HM Prison Portland

Portland's prison opened in 1848 for the holding of adult convicts. The purpose of a prison at Portland was largely to make use of convict labour in the construction of the breakwaters of Portland Harbour and its various defences. The first convicts, totalling 64, arrived aboard the HM Steamer Driver on 21 November. The Admiralty Quarries were developed for convicts to work in and once established, convict labour was providing 10,000 tons of stone per week for use on the breakwaters. The conditions within both the prison and its quarries throughout the 19th-century would later help calls for penal reform in the UK, as many prisoners died while quarrying stone. From the moment of the…