In 1805, the state organized construction of a three-story building at New-Gate that served as a kitchen, storeroom, shoe shop, and makeshift hospital for sick or injured prisoners. Firsthand accounts from prisoners, guards, and inspectors claimed that New-Gate was a "healthy" place to be imprisoned, apparently because prisoners did not experience the continual spread of disease seen in other prisons, which officials attributed to the prison's isolated location and the cool air conditions of the mine. Yet early 19th-century ideas of health differed from modern definitions, and although prisoners may have avoided infectious disease, primary sources and archaeological evidence indicate that they were not given enough to eat and had to obtain sustenance from animal bone marrow. Prisoners were also covered in filth and injured by shackles that rubbed their legs, and by 1810 officials reported that they were commonly afflicted with swollen legs, tumors, and running sores.