September 4th 1818

Old Perth Jail

Even in 1818 it was still used, though not for normal prisoners. In September 1818 it was visited by Joseph John Gurney and his sister, Mrs Elizabeth Fry the famous prison reformer. By this time it housed only the fatuous, or insane.

“The old jail in Perth which we inspected, is built over a gateway in the middle of the town. Although this dark and wretched building had been for some time disused as a prison, it was not at the period of our visit without its unhappy inhabitants. We found in it two lunatics in a most melancholy condition; both of them in solitary confinement:- their apartments were dirty and gloomy; and a small dark closet connected with each of the rooms was filled up with a bed of straw. In these closets, which are far more like the dens of wild animals than the habitations of mankind, the poor men were lying with very little clothing on them. They appeared in a state of fatuity, the almost inevitable consequence of the treatment to which they were exposed. No-one resided in the house to superintend these afflicted persons, some man living in the town having been appointed to feed them at certain hours of the day. They were in fact treated exactly as if they had been beasts.

A few days after our visit, one of these poor creatures was found dead in his bed. I suppose it to be in consequence of this event, that the other, though not recovered from his malady, again walks the streets of Perth without control. It is much to be regretted that no medium could be found between so cruel an incarceration, and total want of care.”