Solitary Confinement

Female convicts sentenced to Solitary Confinement were imprisoned and isolated in small, single cells where outside contact, comfort, exercise, diet and even light were closely controlled. In its harshest form this punishment was one of sensory deprivation in dark, cramped and sometimes suffocating cells.

Solitary confinement was a secondary punishment that enhanced the privations of a punishment such as imprisonment. Sentences of solitary confinement were handed down by visiting magistrates or, in cases where women were already detained in female factories, by resident Superintendents. The women could be confined in any gaol cell, purpose-built solitary cell or secure, isolated building.

Historically there has been some confusion as to whether “Separate Treatment” and “Solitary Confinement” were the same entity. The News, Saturday 17 October 1925 -  explains that “Separate Treatment” and “Solitary Confinement” were interchangeable terms at the women’s prison, carried out in the Separate Apartments ^[1]  The confusion continues when The Colonial Times 9 October 1856 mentions a women who ‘was placed in a light cell under separate treatment, which is convict-department language for solitary confinement’, while 2 days later the same newspaper describes ‘solitary confinement, which is Convict Department language for something worse than separate treatment’.^[2]  Perhaps the best understanding of the difference comes from The Cornwall Chronicle, Saturday 31 July 1841 when, in printing the New Probation Regulations for men, explains: ‘The Third Class will be subjected to the separate system of confinement; but care must be taken not to confound it with solitary confinement in cells’.^[3]  The confusion may have arisen because cells were inconsistently named as ‘solitary apartments’, ‘separate apartments’, ‘solitary working cells’ or ‘separate working cells’. Separate Treatment was a psychological process based on reflection and reformation, carried out in individual cells over an extended period of time (usually several months). Solitary confinement, in comparison, was a stricter short-term punishment perceived as the ultimate form of sensory deprivation and isolation punishment. In many instances solitary confinement sentences were paired with a strictly supervised bread and water diet or with hard labour.  

It is difficult to establish how widespread the use of the solitary confinement punishment was for women in Van Diemen’s Land (VDL);  its interpretation often varied depending on the magistrate, reporting procedures, or the overseer in charge of supervising the punishment. Under the 1826 Act for the Summary Punishment of Disorderly Conduct in Female Offenders the maximum number of days a prisoner could spend in solitary confinement at one stretch was fourteen, however records have been found where this regulation was exceeded. There are also some reports that the sentence was used to excess in contravention of rules and regulations.^[4]  In August 1835, a Consolidation Act determined that any offender could be kept to hard labour in the day time and under solitary confinement at night only on the authority of the Lieutenant Governor.

^[5] Several women at the Female House of Correction were punished with ‘Hard labour in the Separate working Cells’, also known as solitary working cells.

Whether the punishment was solitary confinement, solitary confinement on bread and water, or hard labour in the separate working cells, the purpose and outcome remained the same for the convict women; punitive and harsh, short-term imprisonment.  It could be carried out in any confined gaol cell, purpose-built solitary cells, or locked in a remote hut, as described in a report from 1820 which mentions female Prisoners at George Town being ‘put into solitary confinement in a hut near the Barracks’.^{[6] [†]} 

Jane Wheeler (per Catherine and Kangaroo) was the first recorded female convict to receive a sentence of solitary confinement in VDL. For leaving Hobart Town without a pass in 1814, she was sentenced to be kept in solitary confinement for 14 days on bread and water. The sentence was carried out in the Hobart Town Gaol which, at that time, was the only location available for solitary confinement – the Cascades Female Factory was not opened until 1828. 

Types of Solitary Confinement Cells:

Depending on the severity of the charges, the behaviour of the convict and their geographical location, solitary confinement sentences were served in either ‘light’ or ‘dark’ cells.

The light cells, or solitary working cells, allowed light in above the door so that prisoners could undertake some form of task work whilst in confinement, such as needlework, or picking wool or oakum (horse-hair and coir rope).^[7] The dark solitary cells would admit no light at all and incarceration in these cells would normally include the additional punishment of a bread and water diet.^[8] 

Although a solitary confinement sentence was regularly handed down by VDL magistrates, they did not specify what type of cell was to be employed.  This was left to the discretion of the relevant female factory superintendents or gaol administrators. In comparison in NSW in 1835, confinement for female convicts in a dark cell for refusing to work was an accepted practice^[9] with Parramatta having purpose-built cells specifically to accommodate this punishment.^[10]   By 1839 the dark cells, at least in NSW, garnered a lot of media attention; an enquiry by the NSW Secretary of State determined that in general convicts did not consider it as any additional severity to be placed in dark cells; some of them said they could sleep better, and enjoy more rest, than they could in the light ones, and that they were also much warmer on account of their smaller size; he found that it was almost a general rule with them to prefer the larger light cells in summer, and the small dark ones in winter; there was, therefore, no great difference in the punishment.^[11]  In 1839, the government of NSW took a significanly different approach to VDL when it introduced An Act^[12]  that included the replacement of the punishment of Transportation with imprisonment, labour, and solitary confinement for specified periods, at the discretion of the Justices, in dark cells.  The Act only lasted two years before it was repealed in 1841- to abolish references to ‘dark’ cells.^[13] 

The dark cells at Cascades were described in detail after they were inspected by the jury at the coroner’s inquest in March 1838, of Barbara Henning (per Atwick January 1838),^[14]  (see extract below). After the coroner’s inquest the severe punishment of solitary confinement in a dark cell, on a bread and water diet, had become publicly pugnacious and unacceptable. The resulting media attention was possibly the catalyst for the Governor of VDL, abandoning the dark cells at Cascades Female Factory the following month.  Separate Treatment would eventually provide an alternate, yet also controversial, punishment. Its benefits were explained in the Launceston Examiner in 1845 by Mr F.M. Innes, a regular newspaper contributor,  anti-transportationist and eventual politician^[15]. [Refer to Punishments: Separate Treatment]

Solitary Confinement at the Cascades Female Factory

The superintendent at the Cascades Female Factory was empowered under the 1826 Act for the Summary Punishment of disorderly Conduct in Female Offenders, to control misbehaviour and disorderly conduct with moderate punishment, which could include ‘solitary confinement on bread and water, in any place appointed for safe custody, for any term not exceeding Fourteen days’. This ability was further enforced in the 1829 Rules and Regulations,^[‡] with the duration of the punishment reviewed again in 1839.

The 12 solitary cells installed at the Cascades Female Factory were located in Yard 3 (Crime class) and were criticised as being ’… so constructed, that the inmates can converse not only the one with the other but also with the prisoners in the respective yards’.^[16] To deter this, a range of punishments were introduced for convicts in solitary confinement who attempted to communicate with others: these included admonishments, 2-3 days on bread and water or up to 3 days’ extension to their solitary confinement sentence.^[17] Besides imposing extensions to the allowable time in solitary confinement the Superintendent could also apply a fresh sentence.

The type of cell ('dark or other cell') in which a solitary confinement sentence was served appears to have been left to the discretion of the Superintendent, as outlined in the 1829 Rules and Regulations:

Females guilty of disobedience of orders, neglect of work, profane, obscene, or abusive language, insubordination, or other turbulent or disorderly, or disrespectful conduct, shall be punished by the Superintendent with close confinement in a dark or other cell, until her case shall be brought under the consideration of the Principal Superintendent.

In addition to the light and dark solitary cells, the Cascades Female Factory also had an extreme version of a dark cell, referred to as the ‘black-hole’, a term usually referring to a suffocating, dark prison cell, underground dungeon, or the coal hole on a transport ship.  Little is known about the ‘black hole’ at the Cascades Female Factory and only fragments of references to it remain. The only occasion that the black-hole was referred to in the Punishment Book of 1851-1855, kept by the Superintendent at the Cascades Female Factory, was for Margaret Haines (per St. Vincent) who was detained for 48 hours in the ‘black hole’ for disorderly conduct in 1852.^[19] While the existence of the black-hole cell was scarcely mentioned to the outside world, it was discussed in the 1841 Enquiry into Female Convict Discipline, and again in The Tasmanian Tribune 1874.^[§] 

…and went into a diabolical contrivance in the shape of a triple-door cell, which was used "in the infinite azure" for the purpose of making maniacs of refractory females. Without inquiry, we were solemnly assured by Miss Galt (the matron) and Miss Proctor, who has the control of the quarter in which the black-hole is situated, that it had not been used for years. ^[20]

Conditions in the dark cells at Cascades were publicised after the cells were inspected by the jury of the Coroner’s Inquest into the death of Barbara Henning (per Atwick) in March 1838.^[23]  The jury condemned the conditions suffered by the women in the dark cells and also the inadequate amount of food provided on a bread and water diet. The resulting media attention was possibly the catalyst for the Governor of VDL, Sir John Franklin, abandoning the dark cells at Cascades Female Factory the following month:

Examples of the trifling nature of some of the ‘offences’ occasioning punishment in solitary confinement at Cascades include:

- In 1853, thirteen days’ Solitary Confinement was handed out by the Overseer of Weavers to Ann Girvan (per Sir Robert Steppings) for breaking a comb issued for her use.^[21]

- Mary Savage (per Earl Grey 1850), was found to have a blanket in her possession while undergoing 3 days of solitary confinement in 1852 (for the offence of not answering the night watchman).  She was further punished with 24 hours on bread and water.^[22] 

- In May 1853, as winter approached, Martha Thomas (per Aurora 1851) was put in solitary confinement for 48 hours for wearing 2 pairs of stockings.

Solitary confinement in other locations

Many unruly female convicts would have had their first experience of solitary confinement in the British gaols or on the convict transport ships en route to Van Diemen’s Land. The early ships originally used the coal-hole, or ‘black-hole’, to isolate troublesome convicts, not having anywhere else on board suitable for the task. By 1830, Surgeons’ journals mention a solitary confinement box being fitted on the ships. It was an upright wooden box, painted black, approximately 2 metres high, 0.5 metres wide and 0.75 metres deep.  Across the top of the door and around each side were three round air holes.  The surgeon superintendents on board the convict transport ships were very aware of the threats to a convict’s physical and mental health brought about by extended confinement in these boxes on a prolonged diet of bread and water. Research into lengths of incarceration indicate the same considerations do not appear to be present once they arrived in the colony.

Solitary confinement boxes were not just located on convict transport ships: in 1855, Frederick D’Arcy Watson, medical dispenser at Brickfields and the Cascades Female Factory, gave evidence to the Select Committee on the Convict Department acknowledging the use of solitary confinement boxes, or ‘sentry boxes’ as he referred to them. Although unclear from his report, Watson could have been referring to either Brickfields Hiring Depot or the Cascades Female Factory.^[24]  His description of the boxes matches that of the convict transport ships’ solitary confinement boxes as recorded by the ships’ surgeon superintendents. (Refer to Ship's Punishments)

Source: Collection: Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery

S1994.367.1 Solitary confinement box , c1830  Wood and iron; wood and metal

The solitary confinement gaol cells in inland gaols (for example: Longford, Campbell Town, Oatlands, Richmond, New Norfolk) were used for the convenience of shorter sentences handed down by visiting Magistrates, or as a holding cell until a transfer could be arranged. The Independent newspaper, on the 4th February 1832, gives an insight into the conditions of solitary confinement for female prisoners in the recently completed Norfolk Plains gaol:

The magistrates then proceeded to visit the gaol lately built on the township. A general dissatisfaction was expressed at the total unfitness of the building for the purposes for which it was proposed, it consisting of only four cells, intended for the solitary confinement of offenders, with an intervening room, in which fourteen prisoners, with the gaoler, were accommodated, although the apartment was not by any means large enough for half that number of persons. The cells were inhabited by females, but which, being only separated from the room appropriated to the male prisoners by the doors are quite useless for all the purposes of solitary punishment-"—in fact, a constant communication must take place between the male and female prisoners; The only mode by which these cells are ventilated is, by an augur hole in the [ceiling] of about an inch in diameter ; and the want of air and sense of suffocation was such, that one of the magistrates (according' to our informant) compared these hells to the black hole of Calcutta!

Examples of the only remaining solitary confinement gaol cells used for female prisoners in VDL can be viewed at the Richmond Gaol.  The gaol has a total of 12 solitary cells in their original state, eight in the men’s wing and four that were incorporated within the women’s wing when the gaol was expanded in 1835. The cells measured 2.1m deep and 1.5m wide, were lined with timber plank and fitted with solid timber doors; the overall effect was box-like. They were also cold, damp and in total darkness, resulting in extreme physical and psychological discomfort for the inhabitants. 

^[†] HISTORICAL RECORDS OF AUSTRALIA, 1820. 21 April. Examination of J. Lenahan. Punishment of Spirits available Q. Is the evidence taken in writing? A. It is and on oath and a record is made of the evidence, sentence and Punishment. Q. What Punishment is awarded to female Prisoners at George Town? A. They are put into solitary confinement in a hut near the Barracks and, for very incorrigible women, an Iron collar is used as a badge of female convicts, HRA III Vol.3 p.410

^[‡] In the Female Factory Rules and Regulations published in 1829, the Superintendent at the Cascades Female Factory was 'empowered to confine any Female in a solitary cell, for disobedience of orders, neglect of duty, or other improper conduct, for a period not exceeding 24 hours, but, he is to enter the full particulars of each case in his Journal, and to report the same to the Principal Superintendent, on his visiting the Establishment'. (Rules and Regulations 1829).

^[§] Q. 120. What of the dark cells? It depends very much upon the time women have been in them: the old hands care very little about them. P.39