a lack of suitable work plagued the prison throughout its lifetime. Work in the 19th century consisted of cooking, washing clothes, cleaning the prison, tailoring, bootmaking, and printing. However, demand exceeded the availability of such work – increasingly so in the later years of the 19th century – so prisoners were also given activities with no practical value other than keeping them occupied. These included breaking stones, operating a water pump, and oakum picking. Even with these extra activities, by 1899, 60 to 70 men were employed at the pump, each doing only a few minutes work per hour, and occupied the rest of the time with recreation such as draughts. New workshops built in 1901 allowed prisoners to work in bootmaking and tailoring, and from 1904, printing. Only a small fraction of prisoners were allocated to the workshops – 35 out of an average of 279 prisoners in 1902. In 1908, there were still few men employed in the workshops, 20 in tailoring, 15 in bootmaking, and 12 in mat making, with only half of these working at a time, and little improvement by the 1911 Royal Commission. The 20th century saw little change in the work prisoners did. There were similar workshops, with the addition of metal work, and similar jobs around the prison complex, including in the laundry, in the kitchen, and cleaning the prison. In 1984, 90% of prisoners were reported to be employed, either full-time or part-time. The meaningfulness of the work was nominal, as work was viewed as "a management option rather than [for] production", but security concerns and discipline restricted the rehabilitative value of the work, and limited much of the work to jobs non-existent outside of prison. Punishments In the convict era, particularly during Hampton's term as governor, misbehaving prisoners were punished with flogging, solitary confinement, and working in chain gangs at gunpoint. Particularly difficult prisoners were put to work hand pumping groundwater into the prison's reservoir. Known as cranking, it was especially despised by the prisoners. Staff disliked giving the lashings – in 1851, out of a total of 400 lashings ordered, 150 were remitted as the superintendent could not find anyone to undertake the task. The role was so disliked that inducements were offered, including extra pay or improved lodgings. By the 1880s, punishments also included a restricted diet of bread and water (for a short time span), time in