In the second half of the nineteenth century a conservative paternalistic benevolence permeated middle-class thought, leading to demonization and criminalisation of pauper invalids, many of whom were ex-convicts. This paper examines some aspects of the mechanics of the charitable system as practiced in nineteenth-century Tasmania through an analysis of life inside the institution. It examines the institutional environment, the conditions which inmates were subject to, and how institutions implemented a regime of coerced labour, strict discipline, confinement, surveillance, regimentation and punishment as a means to control the lives of pauper invalids.