The prison system during the 1830s started as a revolutionary process of reform in the US and England.

Before the 1830s prisoners were kept in terrible conditions of filth and squalor. They were even required to pay for their food. Before these reforms, debtors (people who owed money) had been long term prisoners.

The new prisons were designed with separate cells and prisoners were segregated according to the type of crime they had committed. Men and women were also separated.

In Victoria there was also a rule of silence in prisons. Prisoners were kept totally isolated and silent for the first few months of their sentence. They were required to wear silence masks (hoods made of calico) when they left their cells.

Prisoners in this new system were also required to work. Their prison day was strictly regulated with times for work, exercise, eating and rest. Authorities thought the improved conditions and religious guidance would help to reform the prisoners and send them back into society as better people.

Courts and prison authorities attempted to assist the Chinese by using interpreters and letting them take oaths according to their own traditions.

Victoria built many of these new, large and expensive prisons in the 1850s and 1860s. The Government was concerned that the huge increase in population caused by the gold rushes would lead to an increase in crime and civil unrest, especially after the Eureka uprising in Ballarat in December 1854. As a result of these concerns, the Government built prisons near the main goldfields such as Ararat, Bendigo, Castlemaine, Beechworth, Ballarat, and Geelong. The main city prisons were Pentridge in Sydney Road, Coburg and the Melbourne Gaol in Russell Street.

A prisoners’ record provides a great deal of information. The record can be very useful if you are writing a family history or doing research on an individual.

For each person, the prison records list:

• prison number
• full legal or birth name. It could also list other names by which that person was known (called an alias). The alias could be a real name such as James Brown or Ah Ling or a nickname.
• the color of their hair, eyes and skin
• their religion
• their age
• whether or not they are married with a family
• where they were born
• the date they came to Australia
• the ship on which they came to Australia
• the crime for which they were sent to prison and any extra punishment they might be given such as a whipping or hard labor (HR)
• full face and profile photograph, sometimes with hands on the chest included
• further times when a person had been sent to prison. Their sentence and their punishment were added to the record.

In many cases a person with a criminal record has left more information about themselves than have law-abiding citizens. This information is very useful when people today are researching their family history. Most people in the past did not leave records like these for the future generations of their family.

Activities:

• On a map of China, locate and mark the area from where most of the Chinese came.
• On a map of Victoria, locate and mark the towns where the new style of prisons were built. Try to find out if these prisons are still in operation. If so, what changes have been made to them over time to improve the conditions for prisoners? If not, has a more recent prison taken its place, and if so, why?
• Make a chart, table or annotated timeline to show how the prison system has changed over time. Information for the chart or table should be grouped into three or more time categories such as ‘Before 1830’, ‘After 1830 to 1945’ and ‘Today’. Group related information about different aspects of the prison system such as food, clothing, prison sentences, daily routines. Use information about the prison system that you have read so far to illustrate these changes over time. As you undertake future work, you could add further information to this chart about different aspects of prison life and the prison system. Decide whether or not you think these changes were an improvement. Be prepared to justify your personal viewpoint.
• Design your own prison record. What information (written and visual) would you have on it that would be different to nineteenth century records? How has the way in which this information is recorded changed over time? Are prison ledger or record books still used? How might this information be recorded in 5, 10, 50, 100 years from now? Discuss privacy issues and whether or not you believe they should apply in cases of people who have been convicted and/or imprisoned.
• Read the text about Ah Ling's prison record. With a partner or in a small group, discuss the following questions and share your ideas later with other class members:
• What can you learn about Ah Ling’s life during the time that he was in and out of prison?
• Why do you think he kept getting into trouble?
• How old was he at the time of his last sentence?
• List some reasons why he might have kept returning to jail.
• What do you think would happen to a prisoners’ family while a person like Ah Ling was in jail?
  As an extension to this activity, find out what happens to a prisoner’s family while they are in prison today. Find out about the work of groups who help prisoners and their families such as the Victorian Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders (formerly Prisoners’ Aid Society), telephone (03) 9602 1366, the Australian Community Support Organisation, telephone (03) 9320 4000, and church organizations such as Wesley Mission and St Vincent de Paul Society. Senior students may wish to read and prepare a presentation using the paper, Doing it Hard: A Study of the Needs of Children and Families of Prisoners in Victoria at www.aifs.gov.au/institute/afrc7/tudball_lazarus.pdf.
• What type of a criminal was Ah Ling described as being in 1910?
• What do you think this means?
• What evidence can you find in the text to prove or disprove this statement?
• Does this term help explain and/or excuse Ah Ling’s actions as a criminal? Why or why not?
• Show a list of the information recorded in the prison registers about each prisoner to a person you know who is researching their family history. Find out if they have been able to find this type of information about their family members. Would they find this type of information about other family members useful, and if so how and why?


• As an extension, find out about the Eureka miners claims that they wrote in the Ballarat Reform League Charter and why these claims were made. Research the effects of the Government mining taxes on Chinese. Find out how the Chinese managed to make a living on the goldfields and the attitudes of people from other cultures towards them.

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