From Pentonville to Pentridge
From Pentonville to Pentridge: a history of prisons in Victoria
First published 1996
© Peter Lynn and George Armstrong 1996
Designed and typeset by Jo Waite Design
Printed by Jenkin Buxton Printers Pty Ltd
Publisher: State Library of Victoria.
ISBN 0 7306 7960 8.
The role of punishment in the criminal justice system has been the subject of disagreement during nearly two hundred years of penal history in Victoria.
The first complete account of the Victorian prison system sympathises with both gaoler and gaoled. From the first unsuccessful attempts in 1803 and 1826 to form settlements at Port Phillip and Westernport to the arrival in the 1990s of the private prison system the authors examine the many fascinating byways of a sparsely documented aspect of Victoria's early history.
The system of solitary confinement, adopted by some of the early Inspectors General recruited from Norfolk Island and Van Diemen's Land, is documented in its stark reality, before the more humanitarian methods of later penal reformers became the norm. Psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers lent their expertise to the expanding army of 'specialists' recruited in the twentieth century when debates about capital punishment were rife.
This absorbing history will provide the perspective necessary to understand the dilemmas facing the prison system in the twenty-first century.*
This copy, donated to the museum by Robyn Jarram, whose father Henry (Peter) Jarram worked as a prison officer at Pentridge Prison, is part of our lending collection.
If you wish to borrow this book, please contact us via email to make arrangements: pentridgeprisonmuseum@gmail.com
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