Melbourne part 7

This is the seventh post on my trip..
Decided to make a post on my visit to the Melbourne Gaol an individual post..

So that I wouldn't mix other places up..

The Gaol prison is a the oldest prison in Melbourne.
The court, is now the RMIT university building and we are allowed to visit it during their school breaks or weekends?
I think..

Anyway...
I simply can't miss the opportunity to have a look at the prison in Melbourne..
It wasn't creepy or spooky there but I must say, prisoners who got arrested and thrown into the prison must have a pretty lifeless life in it.
Its like living but not exactly living when you are locked into that prison..
Ned Kelly was the last prisoner to be hung apparently,
He's one heck of a famous figure in Aussie for some reason..
The so called "most notorious" prisoner or something..

However, compared to the prisoners in Cambodia,
These prisoners are luckier?

Cause they were given proper food and their form of torture is being trapped behind those bars not knowing the day/time and not being able to communicate and having to bear the awful cold weather since they weren't given a blanket. Only if they are lucky, they'll get a piece of thin cloth..

Then again,
The people were arrested for trivial stuff like swearing/cussing in public, not dressing up appropriately, stealing, kidnapping etc..

I didn't know swearing is consider a sin back then in Aussie..
Or not dressing up properly..o.O

Back then, they hired psychologist to predict the criminals behaviour
They examined the shape of the skull to determine personality types, intellect and human behaviour..
Not sure if they still uses the phrenology theory to predict human behaviour today, but back then in the 18th century thats the theory they used to study human behaviour.

There were notes/letter written by prisoners before they were hung or during their stay in the prisons. Not all of them got the opportunity to leave a note/letter behind.

Ned Kelly.

Once again, it reminded me of the discussion I had with a friend back then about criminals are born not made, since its the genes they were born with that led them to be one. I can't be sure of that, but perhaps I'll come across that one day. I haven't read of anything to do with those though and I am hoping to get my hands on books that will explain further about these genes..

Yes, hanging is an art.
The length of the string must be percise to prevent bruises on the "victims" neck after they are hung..

This man, was accused of raping a girl. But he swore that he didn't do anything to harm the girl but due to the false accusation, he was arrested and hung. Years later(few years ago I think), that case caught the attention of some researcher and they did an indepth research about the case and discovered that the man was innocent after all. In other words, he was hung for something that he didn't do and he's the only man from the prison who got pardoned. I think its after 80 years since he was hung.

Then there's a tour to pay a visit to the other side of the prison..

A sergeant will be out tour guide and we will experienced how is it like for those prisoners back then to be thrown into those cells..

They were released after a while..
And then its our turn.

We were given these to indicate why we were arrested..
Note that's not our name..
We all have our name changed anyway in that prison..XD

Graffiti by the prisoners back then..

These cushioned walls were meant for those prisoners who were either not in a right state of mind when they were arrested or prisoners who might harm themselves and those cushioned walls are to prevent them from hurting themselves.

I think its something like those rooms you can find when you pay a visit to the asylum. I haven't been to one yet though, but I've read books about it.

Toilet bowls in every cells..

In a cell, there were more than 10 of them at times..
The women in one cell and men in another..
We were locked into those cells..
Lights were switched off and it was pitched dark.

We couldn't tell between the day or night since the windows are sealed and well, its pretty lifeless in it since there's nothing you can do when you are a prisoner in the cell, not even read!

Before the lights were switched off..XD

This is where the prisoners got their fresh air from..
An "open space"..
But there's not much space for 30 plus plus prisoners to wander there..
I can imagine what sort of conversation the prisoners will ask each other back then..

Prisoner 1 : Hey you, why are you here for?
Prisoner 2 : For cussing at my lil brother. What are you here for?
Prisoner 1 : About the same as yours, but I was wearing something above my knee length and its inappropriate according to them.

My mugshot.
I look too innocent to be a criminal no?

I know there were a lot of injustice being done towards most of the prisoners back then. It must be rather torturing in a way to be thrown into that prison.