A PERFECT DESCRIPTION: Image, information and the identification of prisoners in New South Wales gaols from 1870 to 1930


CAPTURED
Por traits of Cr ime
187 0 – 19 3 0
A PERFECT DESCRIPTION:
Image, information and the
identification of prisoners
i n N e w S o u t h Wa l e s g a o l s
f r o m 187 0 t o 19 3 0
In 1869 the New South Wales (NSW) Government commissioned
Harold Maclean, Sheriff and Acting Inspector of Prisons in the
Colony, to examine ‘the management and working of the Prison
Establishment in the United Kingdom’. Maclean visited prisons
in England, Scotland and Ireland. He paid particular attention
to the principles of prisoner isolation and separation, and to
penal labour as a method of punishment and to facilitate prison
productivity. Of the five ‘main objects’ that Maclean proposed
be introduced in NSW following his study tour, four drew on
these practices. The fifth was ‘the introduction of a system
of photography, for the assistance of the police and prison
authorities in identification’, and this, Maclean submitted,
would provide ‘a most material aid to the suppression of
crime.’ In August 1871, a year after making his recommendation,
Maclean authorised NSW’s principal prison, Darlinghurst Gaol,
to take photographic portraits of prisoners:
Portraits will be taken of all prisoners convicted at the
Superior Courts, except those convicted of trifling
misdemeanours and who do not belong to the Criminal Class.
Portraits will also be taken of prisoners summarily
convicted where the Police require it, or the Principal
Gaoler thinks it desirable to secure a perfect description.
These portraits will be photographed after conviction and
fourteen (or more) days prior to discharge, in private
clothing where practicable.
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