{"name":"Died","target":"Knatchbull, John","target_text":null,"date":{"#markup":"<span class='date'>13 Feb 1844<\/span>"},"date_start":"1844-02-13","date_end":"1844-02-13"}
{"name":"Died","target":"Collins, Louisa","target_text":null,"date":{"#markup":"<span class='date'>08 Jan 1889<\/span>"},"date_start":"1889-01-08","date_end":"1889-01-08"}
Planned from the 1820s, Darlinghurst Gaol was built in stages to designs that shifted with penal theories and government budgets. From 1841 prisoners were kept there, in increasingly overcrowded and unpleasant conditions. After Long Bay prison was opened in 1914 the buildings were used for a range of other purposes.
Even a penal colony needs prisons. As early as 1796 gaols were built to hold criminals who had committed offences in the colony, and to hold the public floggings and executions that were thought to deter such crimes. Through the nineteenth century, attitudes changed, and prisoners were expected to reform and repent, although treatment got little kinder in the new buildings and systems that were devised.
