Winter Barn Owl

Winter Barn Owl
Life's a Hoot !

Saturday, December 21, 2013

Crime does not pay

Even if you don't live in Kingston, Ontario, most people know that Canada's most notorious maximum penitentiary, housing the baddest of the bad, is here in our otherwise beautiful town.  Due to its age (completed in 1834), it was recently closed.  Although its fate is not known at this time, Corrections Canada did allow 2 charities to run tours to raise funds.  They sold out in a matter of minutes, causing the ticketing website to crash a number of times.

We were lucky enough to take one of the tours and the following pictures will give you a glimpse into the life of a maximum security inmate.

Inside the grounds

Where visitors can spend time with the inmates
Halfway house on the grounds where families can live together before inmate is released
Door leading into prisoner wings
Just like in the movies


Cells on the block
A segregation cell - bare minimum!


Where the guards monitor prisoner activities

Rotunda where the 1971 riot took place.  2 prisoners were killed by the inmates.


NO WAY OUT!









2 comments:

  1. B:

    that Penitentiary looks too clean, or perhaps it was restored. I visited the old Penitentiary in Deer Lodge, Montana and it was run down. We went to solitary and they were small rooms, cement block with no lighting. Sort of like being tortured.

    somehow I am drawn to the Solitary cell. Would I be given blankets, looks a bit cold in there with no cushioning. At least there is a window and not just bars open to the outside

    bob
    Riding the Wet Coast


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    1. Bob, It may look clean, but let me tell you, I don't think I would like to be locked up in there! The prisoners had only left a few weeks earlier, so they really did not have a chance to clean up. They even told us not to touch anything. The solitary cells had nothing in them at all. They were used for people who would try any means to either escape or hurt themselves, so no sheets or bedding etc. Horrible way to live!

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