Port Arthur was seen as a much better prison, and would make the convicts better people. But life at Port Arthur was just as hard and brutal as other penal colonies. Some critics might even say that its use of psychological punishment, together with no hope of escape, made it one of the worst. Some stories say that prisoners would murder others to escape the prison. Murder would be punished by death. Isle of the Dead is a small island in the bay near Port Arthur. Everyone who died at the penal colony was buried on the island. There are 1646 graves on the island, but only 180, mainly those of prison staff, have a headstone.