Convict Department - Separate Prison Reports, 1867-1871

B 5

fonds

1867-1871

442932

Microfilm : CY 4984, frames 1-105

1 volume - 0.02 Meters

The Separate Prison was located in the colonial penal establishment at Port Arthur, Tasmania. It opened in 1849 and provided the most severe measures of punishment. Here, constant surveillance, solitary confinement and silence were considered the way to reform. The building was a small modified version of the Pentonville Prison in London. It contained individual cells built around a four-wing radial design that ensured constant surveillance, as well as two dumb cells and a separate chapel.

1 October 1867 - 4 July 1871; Each page is headed with the name of a convict and the ship he arrived on. Beneath this are entries in columns under the titles of Week ending, Employment, Class, Amount of Work performed, Conduct, Industry, Signature of Officer in Charge (A.W., John Cassidy, M. McCarthy, and P.M. Guinness), and earnings letter.

Partially indexed by Port Arthur Historic Site Management Authority (PAHSMA). Index available online: https://content-lists.sl.nsw.gov.au/tabular-list/convict-department-tasmania-separate-prison-reports-1867-1873-ml-b5-individual Copyright PAHSMA 2018. Reproduced with permission from PAHSMA.

Pages are ruled into columns and rows of a table and an account book.
Some entries note, "Discharge to Hobart Town", implying that the prison is elsewhere in Tasmania.
There are pin holes evident in the pages indicating that there were additional notes and papers.
Volume was bound in July 1933.
David Scott Mitchell bookplate inside front cover.
"D.S. Mitchell" signature at front of original volume.

Titled from handwritten inscription on paper plate affixed to front endpaper of volume, "No.38 / Separate Prison. / Men under strict separate / treatment confined in / the Separate Prison.- / October 1867-"
Embossed on spine, "Convicts / Separate / Prison / Reports / 1867-71"