Dense population and high crime rates, has led to the creation of several prisons in Ontario over the years - and their history is well-documented. From Kingston Penitentiary to the Prison for Women, there is a lot of infamous history and much of it lies in the city of Kingston.
At its peak. there were ten active penitentiaries operating in the Greater Kingston Area, and while many of them - okay, let's be honest; most of them - are not open to the public, you can still have a look from the outside and get a sense of their presence in the local community. Even staring at Kingston Pen's North Lodge provides a sense of Canada's penal system. On occasion public tours of Kingston Pen are available, but you have to be quick to scoop up tickets.
Our Crime and Punishment tour leads you past some of the famous historic sites and neighborhoods. To improve the experience, there are many books to choose from. We suggest Merilyn Simonds wonderful The Convict Lover - a book that pieces together a narrative from discovered letters between a civilian and a convict at Kingston Pen. Also worth reading is Rose Ricciardelli's Surviving Incarceration - comprehensive collection of interivews with sixty former inmantes, who tell of their experiences on the inside.
-itok-frU37x_l.jpg "Frontenac County Courthouse")
A National Historic Site of Canada, the Frontenac County Courthouse is a judicial administrative complex with a jailhouse at the rear. Built in 1855 to accomodate Kingston's growing population and an increased complexity with the law, the courthouse overlooks Kingston's City Park and Lake Ontario beyond.
Founded in 1784 by British Loyalists, Portsmouth is a small village and now an annexed neighbourhood of Kingston, Ontario.
Located directly across from Kingston Penitentiary, the Correctional Service of Canada Museum (also known as "Canada's Penitentiary Museum") explains the history of Kingston Penitentiary and other correctional centres using displays that incorporate artifacts, photographs, equipment, and replicas. The museum also houses most of the institution's historical records as well as those of other Canadian penitentiaries, and provides the only penitentiary research service in Canada.
Originally constructed in 1833–1834, and officially opened on June 1, 2023 as the "Provincial Penitentiary of the Province of Upper Canada," the Kingston Penitentiary was one of the oldest prisons in continuous use in the world at the time of its closure in 2012. It was one of nine prisons in the Kingston area that ranged from minimum-security facilities to the maximum-security facilities Kingston Penitentiary and Millhaven Institution (which was initially built to replace Kingston Pen).
-itok-21_NMZnv.jpg "Image Courtesy of Queen's University Archives.")
Situated as the only entrance to Kingston Penitentiary the North Lodge is a simple, elegant, neo-classical structure. It consists of a large central arched entranceway with two smaller arched pedestrian walkways to either side. It was designed and constructed to act as the contact point between the institution and the surrounding community.
The Kingston Prison For Women was a maximum security prison in Kingston that opened its doors in 1934 and closed down in 2000. Before its inception, women convicts were housed in the female department of Kingston Penitentiary.
Enrich your experience by reading books about the places on your tour!
The Robber Bride was first published in 1993. Set in present day Toronto, Ontario, the novel follows three women, Roz, Charis, and Tony, who meet once a month at a resturant where they share a meal. During one of these outings, the three women see an old classmate, Zenia, creating an onset of memories through the perspectives of the women.
Lead authors Karla O'Regan and Susan Reid have produced a concise, accessible, and engaging text that covers the main curriculum requirements for introductory-level Criminal Justice courses in Canadian universities and colleges. Drawing on well-known case studies to connect the book's theoretical content to real-world issues, it lays out the key concepts, terms, and history for readers before shifting its focus to an exploration of key questions and issues in Canadian criminal justice today.
A Gentleman of Substance covers the remarkable life of John Redpath. Born to humble circumstances in Scotland in 1796, he emigrated to Canada in 1816 to become a stonemason in Montreal. By 1818 he had his own building and contracting firm and was working on the Lachine Canal as well as much construction and restoration work on buildings in Montreal.
Murray explores how far local characteristics affected the operation of a criminal justice system transplanted from England; his analysis includes how legal processes affected Upper Canadian morality, the treatment of the insane, welfare cases, crimes committed in the district, and an examination of the roles of the Niagara magistrates, constables, and juries. Murray concludes by arguing that while the principles and culture of British justice were firmly implanted in the Niagara district, this did not prevent justice from being unequal, especially for women and visible minorities.
Alias Grace is based on the story of the notorious 1843 murders of Thomas Kinneat and his housekeeper Nancy Montgomery in Upper Canada. While the novel is based on true facts, the perspective is written through the eyes of a fictional doctor, Simon Jordan, who is researching the case. The story follows Jordan's researching of criminal behaviour, but is altered to the attempt to reconcile the truth about the case, and Grace Marks's involvement. Grace Marks and fellow servant of the house, James McDermott, were convicted of the crime.
This text fills a longstanding and growing need for a current and comprehensive overview of women and the Canadian criminal justice system, in all its aspects. The wealth of content includes everything from an accessible overview of essential theory, to practical challenges such as mental health issues and community reintegration, to an examination of women’s roles and careers in the field of criminal justice.
In the Skin of a Lion is a love story and an irresistible mystery set in the turbulent, muscular new world of Toronto in the 20s and 30s. Michael Ondaatje entwines adventure, romance and history, real and invented, enmeshing us in the lives of the immigrants who built the city and those who dreamed it into being: the politically powerful, the anarchists, bridge builders and tunnellers, a vanished millionaire and his mistress, a rescued nun and a thief who leads a charmed life.
Redpath, today a household name for sugar in Canada, has its roots in the story of an enterprising Scots immigrant, initially a stone mason and later a building contractor during the boom days of Montreal's growth from a small provincial centre to a major North American city. In 1854, the ever-energetic John Redpath, by then a self-made millionaire in his late fifties, launched a new career as an industrialist.
In 1987, Merilyn Simonds happened upon a cache of letters, albums, and clippings in the attic of her house in Kingston, Ontario. Among the overflowing boxes and stuffed sugar sacks was a collection of letters from the months immediately after the First World War.
In The Truth about Luck, Iain Reid, author of the highly popular coming-of-age memoir One Bird's Choice, accompanies his grandmother on a five-day vacation -- which turns out to be a "staycation" at his basement apartment in Kingston. While the twenty-eight-year-old writer is at the beginning of his adult life, his ninety-two-year-old grandmother is nearing the end of hers.
Rose Ricciardelli draws on interviews with almost sixty former federal prisoners to show how their criminal convictions, masculinity, and sexuality determined their social status in prison and, in consequence, their potential for victimization.
The book outlines the modern “inmate code” that governs prisoner behaviours, the formal controls put forth by the administration, the dynamics that shape sex-offender experiences of incarceration, and the personal growth experiences of many prisoners as they cope with incarceration.
Using a rigorous marxist structuralist methodology, the book draws the reader into a compelling web of economic, social, and geographical structures, showing how human actions, sometimes murderous, arise from forces larger than the individual.
In December 1883, Peter Lazier was shot in the heart during a bungled robbery at a Prince Edward County farmhouse. Three local men, pleading innocence from start to finish, were arrested and charged with his murder. Two of them — Joseph Thomset and David Lowder — were sentenced to death by a jury of local citizens the following May. Nevertheless, appalled community members believed at least one of them to be innocent — even pleading with prime minister John A. Macdonald to spare them from the gallows.
Understanding Crime in Canada: An Introduction to Criminology provides an overview of the foundations of criminology, and is intended for an introductory-level university and college audience. In addition to surveying the key theoretical approaches, it also examines important aspects in the study of criminology, including the role of the media; key points of criminal law; ways of measuring crime; and a thorough survey of the various types of crime. Case studies and boxes are used throughout to illustrate the theoretical aspects of the text in a real-world context.
