The barracks were completed in 1835 and contained a central three storey building accommodating 973 prisoners who slept in rows of hammocks, separate wooden cubicles for individual prisoners, chapels, overseers' rooms, watchhouses, guard posts, offices, stores, workshops and a courtroom: all surrounded by a 16 foot high stone wall.

After the end of the Second Settlement the Prisoners' Barracks were largely abandoned and fell into ruin. In the early decades of this century the barracks were demolished to provide building materials (including those required to construct St Barnabas Chapel).