Drugs and Alcohol

Oral history shows that the most common way that drugs and other types of contraband came into Maitland Gaol was over the wall. Unlike modern Correction Centre’s the walls of Maitland Gaol are accessible to the public, this meant that items such as tennis balls, dead birds and other small items could be filled with an item or drug and thrown into the exercise yard.

Inmates illegally brewed their own alcohol using food vegetable scraps and sugar and attempted to hide the goods anywhere and everywhere including the toilet, in fire extinguishers, ventilation shafts or even bury it in the garden for a rainy day.