The Gaols Department replaced the HM Gaols Department in 1944. It had oversight of the inmates of the Police Watch House in Launceston and other local gaols and ran Campbell Street Gaol in Hobart. In 1959, it became the Prisons Department.
Although the Gaols Department had oversight of the inmates at the Police Watch House in Launceston and in other local gaols around Tasmania, the Police Department ran them. Some of those inmates were under the age of 18.