big house

REFORMATORY PRISON. PROPOSED ESTABLISHMENT AT ROTTNEST. A TEMPORARY
PROVISION.

They were not very punny with their headlines at The West in 1919: here is a report from the paper on the beautiful island.

The third par is an epic by itself, too.

We are mildly confused and not as full bottle as we should be on the Rotto reformatory.

Perhaps our senior fellow bloggers - namely Fremantlebiz - can help us out.

Cabinet decided yesterday to establish a reformatory prison at
Rottnest for the accommodation of selected good conduct prisoners under the
indeterminate sentences system.

The establishment of the prison on the island is only temporary and the buildings to be erected are to be suitable for handing over subsequently to the Rottnest Board of Control.

In making the announcement yesterday, the Colonial Secretary (Mr. Broun) said that a reserve for a reformatory prison had been selected sometime back and
the idea of the Government in view of the necessity for the provision of
that institution was to make use of the reserve on Rottnest temporarily and
to erect buildings which could be readily convertible into bungalows and
handed over to the Board of Control should the necessity arise through any
decision to set the island apart exclusively as a tourists' reserve.

It was imperative that the work should be started at once as there were a number of good conduct prisoners, awaiting transfer to a reformatory prison under the indeterminate sentence system.

The men who would be sent to the prison on the island, would not be a menace to the public on the island or the tourists: they would be men of good moral character apart from the lapse which brought them within the grasp of the law and would not be men who had committed murder or offences against the person.

The erection of the necessary buildings would be carried out by the prisoners themselves under the direction of officers from the Public Works Department. This would be the most economical way of erecting them and would provide necessary work for the prisoners in connection with their training under the new Act.