4 wing
The standard cell size in 5 and 4 wings was 10' x 8' although 4 wing had pairs of enlarged 13'9" x 10' cells on each level at the northern end. The 10' x 8' cells were intended for single occupation but were large enough to accommodate three men if necessary. Official abhorrence of homosexual activity always prevented the placement of two men in a cell.
The fall of the ground to the west also meant that 5 wing was mounted on an arcaded and vaulted basement for most of its length.
Six of the basement bays were adapted by the gaoler as a bath house and others for storage (T. & c.;., cutting, 1888).
The bedding in the cells consisted of two blankets and a rug on a "thick velvet pile cocoa fibre coir mat. .. one end of the mat doubled under for a little distance making a sufficiently comfortable pillow". The mats were woven by NSW prisoners, a mat weaving industry having been established by the comptroller general from coir purchased in England for the Prisons Department (ibid.).
Owing to the overcrowded state of the observation ward at Darlinghurst Gaol, part of 4 wing was set apart under section 7 of the Lunacy Act for the detention of prisoners who are "supposed to be insane, or to be unfit, owing to mental imbecility, for penal discipline (AR, Prisons, 1890). To these "wards" at Parramatta and Darlinghurst, prisoners suspected of real, or feigned, insanity were sent from all over the state for careful observation (ibid., 1895). Although the "wards" received "regular" inspection by the inspector general of the insane, Frederick Norton Manning, staffing provisions remained inadequate and night care was effected by locking each "lunatic" into his cell at night with two "sane" prisoners.
Both parties found it objectionable and the practice was officially (but probably not actually) abandoned in 1898.
The fall of the ground to the west also meant that 5 wing was mounted on an arcaded and vaulted basement for most of its length.
Six of the basement bays were adapted by the gaoler as a bath house and others for storage (T. & c.;., cutting, 1888).
The bedding in the cells consisted of two blankets and a rug on a "thick velvet pile cocoa fibre coir mat. .. one end of the mat doubled under for a little distance making a sufficiently comfortable pillow". The mats were woven by NSW prisoners, a mat weaving industry having been established by the comptroller general from coir purchased in England for the Prisons Department (ibid.).
Owing to the overcrowded state of the observation ward at Darlinghurst Gaol, part of 4 wing was set apart under section 7 of the Lunacy Act for the detention of prisoners who are "supposed to be insane, or to be unfit, owing to mental imbecility, for penal discipline (AR, Prisons, 1890). To these "wards" at Parramatta and Darlinghurst, prisoners suspected of real, or feigned, insanity were sent from all over the state for careful observation (ibid., 1895). Although the "wards" received "regular" inspection by the inspector general of the insane, Frederick Norton Manning, staffing provisions remained inadequate and night care was effected by locking each "lunatic" into his cell at night with two "sane" prisoners.
Both parties found it objectionable and the practice was officially (but probably not actually) abandoned in 1898.