Visitor Experiences at Prison Museums: Fremantle Prison, Robben Island Museum, and Eastern State Penitentiary

Decommissioned prison museums, such as Robben Island Museum, Fremantle Prison, and Eastern State Penitentiary, serve as powerful sites of penal heritage and education, drawing thousands of visitors annually. These institutions leverage their historical significance, notoriety, and mystique to educate the public on topics often removed from contemporary discourse. The study highlights how these museums fulfill a dual role: satisfying public curiosity while also providing educational value about the impacts of imprisonment and solitary confinement, as previously critiqued by Charles Dickens in his observations at Eastern State Penitentiary. The research approach involves analyzing visitor experiences and the broader cultural significance of prison tourism, offering insights into the enduring fascination with penal history.

Rodgers, J. (2017). Visitor Experiences at Prison Museums: Fremantle Prison, Robben Island Museum, and Eastern State Penitentiary. The Palgrave Handbook of Prison Tourism, 787–810. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56135-0_37