s Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act of 2006, he began to advocate for change.
City of Mount Gambier Community Engagement Coordinator Kristi Brooks said Ralph’s work offers a rare and personal perspective on a largely unseen environment.
“Detention offers a compelling and deeply human insight into a rarely seen world. Blending moments of humour and heartbreak with powerful personal reflections, the memoir highlights both the challenges and the transformative potential of education within the youth justice system,” Mrs Brooks said.
This free event will feature an in-conversation interview, with opportunities for audience questions. Books will be available for sale and signing. With spaces filling quickly, secure your seat by contacting the Mount Gambier Library on 8721 2540 or book online at www.mountgambier.sa.gov.au/Library under ‘Programs and Events’.
