“There’s a part of me that still wants to be there,” she said. 

“Working in the jail, I learnt a lot about people and got a greater insight into people’s struggles.”

For 25 years, she has been a chaplain in the prison. But now she has retired. 

She admits it is not where she thought she would end up when she took her vows with the Presentation Sisters in 1961.

Then, aged 19, Sister Rosemary was expecting to spend her life as a teacher. For 20 years, she did teach. First infants, later primary and high school students. 

Then she went to jail.

“I suppose it was a bit of a jump, from teaching infants to working with inmates,” she laughs.

“I don’t think I saw it as different at the time, in both places I was there to care for people and to give them hope.”

She started as a volunteer, attending the prison on a part-time basis. 

“Those early years, I remember I found it difficult to leave the prison because in many ways, I took them with  me.

“I’d leave, go off to meetings in Sydney or wherever, and then I’d come back to see them standing there at the gate, where I left them. For them it was always the same old routine.”

She can no longer remember her first day at the prison, but Sister Rosemary remembers the first feeling that accompanied her into the prison.

“But I always received a lot of respect from the inmates, and the staff were always very supportive.”

Sister Rosemary drew her courage from a few sources. Firstly, the story of Sister Nano Nagle, who founded the order of the Presentation Sisters 300 years ago in Ireland.

“She cared for the disadvantaged and marginalised, people like those I was meeting in the prison.”

Her second source of strength came through a film starring Sean Penn and Susan Sarandon. The true story of Sister Helen Prejean who worked with death-row inmates in America.

“Dead Man Walking came out when I was just starting out in the jail, it helped me see that walking alongside these inmates was a privilege. 

Compassion was the currency Sister Rosemary traded in, and it is what she believes sustained her for so long as a chaplain.

“It was always hope that I wanted to give, [as well as] support and encouragement, and even a challenge to look at their offending and make a change.”

“A lot of them would come in hopeless, and many of them left with hope. Hope was the best I could give them.”

Sister Rosemary continues to write to inmates and meet with those who have been released. 

She admits that for some, coming back into society has been a challenge.

“Sometimes, when they came out, and there was nothing for them, they’d lose the hope a little bit and I think we often criticise them for that, but we as a society need to keep giving them hope.”

“I’d like to see in the future, more be done to help them when they come outside. 

“Employment is a big challenge, but I think sometimes you have to take the chance. Sometimes it won’t work out, but it’s worth it when it does.”

A letter from a former inmate who attended the prison chaplaincy’s Kairos program speaks of how she saw lives change inside the prison.

The writer had been in the jail for more than 12 years. He describes leaving the course ‘feeling warm and loved’ for the first time in his life. 

It is these stories that help Sister Rosemary fondly remember her time in prison.

“At times we’ve presented God as judgement and not love,” she said.

“We’ve gone too far into the rules and we’ve forgotten the relationship.”

“Lots of people flash through my mind now that I don’t have contact with, and I just say ‘Lord, look after them, wherever they are’.”