Gendering Prisons In the regular prisons up to the early 20th century, male and female prisoners were housed in the same building with greater or lesser separation depending on the prison. George Street gaol for example, had no physical separation beyond housing men and women on different sides of the building. As was noted at the time, “some of the prisons do not effectually exclude communication between the male and female prisoners… James Backhouse, A Narrative of a Visit to the Australian Colonies, London, 1843
Through most of the 20th century most women incarcerates were held in Darlinghurst or Bathurst. These had separated cell blocks but housed within the same complex. In 1878 Bathurst gaol consisted of 38 separate and 123 associated cells and held 69 male and 18 female prisoners.
Between 1888 and 1908, space was set aside on Cockatoo Island for a women’s prison - called Biloela - but this was generally used for those charged with prostitution or drunkenness. Or as the Comptroller General of Prisons described them, "the broken down class of metropolitan vagrants.”
This situation changed definitively with the opening of the State Reformatory for Women, Long Bay in 1909. This was the first, purpose-built women’s prison in NSW and housed metropolitan prisoners and high security women from outside the metropolis.
Women’s prisons have continued to face intense public scrutiny and debate. The fact of a gendered dimension to both convictions and imprisonment differences, alongside women’s greater parental responsibilities and vulnerability to sexual exploitation, have continued to dominate discussions of women in prison over the 20th century. Caring for the Incarcerated Exhibition Guide
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