Education Overview
VCE Overview
VELS Overview
Exercises 1 & 2
Exercise 3
Exercises 4 & 5

Exercise 4 The history of prisons in Victoria

Additional Background notes

Before the 1830s prisoners were kept in terrible conditions of filth and squalor. They were even required to pay for their food. Even debtors (people who owed money) were held as long-term prisoners.

Victoria built many new, large and expensive prisons in the 1850s and 1860s. The government was concerned that the huge growth 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, prisons were established near the main goldfields at Ararat, Bendigo, Castlemaine, Beechworth, Ballarat and Geelong. The main city prisons were Pentridge in Sydney Road, Coburg and the Melbourne Gaol in Russell Street.

The 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 Victorian prisons there was also a rule of silence. 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 that improved conditions and religious guidance would help to reform the prisoners and send them back into society as better people.

Prison records:

A prisoner's record provides a great deal of information, including:

• prisoner number
• full legal or birth name. It could also list other names by which the prisoner was known (called an alias). The alias could be a real name such as James Brown or a nickname.
• the colour of their hair, eyes and skin
• their religion
• their age
• whether or not they were 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 labour (HL)
• a full-face and profile photograph, sometimes with hands on the chest included
• other times they 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 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', 'From 1830 to 1945' and 'Today'. Group together 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 from nineteenth-century records? How has the way in which this information is recorded changed over time? Are prison ledgers 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.

Exercise 5 Prison Food

Prison food during the nineteenth century consisted of a bowl of porridge in the morning, cooked meat stew with potatoes or rice at lunch, and bread in the evening. Tea or coffee was only given to prisoners on special occasions such as Christmas. Men received more food than women. Punishments for breaking the strict prison rules included extra work, solitary confinement and withdrawal of food. Prisoners would be given only bread and water for a number of days. The records show that prisoners tried to smuggle in items such as cigarettes.

Activities:

• Record the food that you eat in one day (or over one week). Compare this with the daily food ration for Victorian prisoners in the late nineteenth century. Make the prisoners' lunchtime meal at school. Discuss the nutritional values of these foods and whether or not students had enough energy to concentrate on their school work and undertake physical activities that day. How might this diet have affected prisoners?