Buildings...

New Division, built between 1904 and 1907, was both a response to overcrowding of the justice system following the gold rush of the 1890s and an attempt by prison administrators to implement what they saw as the latest prisoner management strategies. Its recent redevelopment as a business enterprise centre provides affordable accommodation for over 100 small or start up businesses as well as a reception area, administrative offices and meeting rooms.

Although based on outdated ideas, reformists wanted Fremantle Prison to adopt the practices of the 'separate system' which was in place in some of the main prisons in the eastern states. Central to this regime was the notion that prisoners were to be kept in isolation at all times, even during exercise, for the first three months of their sentence. After this they could join the rest of the prison population. To assist in the isolation aspects of the system, a circular structure of cast iron and wood was erected in New Division exercise yard. Walls making individual exercise yards came out from a central hub, which provided a single point of surveillance. Inmates were marched from their cells in single file and placed into these separate areas, where they were allowed one hour exercise per day. Although there had been much agitation for the system, many seeing it as a progressive step in prisoner management, it was not a success and the circular exercise yard was demolished within five years of its erection.