Solitary confinement and health and other life course outcomes for convict women

Abstract

<p>Many studies have linked sensory deprivation punishments to elevated risk of suicide and other immediate poor health outcomes, although there have been comparatively few examinations of the potential medium- and long-term impacts of being placed in a solitary cell. This article seeks to fill that gap by exploring the effects that the experience of solitary confinement and separate treatment had on the life courses of female convicts transported to Van Diemen's Land in the period 1803-1853. As a result of recent community-based digitisation initiatives, it is possible to reconstruct female convict life courses in a way that identifies the number of sensory deprivation episodes each woman experienced and the duration of each punishment. A date and cause of death are available for nearly half of all female convicts. The article uses this information to explore the ways in which the coercive actions of the colonial state may or may not have affected long-term health outcomes. It also examines the influence of different punishment regimes on family formation, shedding light on the powerful and previously under-appreciated ways in which the policing of convicts influenced the colonial birth rate.</p>