Link between insanity and criminality

Link between insanity and criminality

Brief History of transportation to Australia 

It is false to think that convictism in Australia began with the landing of the Supply in Botany Bay on December 20th, 1788. In fact, the first convict settlement in Australian continent is the result of a decade of governmental discussions about criminality in Great Britain, and how to handle it. Until the 1770s, the excess of prisoners had been regulated by sending low offence criminals in American colonies to serve as convicts or indentured servants. However, the American war of independence – or Revolutionary war, depending on the point of view – temporarily put an end to transportation.To understand transportation to the Australian continent, it is necessary to comprehend its causes. The starting point – commonly agreed on by historians – is the overcrowding of British prisons. Transportation had already been used to get rid of the excess of prisoners, who were mostly bound for Maryland and Virginia9. However, as previously stated, transportation to American colonies had been forced to a break since 1775 and ended for good in 1783 with the independence of the United States, and their refusal to receive more convicts. The British government had no other choice but to keep its prisoners for the time being. Meanwhile, with the Industrial Revolution and lack of work in the country, many British resigned themselves to migrating to cities. That rural exodus led to overcrowded districts, where people crammed into, with poor living conditions and unavoidable tensions. The high criminal rate ensuing is explained by A.G.L. Shaw:
“[…] it was easier to commit crime in a thickly populated metropolis, like London, or in the growing provincial towns, than it had been in a small country village, where every man was known to his neighbours.10”
Transportation had been used to deter people from criminality, and as an alternative to death penalty, which was seen as barbaric by more and more people. The transport of convicts was also presented as a way to reform criminals, and to give them a second chance once their sentences were served. The hight criminal rate in the late 1770s was understood by authorities as a lack of fear from criminals, due to the end of transportation and fewer death sentences.
However, Shaw pointed out the fact that criminality was not increasing, as contemporaries stated, but rather that the police might be better to resolve crime than before: “Many contemporaries thought that crime was increasing, as contemporaries are prone to do, since, knowing little of the past, they believe that an extremely low crime level is ‘normal’.[…] Even if convictions were increasing, this may have meant only that detection was better and that Fielding’s reforms in the police, at Bow Street, were bearing some fruit.11”
Anyway, British prisons were overcrowded, to such an extent that the government resorted to prison hulks: boats turned into floating jails. Though, hulks were considered unhealthy, and the idea of transportation reappeared in 1779:
“This time a Commons Committee reported that ‘transportation to unhealthy places, in place of sending better citizens, may be advisable’, and that a ‘plan of a distant colony’ was ‘agreeable to the dictates of Humanity and sound policy and might prove the Result advantageous to both Navigation and Commerce.’12”
The idea of combining transportation to trade did not seem to appeal the British government, nor did the Australian continent. Many other places such as Canada, the West Indies, Gibraltar or African coasts were preferred, for they were considered as familiar. Anyway, four years later, James Mario Matra, a fellow traveller of James Cook13, submitted his project of a new colony, based on trade, on the eastern coast of the Australian continent to the government:
“In August 1783, [James Mario Matra] wrote to the government suggesting the foundation of a colony in New South Wales. He wanted to provide a new home for American loyalists, to extend British trade with Spice Islands, China and Japan, to establish a naval base to obtain naval stores, and incidentally to get a job for himself.14”
Matra was not the first one to present the idea of a settlement in New South Wales.
Joseph Banks, himself also friend with James Cook, had already presented a plan to send hundreds of convicts to Botany Bay, but without any feasible organization15. Lord Sydney, Home Secretary, dismissed Matra, arguing that overpopulated jails were more important than a new colony and a new trade road. Matra redesigned his plan to meet with the government’s preoccupation about criminals. In 1784, another project about Botany Bay was presented to the Parliament, in which financial independence and moral reformation were highlighted. The main idea was that convicts could not escape from the Australian continent, and that work would do them good, leading former criminals to become respectful citizens16. Yet, Matra’s project was rejected once again.

Swan River Colony’s experience with prisoners 

The Swan River settlement indubitably differed from other colonies which took place on the East coast of the Australian continent. As it was previously stated, the settlement was created in 1829 by Captain James Stirling, and was declared free of convicts by a circular 20.
Thus, the colony developed with free settlers, all of whom had voluntarily chosen to move in Western Australia. However, after two decades, the lack of labour force in the colony led to a British decision which allowed transportation21. The arrival of convicts in the Swan River Colony was in fact seen as a necessity to overcome the possible failure of the settlement. Yet, the fact that Western Australia had not been provided with convicts during two decades does not mean that the state and its officials had never had to deal with prisoners. The colony, albeit settled by volunteers, was subject to the law of all societies, and therefore carried its pack of ugly ducklings. In order to handle the possible troublemakers, the construction of a prison in Fremantle was ordered in 1830 by Lieutenant Governor22 James Stirling. The gaol opened on January 18th, 1831, and was the first of the official buildings to be constructed in the settlement23. The specific architecture of the prison gave it the name of Round House, however, according to Louise J. Bavin, that choice of design was also a reminder of Millbank penitentiary:
“[…] the Round House incorporated elements of Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon – a multi-storey circular gaol designed in 1791. Millbank, Britain’s first national penitentiary, was also based on the panopticon and opened in Britain in 1816.24”

Introduction  
I) From gaol to freedom
A) Work as redemption
1) Brief History of transportation to Australia
2) Swan River Colony’s experience with prisoners
3) Convict life in the colony
B) Tickets-of-leave, first step to freedom
1) Hierarchy of convicts and their sentences
2) Rights and rules of a ticket-of-leave man
3) Tickets-of-leave in action
C) State agreements
1) Private employers
2) Work: from gaol to private work
3) Way to get a new start
II) Public reception
A) Work out apprehension
1) Settlers’ point of view on convicts
2) Convicts’ point of view on themselves
3) Living together
B) Link between insanity and criminality
1) Works on the subject in the 1850s
2) Fremantle Asylum
C) Identity crisis
1) Name and identity
2) Psychological explanation of identity crisis
III) Consequences of a different organisation
A) Gender balance
1) Not enough women
2) Irish immigrant women
3) Role of women in Western Australian society
B) Retrieving a family 
1) Family in Great-Britain
2) Marrying someone from another social class
C) Impact on following generations
1) The convict stain
2) Works on convicts prohibited until the 1960s
Conclusion 

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