After my visit there yesterday, I have done more research on Boggo Road Gaol. I found this video which explains the riot in 1988, and the subsequent closure of the Gaol.
I was living in Brisbane at the time of the riots, but have little recall of it all. I posted on FB that I had visited there, and one former prisoner commented that he had been an inmate there.
It certainly was not a comfortable place to be. The cells that I saw yesterday were certainly very run down, and clearly had no running water nor toilet facilities.
Of course the prisoners were there because they had been charged with committing a crime, though we know now that some of the police officers were corrupt, so perhaps some prisoners were not guilty.
The Police Commissioner at the time was said to be corrupt. Perhaps the truth about some convictions may never come out, but some have been well documented. One of the crimes has been well documented in a book called Lingering Doubts, by Deb Drummond and her cousin Janice Teunis, which claims that their grandfather, Reg Brown was not guilty of murdering 19 year-old Bronia Armstrong back in 1947. There appears to be a lot of evidence supporting their research.
It was in this notorious Boggo Road Gaol that he took his life as a result of his conviction. Sad.
A friend has also reported that her grandmother's brother was probably not guilty of his crime (murder) either. It was a time of much corruption.
So, I will continue to do more research. Interesting.
I was living in Brisbane at the time of the riots, but have little recall of it all. I posted on FB that I had visited there, and one former prisoner commented that he had been an inmate there.
It certainly was not a comfortable place to be. The cells that I saw yesterday were certainly very run down, and clearly had no running water nor toilet facilities.
Of course the prisoners were there because they had been charged with committing a crime, though we know now that some of the police officers were corrupt, so perhaps some prisoners were not guilty.
The Police Commissioner at the time was said to be corrupt. Perhaps the truth about some convictions may never come out, but some have been well documented. One of the crimes has been well documented in a book called Lingering Doubts, by Deb Drummond and her cousin Janice Teunis, which claims that their grandfather, Reg Brown was not guilty of murdering 19 year-old Bronia Armstrong back in 1947. There appears to be a lot of evidence supporting their research.
It was in this notorious Boggo Road Gaol that he took his life as a result of his conviction. Sad.
A friend has also reported that her grandmother's brother was probably not guilty of his crime (murder) either. It was a time of much corruption.
So, I will continue to do more research. Interesting.
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