Port Arthur - Separate Prison
May. 14th, 2010 10:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xenithThe Model or Separate Prison, built 1848.
'Model' because it was built using the latest ideas in prison reform, was based on the system used at Pentonville, that was based on system developed at Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia and would be used in the building of the third wing at Melbourne Gaol a few years later (that which is now the Old Melbourne Gaol museum).
If you're wondering why there's a prison building and the big penitentiary building down by the water: one is for punishment, one is for a barracks for prisoners. Does that make the Separate Prison a prison within a prison within a prison?
It's an interesting building because in the decades prior to it being built there was a move away from physical punishment (e.g. flogging) because it made the recipient resentful and more likely to reoffend, it weakened them physically and it had a detrimental effect on the flogger. Instead, they moved to more psychological methods -- in this case, silence and separation. A simple idea: prisoners do not see or hear other prisoners, at any time.
From a centre room, three wings of cells radiate out from each side, with a chapel on the fourth side (up those stairs). Between the wings, on three corner, were the exercise yards. And I shall stop there before I start writing an essay :)
The separation of prisoners extended to the chapel -- each to their own partition.
Sandstone walls in a not yet restored part.
For the particularly recalcitrant prisoner, there were two solitary cells off the exercise yards. Each was built of stone and was accessed by a series of doors.
First doors, turn the corner
along a short passage
Form inside, two more doors
Yes, my camera does have a flash!
Doors. Passages. Thick walls. All intended to keep out any light or sound. How dark does it get with that door closed?
That's not even closed properly.
'Model' because it was built using the latest ideas in prison reform, was based on the system used at Pentonville, that was based on system developed at Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia and would be used in the building of the third wing at Melbourne Gaol a few years later (that which is now the Old Melbourne Gaol museum).
If you're wondering why there's a prison building and the big penitentiary building down by the water: one is for punishment, one is for a barracks for prisoners. Does that make the Separate Prison a prison within a prison within a prison?
It's an interesting building because in the decades prior to it being built there was a move away from physical punishment (e.g. flogging) because it made the recipient resentful and more likely to reoffend, it weakened them physically and it had a detrimental effect on the flogger. Instead, they moved to more psychological methods -- in this case, silence and separation. A simple idea: prisoners do not see or hear other prisoners, at any time.
From a centre room, three wings of cells radiate out from each side, with a chapel on the fourth side (up those stairs). Between the wings, on three corner, were the exercise yards. And I shall stop there before I start writing an essay :)
The separation of prisoners extended to the chapel -- each to their own partition.
Sandstone walls in a not yet restored part.
For the particularly recalcitrant prisoner, there were two solitary cells off the exercise yards. Each was built of stone and was accessed by a series of doors.
First doors, turn the corner
along a short passage
Form inside, two more doors
Yes, my camera does have a flash!
Doors. Passages. Thick walls. All intended to keep out any light or sound. How dark does it get with that door closed?
That's not even closed properly.
