A report in 1833 by a committee of three respected Kingston colonials called for the construction of a limestone penitentiary on Hatter’s Bay to the west of the town. Their report contained these words of advice for its future governors: "…[shall] be a place by every means not cruel and not affecting the health of the offender, [but] shall be rendered so irksome and so terrible that during his lifetime he may dread nothing so much as a repetition of the punishment…" The obvious contradiction within this historical mandate of Canada’s Big House has bedevilled the entire history of the jail. Its original high moral purpose - penitence through silent reflection - drifted away into the foggy realm of official myth almost as soon as the first convicts arrived in 1835.
This semi-documentary study of the Kingston Penitentiary by a local writer and historian lays bare in cool prose the rapid descent from puritanical purpose to merely punitive management. For the first 75 years, repression was accepted as the norm, even applauded, by the local citizens, some of the inmates, and the political establishment. Over the last hundred years, repressive practices at Kingston Peneitentiary have been publicized, analyzed, and increasingly denounced. In the outcome, the Big House at Kingston has become almost unmanageable. What to do with it? The question still hangs in the air.
Authors
- Bibliography, etc. Note
- Includes bibliographical references and index
- Control Number Identifier
- CaOOCEL
- Dewey Decimal Classification Number
- 365/.971372
- Dewey Decimal Edition Number
- 21
- General Note
- Issued as part of the desLibris books collection
- Geographic Area Code
- n-cn-on
- ISBN
- 9781554881178 1550023306
- LCCN
- HV9508.K56
- LCCN Item number
- H46 1999eb
- Modifying agency
- CaBNVSL
- Original cataloging agency
- CaOTU
- Physical Description | Extent
- 1 electronic text (209 p.)
- Published in
- Canada
- Publisher or Distributor Number
- CaOOCEL
- Rights
- Access restricted to authorized users and institutions
- System Control Number
- (CaBNVSL)thg00603128 (OCoLC)244771098 (CaOOCEL)410623
- System Details Note
- Mode of access: World Wide Web
- Transcribing agency
- CaOTU
Table of Contents
- Contents 6
- Acknowledgments 8
- Introduction 10
- Chapter 1: Built of Limestone and Rules — the original plan and the first rules of operation 12
- Chapter 2: Running Amok and the Aftermath — early excesses leading to the first of many public inquiries 26
- Chapter 3: Stability and, Yes, a Touch of Humanity — a review of the Aeneas MacDonell years, 1849–1869 36
- Chapter 4: After Sixty Years — the takeover of the jail by the Dominion of Canada and some effects 50
- Chapter 5: A Kinder, Gentler Jail — For a While — the regime of John Creighton and his successors to the dawn of the twentieth century 62
- Chapter 6: On the Eve of the Riots — neglect and faulty leadership through the first thirty years of the new century; warning voices unheeded 80
- Chapter 7: Hitting Bottom at Kingston Penitentiary — the downward spiral and the era of the riots of 1932, 1954, and 1971 92
- Chapter 8: Spend! Spend! Spend! — the costly effort to restore and modernize the battered jail 108
- Chapter 9: Dream! Dream! Dream! — uncertainty and confusion in the management of K.P. since 1971 116
- Chapter 10: Caring for Body and Mind — the sorry record of health care at K.P. 134
- Chapter 11: Cruel and Unusual — the impact of human rights laws on the management of prisoners 148
- Chapter 12: Whither the Big House? — the uphill struggle against obsolescence at K.P. 170
- Appendices 180
- Notes 204
- Index 207
- A 207
- B 207
- C 207
- D 207
- E 208
- F 208
- G 208
- H 208
- I 208
- J 208
- K 208
- L 208
- M 208
- N 209
- O 209
- P 209
- R 209
- S 210
- T 210
- U 210
- W 210
- Y 210
