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Canada! Kingston Penitentiary: Proclaim Liberty to the Captives In June 1835, in what became modern-day Ontario, the doors opened to the newly constructed Kingston Penitentiary, later known to inmates and guards alike as “KP.” As the word “penitentiary” suggests, it was built to remove the morally and spiritually corrupt from society and allow them time to reflect on their crimes in order to repent and reform. KP was part of a grand Victorian experiment to rehabilitate those who broke the law and strayed from societal rules. The 1834 Penitentiary Act of Upper Canada, passed a year before the first inmates were incarcerated, set out the intentions behind the prison: “If many offenders convicted of crimes were ordered to solitary imprisonment, accompanied by well-regulated labour and religious instruction, it might be the means under providence, not only of deterring others from the commission of like crimes, but also of reforming the individuals, and inuring them to habits of industry” (“An Act to provide for the Maintenance and Government of the Provincial Penitentiary, erected near Kingston in the Midlands District,” Statutes of Upper Canada, 4 Wm. IV, c.37, s.1834). The penitentiary’s initial construction and continuing expansion was carried out by its inmates. KP’s location was selected due to an abundance of limestone, as a quarry was to serve as one of the main spheres of penal labour. Inmates spent their ten-hour shifts pulverising the stone. Other forms of labour were noted by Charles Dickens when he visited the prison in 1842: “There is an admirable jail here, well and wisely governed, and excellently regulated, in every respect. The men were employed as shoemakers, rope makers, blacksmiths, tailors, carpenters, and stonecutters; and
10 Tomorrow’s World | July-August 2019
in building a new prison, which was pretty far advanced towards completion. The female prisoners were occupied in needlework” (Charles Dickens, Pictures from Italy: And American Notes for General Circulation, p. 362). Kingston Penitentiary is older than Canada itself; Confederation didn’t occur until 1867. It was the very first penitentiary in British North America and had been one of the longest-running prisons in the world when it closed in 2013, notorious for housing some of Canada’s most hardened criminals. As Dickens noted, both men and women were brought to the prison, and even children were not exempt from the roster. One of the youngest inmates to serve time in KP was an eight-year-old boy named Antoine Beauche, a pickpocket from Montreal. More Tragedy Than Reformation Life in KP was almost silent, aside from the monotonous bell with which guards kept rigid time and directed prisoners to and from the mess hall. No one was permitted
Aerial view of Kingston Penitentiary in Ontario
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