1980s

Ghosts

Escapes

Artefacts

Executions

Why Boggo?

Prison Labour

Female Division

Famous Prisoners

Building the 1903 Gaol

The Boggo Road Gaol Museum

boggoroadgaol.com.au

boggoroadgaol.com.au

Prison Labour

Prison labour was a concept that gained popularity with the authorities in the late 19th century. Prior to this time, prisoners were made to work outside on new roads or land clearing, or were confined to their cells picking oakum, a fine thread obtained by picking apart old ropes. An 1868 inquiry into Queensland prisons recommended that prisoners could be employed in such work as shoemaking, baking and tailoring to provide the food and clothes for prisons.

The lack of facilities at most gaols was a problem, but in later years workshops were designed into new gaols. The Boggo Road women's prison had a three-storey workshop in what later became D Wing. By this time reformative value of teaching prisoner skills that could be used upon their release had been recognised, and it was also noted that they were generally more content when employed.

The division of labour in the society outside the Boggo Road walls was replicated inside those walls, and the women were made to cook, sew, clean and wash. This included making prison uniforms and institutional clothing. Such industry created a lot of income for the prison.

Among other work, the Boggo Road men were engaged in mat-making, which was a very profitable enterprise for the gaol (Brisbane City Council B120-30783).

Escapes

When the first gaol was built at Boggo Road in 1883, the authorities thought that the high brick walls and watchtowers would be enough to prevent escapes. They thought wrong. There were upwards of 200 escapes and attempted escapes during 1883 and 2000 (see tables below), some mundane and some dramatic. The percentage of inmates who escaped, however, was always very small, and most were recaptured within a short space of time.

Did anyone ever really escape from Boggo Road Gaol? There is only one case where it could be argued that someone did. Percy Lee was spirited away in a car waiting outside the gaol in 1926, and if he had not been arrested for robbery in New Zealand the following year he would never have been heard of again.

Some prisoners were more persistent than others. While Slim Halliday may have been called the 'Houdini of Boggo Road' in the 1850s, there were some in the 1980s prison who tried to escape three or four times and often succeeded. The newspapers consistently berated the state of affairs at Boggo Road that allowed the escapes to happen in the first place. Prison officers, bosses and the gaol itself were often unfairly criticized in the press, a practice that reached fever pitch during the 1980s and eventually led to the closure of the gaol.

Although many Boggo Road prisoners went over the wall or through the gates, every single one of them was eventually caught and saw the inside of a cell again– if they were not killed. Some were out for minutes, and some were out for months, but it is arguable if they were ever really free at all, because for an escaped prisoner the whole outside world becomes a prison in which they must constantly look over their shoulder. There can never be total freedom for a hunted escapee.


Escape statistics

The following statistics are based on the records compiled by the BRGHS. They should in no way be viewed as complete, as new information is still coming to light as our researchers continue their work. Providing separate figures for escapes and attempted escapes is difficult, as some of the available information is vague at best, but these statistics will give an overall idea of how the different Boggo Road prison buildings fared.

Escapes

(*Unknown: Some records indicate that a prisoner was punished for attempting an escape, but fail to indicate where the incident happened)

Attempted Escapes

Inside History publications on this subject

Last Prison Standing: A short history of Boggo Road’s No.2 Division 1903-89
Christopher Dawson and Frank Wood (2005) RRP $5

The Houdini of Boggo Road:The Life and Escapades of Slim Halliday
Christopher Dawson (2005) RRP $6

Escaping Boggo Road
Christopher Dawson and Frank Wood (2005) RRP $10

Executions

The 42 people hanged at Boggo Road Gaol

* Police Record of Condemned Prisoners

One afternoon in March 1903, Sergeant David Johnston was on his shift at the Mackay lock-up when he saw prisoners running in panic. One of them told him that another prisoner, Sotulo, had split the head of another prisoner with a firewood axe. Johnston rushed into the yard, and leaned over the dead body of the prisoner there. As he paused, Sotulo ran out with the axe and killed him in a frenzied attack.

The 27 year-old Sotulo had been employed as a cane cutter on a plantation near Mackay. While working there he was arrested for murdering 12 year-old Alice Gunning. She had been riding home alone from morning Mass when Sotulo approached her on the roadside, making what the press reported as "improper proposals". She insulted him, and he angrily threw a large rock that struck her head and left her unconscious.

He dragged Alice into the scrub before smashing in her skull in with a larger rock. He left the scene after this, and when her horse returned home alone a search of the area was begun. Alice's body was found that evening.

Sotulo came under suspicion after he was reported as being missing from work. A few mornings later the police caught up with him and arrested him. Wearing bloodstained clothes, he confessed to the crime and was taken to the Mackay lock-up, where he committed the double murder.

When he eventually received the death sentence it was not for the murder of Alice, but the two murders he had committed in the lock-up waiting for trial. He was asked if he had anything to say before the sentence was passed, and the press reported that:

... The prisoner said he would like to see his brother and sister at the island. He was tired of Mackay, and wanted to go immediately to Brisbane by the mail boat and get hanged. He said he had been kept too long, and wanted to die.

He got his wish, and shortly found himself in the condemned cell at Boggo Road. While there, he confessed to the Anglican chaplain that he had killed another six people in Malaita before arriving in Australia – making a total of nine murders. If true, this would make him the most prolific killer to be hanged at the gaol.

The Truth newspaper reported his last moments on the gallows in a business-like manner:

The noose was quickly settled about his bare throat, and then the little white bag was pulled over his head.
It was too small for the condemned man’s head, but the length of the shield enabled it to cover the face effectively, and it was no sooner fastened than the Sheriff gave the signal, the hangman stretched forth his brawny arm, seized the lever, pushed it forward, and all that was mortal of Sow To Low tumbled through the trapdoor.
He came up with a jerk, and then his knees drew up to his breast convulsively twice, after which they stiffened out, and the body swung gently to-and-fro in the slight breeze from the open door.
He hung 15 minutes and then was lowered into the coffin and carted away.

Inside History publications on this subject

A Pit of Shame: South Brisbane Cemetery and the executed prisoners of
Boggo Road
Christopher Dawson (2005) RRP $14

The Hungry Ghosts of Boggo Road: Background, beliefs, and fate in the afterlife of Chinese prisoners executed in Queensland
Leonie Gane (2005) RRP $8

The Prisoners of Toowong Cemetery: Life, Death and the old Petrie Terrace Gaol
Christopher Dawson (2006) RRP $8

Hangman's Walk: South Brisbane Cemetery: A capital punishment history trail
Christopher Dawson (2007) RRP $3

Dirty Dozen: Hanging and the Moreton Bay Convicts
Christopher Dawson (2008) RRP $8

Famous Prisoners

Patrick Kenniff

Stuart and Finch

Florence MacDonald

Arthur 'Slim' Halliday

Arthur 'Slim' Halliday

Arthur 'Slim' Halliday rose to prominence in the 1940s by becoming Boggo Road’s most persistent and infamous escape artist. For sheer variety of methods, no one else matched him. During his prison career he made six known escape attempts, two of which were successful. He was sent to Boggo Road in 1939 to serve a five-year sentence for house-breaking. As it turned out, he got into so much trouble at the prison he ended up serving ten years!

He was released in 1949, but was sent back to Boggo Road in 1952 for the murder of taxi driver Athol McGowan. He tried to escape through the roof of the workshop in 1953 after setting fire to mattresses, but was overcome by smoke. In 1959 he was caught loose in a cellblock after ingeniously bending open his cell door with an improvised pulley system. After this attempt he was confined under special restrictions, being constantly watched and strip searched. He was eventually released in the late 1970s, and died in 1987.

Patrick Kenniff

The trial of the Kenniff brothers in Brisbane during 1902 caused some of the most dramatic controversy seen in the debate around capital punishment. The whole event galvanised support within the Labor Party for the abolition of capital punishment, and was to be a major factor in Queensland eventually abolishing hanging.

Public concern was further aroused when the Kenniffs were tried in Brisbane instead of Roma, by a special jury of four instead of a common jury of 12, and the Chief Justice was felt to show bias against the brothers. Against this backdrop, the Kenniff trial was imbued with images of class tensions. In one scene during the trial, the Kenniffs were being removed from the police court to the Boggo Road prison van when the assembled crowd began cheering for them.

In court it was argued that the Kenniffs had shot the men after a confrontation in the bush, and then burned the bodies. Although a tracker who had been with the murdered men saw the Kenniffs riding from the murder scene, no-one had seen the act itself. There was genuine shock when both brothers later received the death sentence. Supporters of the Kenniffs believed that the case for wilful murder had been built on circumstantial evidence. After appeals and petitions against the sentences, James Kenniff's death sentence was commuted to life in late December, but Patrick was still to hang. This only divided public opinion further, and two days before the execution a crowd of over 4000 people attended a rally in Brisbane, where speakers denounced the impending hanging.

On the morning of the execution up to 700 people had gathered outside the gaol before the hanging, and they saw the public executioner arrive at Boggo Road disguised in a black beard and darkened spectacles. Kenniff received the Holy Sacrament of Communion from the Rev. Father Baldwin, and walked firmly to the gallows. The last words of Pat Kenniff, as reported by The Truth, were:

It was the biggest funeral ever held for an executed person in Queensland. His family were given permission to erect a wooden grave marker, later to be replaced with a concrete headstone, making his the only original marked grave of the 42 people executed at Boggo Road. The Rev. Father Baldwin conducted an "intensely solemn and earnest" Catholic service by the graveside.

Florence Alma MacDonald

The most infamous female prisoner in early Boggo Road was Florence Macdonald. By the normal standards of the day, she and her husband should have been hanged for their horrendous crime, but her death sentence was commuted.

The victim was her 12 year-old stepchild Grace MacDonald, a happy, intelligent child. In 1904 she had been living in Melbourne with her aunt following the death of her mother, and was excited when her father, Angus, sent for her to join him and his new wife Florence on their pastoral station near Longreach. Although she had looked forward to station life, she found herself working from dawn to dusk, sleeping on the floor, eating with the dogs, having no warm clothes in winter, and being viciously beaten. By the end of the year she was dead. The doctor could not believe what he saw. She appeared to have been starved, she had broken ribs and a wrist, bones were protruding from her right arm and large pieces of skin had been torn from parts of her body. Large sores showed that she had crawled around on her hands and knees, too weak to walk.

Angus served his term at St. Helena Island. Inside Boggo Road gaol, Florence was noted to be a model prisoner and devoted Christian. She was eventually discharged in December 1916.

Stuart and Finch

Double Trouble

In 1973 John Andrew Stuart and Jim Finch were sentenced to life for firebombing the 'Whiskey au Go Go' nightclub in Brisbane. Five gallons of petrol were ignited in the foyer of the packed Fortitude Valley club. In the panic that followed, 15 people were killed. At the time it was Australia's worst-ever mass murder.

Stuart and Finch were both violent men and had spent most of their adult lives embroiled in gangland feuds over rich prostitution and gambling rackets in the south. They claimed that they had been framed for the murders, and their protests of innocence were incredible, as were their attempts to delay the trial. They went on to become two of the most notorious prisoners in the history of Boggo Road Gaol.

While in prison, Stuart and Finch desperately tried to convince everyone that they were innocent. At one time Stuart silently sewed his lips together with a paper clip. On other occasions he ate wire crosses and nails that lodged in his gut. This inspired other prisoners to do the same. He even climbed up on the roof of A Wing for three days, and pulled out hundreds of bricks with his bare hands to spell out the words;

'INNOCENT - VICTIM OF POLICE VERBAL'

His actions sparked riots and won him widespread support inside and outside the prison, but he was never released. Stuart died alone in his cell on New Years Day 1979, from a heart infection. He had been on hunger strike.

Finch was a fitness fanatic and was known as 'The Chinaman' because he would jog with two buckets of water suspended from each end of a prison mop over his shoulders. He later settled down to become a supposedly 'model' prisoner, although he was still regarded as a violent thug by some inside Boggo Road. He began keeping birds and later became known as 'The Birdman of Boggo Road'.

He wrote a lot of letters and drummed up support for his release, and even got married in prison. In 1988 he was deported to his native England, where his wife soon became aware of his violent side and left after a few months. Finch later admitted his guilt in the Whiskey au Go Go case to a journalist - before changing his story again. Jim Finch also made memorable protests, including a 35-day hunger strike. His most famous stunt was to have the top of one of his fingers cut off at the same time as swallowing a wire cross. He falsely claimed that he bit the finger off himself.

The Boggo Road Gaol Museum

The No.2 Division at Boggo Road opened as a historical site in October 1992, following the closure of the neighbouring No.1 Division. The first curator was Faye Smith, and then ex-officer Don Walters later took over the job under the supervision of the Environmental Protection Agency. During the first ten years a significant collection of Boggo Road-related artefacts was collected and catalogued, and this collection is now controlled by the Queensland Museum.

The National Trust and a group called the 'Friends of Boggo Road' played an important role in maintaining and promoting the site during the 1990s by organizing open days and producing site interpretation material such as booklets, CD-ROMs and displays. By the late 1990s several ex-officers became involved in running the place, including doing guided tours and eventually forming the non-profit Boggo Road Gaol Museum. Until 2003 the BRGM was able to donate thousands of dollars to various charities.

Building the Gaol

One of the most talented Public Works teams in Queensland history was responsible for the design and construction of the women's prison. From the 1890s to the 1920s they produced a substantial number of high quality public buildings. It is likely that William Patrick Hendry was responsible for the design of this building, and Chief Draftsman Thomas Pye had a leading role during the construction phase.

The construction company that built the prison was A. Lind & Son, who also built St. Andrews Church in Ann Street, Brisbane. The government accepted their tender of £18,795 and construction began in October 1901 (which explains the cellblocks being marked '1901') and finished in June 1903.

The women’s prison under construction, 1903
JOL, #65254

In the current age of disposal architecture, one of the more striking aspects of 2 Division is the attention to detail and the solidity of the original red-brick buildings. Building contractors even complained during construction about the trouble and delay caused by the tuck pointed brickwork. It is this quality of workmanship, however, that ensured the physical survival of the buildings to this day, and the brickwork will no doubt last for a long time to come.

The prison was proclaimed on 30 September and opened on 3 October 1903.

Ghosts

Is Boggo Road haunted? To answer that question one would have to actually define what a 'ghost' actually is, and despite strong interest in the subject for centuries now, no such definition exists.

There are 'psychic' theories to explain ghosts, making them spiritual, para-psychological, or etheric 'projected images'. Such theories are pure speculation without any real evidence to support them as yet. There are also 'natural' theories, claiming that magnetism, infrasound, or psychological factors can produce what may be interpreted by some as supernatural phenomena.

A third field of explanation is simple fraud. An example of this practice was the famous British 'ghost hunter' Harry Price, whose 1930s claims that Borley Rectory was haunted were later discredited when he was exposed as a confidence trickster and salesman who made a living by posing as an expert in psychic matters.

Services not required, thanks!

There may be 'ghost stories' floating around about the gaol, some of which may be difficult to explain, but applying Ockham’s Razor (the theory that the simplest explanation is probably the right one) to these stories does not lead to a supernatural explanation.

Until someone can definitively prove and explain the existence of supernatural or parapsychological phenomena, we cannot realistically say that the gaol is haunted. Although the paranormal industry has proved to be a useful fundraiser for heritage sites around Australia (in lieu of adequate government funding), the BRGHS believes that the human history of Boggo Road is of more importance.

However, ghost stories in themselves are an interesting sideline of historical research in the context of folklore. The BRGHS has been collecting and recording such stories for some time now, and intends to publish on this subject in the future. Please contact us if you can help with this research in any way.

Artefacts

Artefacts from Boggo Road and other Queensland prisons have been collected for a number of years. Many, however, were thrown away or sold when the prison closed. What did survive was incorporated into the Environmental Protection Agency collection, which was assembled during 1992-2002. Some 380 artefacts associated with the gaol site were registered during this time, and used to form displays at the museum. The artefacts included;

• improvised weapons, escape tools and drug implements confiscated from prisoners
• historical records
• prisoner art and craft work
• photographs
• clothing
• furniture and fittings

Following the retirement of BRGM curator Don Walters in 2002, many more unregistered items were found during an on-site stocktake. They had not been recorded because they were either not associated with Boggo Road or their provenance was unknown; they were duplicates of other artefacts; or the EPA had not fully registered certain groups of artefacts (such as books).

As these artefacts faced further deterioration and possible loss at a time when no government agency was actively curating the collection, they were registered in the interim 'Boggo Road Gaol Museum Collection register'. Rather than being an assertion of ownership of the artefacts, this was a way of recording their existence prior to their future transfer into a government collection. It also allowed for a basic level of care, and BRGHS volunteers carefully registered, tagged and stored all on-site artefacts over several months. After the formation of the BRGHS in 2003 this register was renamed as the 'BRGHS Collection Register'.

Following extensive assessment and recording of the collection by Antcap Consultants, the Queensland Museum and a Public Works consultant, ownership of a large part of the collection was transferred from EPA to Queensland Museum in 2003/04 and moved off site. The remaining items now form part of a permanent BRGHS collection.

Why Boggo?

In early Brisbane, the area south of the river beyond Clarence Corner (One-mile Swamp) had a dirt track winding over a hill towards the Yeronga area. This was one of the main arteries of the town, being the cattle-droving track between Brisbane and Ipswich. From the 1840s on, the area beside the length of the road became known as Boggo. In 1862 Boggo was described as being 'three miles from South Brisbane, past the One-Mile Swamp, and then turn to the right'. The ridges beside the road were prominent Aboriginal campsites.

It has been suggested that Boggo is a corruption of the Aboriginal word Bloggo meaning 'two leaning trees', and that the area originally received this name because of the presence of two prominent trees at One-Mile Swamp. It has also been claimed that the area was known as Bolgo. The fact that parts of the area were boggy swamps, impassable with a horse and cart in bad weather, would have encouraged the use of Boggo. 'Boghole' is also said to be an early derogatory term used for the swampy road.

Apart from the road itself, other landmarks bearing the name Boggo included Boggo Junction railway station (1884), the Boggo Theatre (1888) and the Boggo National School (1871). The Boggo National School became Yeronga State School in 1886, the Boggo Theatre eventually became the Princess Theatre, Boggo Road was renamed Annerley Road in 1905, and Boggo Junction became Dutton Park railway station in 1914. To the locals, however, the prison has always retained the colloquial name of Boggo Road Gaol.

(Gaol is an old British word, derived from the French, while Jail is the Americanised version.)

Inside History publications on this subject

Absolute Fairyland: Heady Days in Dutton Park
Christopher Dawson (2006) RRP $8

Boggo Road Heritage Walk
Christopher Dawson (2007) RRP $4

The One & Only Boggo Road: The history of a unique suburban street
Christopher Dawson (2008) RRP $8

1980s

The end of the road

The 1980s was the most turbulent decade in the history of Boggo Road Gaol, as riots, mass escapes, hunger strikes, drugs, staff strikes, murders, suicides and bashings became a regular part of the news.

There was a steady stream of mass escapes from the new 1 Division involving three or more prisoners, and local newspapers stirred up community discontent over prison security. The 1980s also proved to be a particularly turbulent decade for prisoner and staff unrest, and although much of the trouble was centred in 1 Division, it often spread throughout the whole complex.

Prisoners on F Wing roof, 1988

1982
Prison officers went on strike for better working conditions. 100 police and a few non-strikers staffed the prison for just over a week.

November 1983
A mass hunger strike over conditions, which escalated into a riot that left one third of the gaol in ruins.

1984
An internal report acknowledged that 2 Division did not comply with the United Nations minimum standards for prisons.

December 1986
Six months after another hunger strike took place, there was a major riot in 2 Division when prisoners lit fires and mounted the roof of F Wing to draw attention to their allegations of brutality and arbitrary discipline.

November 1987
Sensational allegations were made that militant Aboriginal prisoners intended to smuggle rifles into Boggo Road and take over the prison at the start of World Expo 88 (held in Brisbane). Several prisoners were locked in the then-disused 'black holes' - a decision described as "abhorrent and barbaric" by the Human Rights Commission - and in response 200 prisoners rioted in 1 and 2 Divisions.

February 1988
In a continuation of the troubles sparked a few months earlier, five prisoners mounted the roof of F Wing in a week-long protest to call for the closure of No.2 Division. They painted demands for justice and a public inquiry on the roof before beginning a hunger strike. The exhausted men were eventually taken down off the roof with the aid of a fire engine.

1988
350 prison officers went on strike after a near riot. Police erected barricades around 2 Division, which was subsequently staffed by 35 police officers and a Tactical Response Squad.

The Kennedy Report

By 1988 the Queensland prison system, and Boggo Road in particular, was a mess. The newspapers lampooned the state of affairs at Boggo Road , and the Corrective Services chairman said:

"Boggo Road - which is 106 years old - is not a good design with a wall and circular ovals. These jails are being demolished everywhere else around the world or being promoted as tourist ventures."

The controversial 'Commission of Review into Corrective Services in Queensland' was launched to find out what was going wrong and how it could be fixed. Written by Commissioner Jim Kennedy, the final report became known as the 'Kennedy Report' and it spelled the end for Boggo Road.

"Boggo Road is a relic, a reminder of an era gone by. It is behind the times by at least 80 years. And then there is the new breed of prisoner - which I would call the desperadoes."

(Corrective Services Commission chairman Jim Kennedy, 1989)

The report stated that "Boggo Road Prison is a relic of the last century and is hopelessly inadequate to provide corrective services today", and that the Prisons Act was outdated, drugs were entering prisons due to lax security, corruption was rife, officer training was poor, prisoners were not being rehabilitated, and the system was underfunded.

It was recommended that the Boggo Road prison be demolished. In response to this report, 2 Division was decommissioned in November 1989 and subsequently closed, with the inmates being transferred to other prisons around Queensland.

Female Division

Female Prisoners 1903-1921

Who were they?

Many of the early female inmates at Boggo Road could best be described as 'victims of adverse circumstance'. Many were prostitutes, being single women with no other means of support. The kinds of offences that they were imprisoned for included:

• Vagrancy
• Drunkenness
• Obscene language
• Indecent behaviour
• Creating a disturbance
• Attempted abortion
• Attempted suicide
• Stealing
• Escape from the Lock Hospital (where women with veneral diseases were confined)

Some had mental health problems and were sent to prison due to as lack of more appropriate detainment. Most had multiple convictions. Almost all were working class.

Margaret Blessington

Margaret Blessington was a Brisbane woman who emigrated from England in 1874 as an adolescent. She had spent a lot of time in the women's gaols at Toowoomba and Fortitude Valley before arriving at Boggo Road in 1903. She served many short sentences at Boggo Road for drunkenness, obscene language and indecency (code for prostitution), reaching 69 convictions before being sent to Goodna Mental Asylum in 1910. She lived an institutionalized life until 1957, when she died in Dalby Jubilee Hospital, aged 86.

Mary Rittler

Mary Rittler was a domestic servant who was first admitted to the prison as a 20 year-old in December 1909. She was frequently admitted over the next four years on charges of stealing, assaulting police, and 'going armed in public so as to cause fear'. Her sentences were often extended with hard labour because of breaches of prison rules, including assault and insubordination.

Condemned to Die

Not all the women held at Boggo Road were on short sentences. Some were sent here to die. The only Queensland woman ever actually hanged was Ellen Thompson in 1887. This was in the days before there was a women's prison at Boggo Road, so she had been housed and hanged in the old No.1 Division men's prison. No hangings ever took place in No.2 Division, but three women were held here under sentence of death. All three sentences were commuted. One of the cells in B Wing (now E wing) was converted into a condemned cell by removing and refixing a cell door onto the outside and adding a locked grill gate to allow better observation.

Florence Alma Macdonald

The most infamous female prisoner in early Boggo Road was Florence Macdonald. By the normal standards of the day, she and her husband should have been hanged for the cruel death of her stepdaughter, but her death sentence was commuted.

Agnes Baker

At age 16, Baker became the third and last condemned woman to serve time at Boggo Road. She was sentenced at Townsville in November 1917 for shooting her father at the family cane farm near Proserpine. Her death sentence was commuted to two years hard labour, and she was released on a good behaviour bond in December 1917.

Life in the Women's Prison

Arrival

Upon arrival, the prisoners had to change out of their street clothes and take a hot bath. Their clothes were then searched, fumigated and laundered, and kept in labelled bags in the storeroom. This was done to keep diseases from entering the prison. Personal details were then recorded, including photographs, weight and height, and fingerprints, along with information about the prisoner’s sentence and criminal record.

The cells

The cells in what is now E Wing originally had canvas hammocks, while those in F Wing had plank bedsteads and fibre mattresses. In the corner was a tin quart pot, a lidded toilet tub, grey branded blanket, a pillow and a coir mat. The cells had no heating in winter, and electric lights were not installed in the cells until 1912.

The daily schedule

The daily routine of life at No. 2 Division was signaled by the prison bell.

Female prisoners at work in the Boggo Road gaol bakery, 1903
(JOL #33842)

There was no work on Sundays and Saturday afternoons and the prisoners were allowed to spend more time in the yards.

Clothing

The prisoner's uniforms were numbered and branded, and a badge worn on the right arm of the garment indicated what class of prisoner they were. There were two uniforms - one for summer and one for winter:

Summer

Most of the clothes were made at the prison itself, except for the boots which were made at St. Helena. The prisoners were also issued with a comb, soap, spoon and a towel.

The women had to have a regulation hair style, with the back hair divided from the front and coiled up in a knot at the back of the head. The front hair was parted down the middle and worn off the face. Sometimes the prisoner's hair was cut on account of vermin or dirt.