At its peak Port Arthur housed up to 1,200 prisoners, most of them repeat offenders.
Despite a change in policy midway thought its 47 year existence with a shift from physical punishment to an attempt at moral enlightment, the punishment cell was in frequent use with miscreants locked up alone in the dark and in silence for up 23 hours a day.
As I completed my tour of inspection, I quipped to an Australian couple that it could have been worse - they could have been made to watch Australian breakfast TV (or New Zealand, for that matter) - but they did not seem to get the joke. Dave
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