An empty babycino cup rests on the table of a central Canberra café beside a full cup of coffee, as Simon* and his young daughter lounge on the couches among other patrons.
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The sight of the doting dad is a stark contrast from the stories he shares about spending more than 10 years of his life in prison.
The most recent crime, seven years ago, Simon was an accomplice in an armed robbery. He held a knife while a man with a gun stole marijuana and cash from the victims.
Under the influence of drugs and alcohol was how Simon committed all his crimes, he said.
"When you're in that mindset… you just do things that if you thought about it, you wouldn't set out to do," Simon said.
"They were unplanned actions."
The first time he got caught committing a crime was at 15 years of age, when he was locked up for assault and stealing a car. It was soon after his large family moved to Canberra from the coast, a place Simon remembers as a sanctuary.
Resentful and angry at the move, Simon started drinking "at any opportunity".
Over the next 30 years, he was in and out of the prison system.
Statistics from the Justice and Community Safety annual report 2013-14 illustrate the problem. The report showed almost 42 per cent of detainees released returned to custody within two years on a new offence.
Now aged 50, Simon said a number of factors influenced his decision to turn his life around. A hearing which followed the armed robbery in 2008 set his decision to stay sober in stone.
"I was shattered when I heard the victim impact statements," Simon said.
"I couldn't relate to the person who had committed the crime because I was sober when I was watching them [in court]."
"I don't like to hurt people. I don't want to hurt people… I didn't want to be the person that I was."
At the time, he begged the magistrate to let him enter the Karralika rehabilitation program, instead of "wasting his time" in remand.
Simon spent eight months in rehabilitation and another six in the halfway house before he went to prison. Karralika is part of the therapeutic community which also runs programs in the jail, designed to help people like Simon who suffer from addictions to drugs and alcohol.
The hardest part of his recovery, Simon said, was going to prison sober. Saying no to people offering him drugs was hard, because then you're an outsider, Simon said.
However, after eight sober months, Simon was released. He said his biggest reward of giving up alcohol has been the birth of his child.
"I've had my ups and downs through my recovery this time, but I never thought a drink would fix it like it used to," he said.
"I never thought it was possible to change, so I didn't see the point in trying. I don't know how I'm still alive, but there is probably a reason. It's probably to share what it's like to live that kind of life, and to change."
*Not his real name.
