Academic literature on the topic 'Auburn State Prison'

This thesis examines a ledger which listed all the causes of death in Darlinghurst Gaol, Sydney’s main gaol, from 1867 to 1914 when the gaol was closed and all the prisoners were transferred to the new Long Bay Gaol at Maroubra. The ledger lists the name of the deceased prisoner, the date of their death, the age of the prisoner at the time of their death and the cause of death along with any special comments relevant to the death where necessary. This ledger was analysed in depth and the death rates and diseases causing the deaths were compared to the general population in New South Wales and Australia as well as to another similar institution namely Auburn Prison, the oldest existing prison in New York State and the general population of the United States of America (where possible). Auburn Prison was chosen because it was the only other prison in the English speaking world (British Empire and United States of America) that had a similar complete list of deaths of prisoners in the same time frame – in this case beginning in 1888. The comparison showed that the highest death rates were in the general population of the United States of America (statistics on New York State alone could not be found) followed by Auburn Prison followed by the general population of Australia then the general population of New South Wales (the latter two were very similar) and the lowest death rates were in Darlinghurst Gaol. The analysis showed that individuals were less likely to die in the main prison, compared to the relevant general population in New South Wales and New York State despite the fact that 8 – 9% of these prison deaths were due to executions, a cause of death not encountered in the general population. This thesis explores the reasons why mortality rates were lower in prison despite the popular perception was that Victorian era gaols were places of harshness, cruelty and death (think of the writings of Charles Dickens, the great moralist writer who was the conscience of the era) compared to the general free population.

Master of Arts (Research)
This thesis examines a ledger which listed all the causes of death in Darlinghurst Gaol, Sydney’s main gaol, from 1867 to 1914 when the gaol was closed and all the prisoners were transferred to the new Long Bay Gaol at Maroubra. The ledger lists the name of the deceased prisoner, the date of their death, the age of the prisoner at the time of their death and the cause of death along with any special comments relevant to the death where necessary. This ledger was analysed in depth and the death rates and diseases causing the deaths were compared to the general population in New South Wales and Australia as well as to another similar institution namely Auburn Prison, the oldest existing prison in New York State and the general population of the United States of America (where possible). Auburn Prison was chosen because it was the only other prison in the English speaking world (British Empire and United States of America) that had a similar complete list of deaths of prisoners in the same time frame – in this case beginning in 1888. The comparison showed that the highest death rates were in the general population of the United States of America (statistics on New York State alone could not be found) followed by Auburn Prison followed by the general population of Australia then the general population of New South Wales (the latter two were very similar) and the lowest death rates were in Darlinghurst Gaol. The analysis showed that individuals were less likely to die in the main prison, compared to the relevant general population in New South Wales and New York State despite the fact that 8 – 9% of these prison deaths were due to executions, a cause of death not encountered in the general population. This thesis explores the reasons why mortality rates were lower in prison despite the popular perception was that Victorian era gaols were places of harshness, cruelty and death (think of the writings of Charles Dickens, the great moralist writer who was the conscience of the era) compared to the general free population.

Although New York had acquired its nickname, the Empire State, by the 1820s, the term carried different meanings to citizens who shared unequally in its profits. The state constitutional conventions of 1821 and 1846 advanced the scope of democracy. However, this chapter explains how constitutional reform also elevated the governor as the sole arbiter of discretionary justice. Despite a growing body of early social scientific research that showed mercy to be dependent on governors’ individual inclinations, the chief executive’s prerogative held firm, demonstrating its capacity to rectify injustice: first, in undoing a disastrous experiment with solitary punishment at Auburn State Prison in the 1820s, and second, in commuting the sentences of anti-rent protestors in the 1840s. Democracy and executive justice proved compatible.

This chapter shows how mercy regularly modified punishment, albeit in ways that reinforced racial and social hierarchies in the early national period. As the state abolished slavery by increments, the use of pardons to banish slaves who had been found guilty of crimes allowed their sale to persist. Incursions into Indian territory were accompanied by efforts to impose state criminal law, and the use of pardons for non-treaty and treaty Indians gutted Native American sovereignty. The establishment of Newgate and Auburn state prisons created a new category of New Yorker: the inmate, sentenced to unprecedented periods of incarceration, whose hope of an early release depended on the governor’s prerogative to pardon.