Kingston Penitentiary

Ken and I are away for a few days and that is my favourite. He is my favourite. Before our years of having a busy home there was just us. The years after our busy home fades it will just be us again. Us is important. This get away was actually a gift from my Aunt Jane. After Oma passed away, she wanted us to step away together. Oma’s death was really hard on me. I have written about Oma, but it’s not quite done or right. I had to set it aside. When I write about Oma, tears still cloud my vision. The tears come from a deep ache in my heart, but they are also grateful ones that she is with the Lord.  

We picked Prince Edward County. We were here a few years ago and we love the water and the feel. Out our door is Quincy Bay. I am sitting on the deck listening to the water lap with David Neuve playing in my ear. He is my favourite to write to. He has the right cadence, if that makes sense. If you need some quiet sweet music, try him. He has lots of hymns, but I like While the Trees Sleep and The Gathering Fields the best. I’d like to get the sheet music for Grace and ask her to learn them for me. (: 

Yesterday we went to Kingston. There is a ferry 2 minutes from our house that took us across the bay and then it took about 40 minutes to drive into Kingston. We walked through Kingston and it’s a beautiful city. It’s one of those cities that I decided I could live in after walking the first block. A city on the water is a soft spot for me.  On the spur of the moment, at the end of the day, we booked a tour at Kingston Pen. Ken loves history, so this was for him. Yesterday was melt into the pavement hot and we were getting tired, but I am so glad we did it.  

Here is an aerial view to give you an idea of how big the prison is. There is water at the bottom of the picture as well. You can see on the bottom left corner that there is a gate. That’s where the prisoners would come in off the water from Montreal and Toronto.  The construction (limestone) started in 1833 and it opened in 1835. It closed in 2013. There was anywhere from 350-500 inmates there at a time. 

This is a picture of that gate from the inside  

We had a very engaging tour guide. She gave us a very brief overview and then we started walking. The first stop was a cell block. A former CO talked to us about the cells and procedures. It was very interesting. Since Josh is a CO, I think it piqued my interest even more.I am not a person who loves to ask questions out loud in front of the group. I prefer to have a conversation. After she had taken questions from the crowd and people were milling, I quietly asked the difference between the federal and provincial prisons/jails. The main differences are that the provincial jails are less than a 2 year sentence and the federal prisons are more than a 2 year sentence. The provincial jails struggle with overcrowding and the inmates don’t have access to many programs. She was older and retired. She started as a parole officer and then moved into corrections. We talked about how she had to use her mind and her mouth to handle the inmates and the men used their bodies physically to control, as well as their posture and their presence. The men treated her with much more respect than they did the male officers. I asked her if the job took a toll on her and her family. We talked about how some officers stay in the same prison for 30 years and it can feel like they are in jail themselves in some ways. I enjoyed talking to her. I would have loved to have a coffee with her and hear about her life and experiences. She was a tough lady with a louder voice and carried herself with confidence, but I saw a soft tender side in there when I was talking to her and I wanted to know more about how both those sides worked together in the prison as she did her job. I can be loud and assertive and take charge in some situations, but my heart is so tender and I am so empathetic that I could never do that job. Being a CO hardens you in some ways, but I don’t think I could ever harden enough. I would be easily manipulated because I hope to see the best in people and my heart sometimes blocks my view of reality. I would do better as a visitor and an encourager and friend. 

I took a picture of the cells, which were way smaller than I thought. I had a different picture in my mind. At certain times in the past they had two to a cell. Now the bottom bunk is a desk. I couldn’t imagine one person in the cell, let alone two. It's smaller than my bathroom. The pay phone stuck out to me as well as the visitor area. People started taking silly pictures of themselves in the cells, but I couldn’t do it. I was overcome with emotion. When booking the tour and walking through the gate, I didn’t really think about what I was stepping into. I know that I am soft and I feel things deeply, but this went beyond a tender heart. I felt such a heavy burden on my shoulders. For a moment it felt too heavy to stand there and I just leaned into Ken as we took it in. It wasn’t entertaining to me in any way. It was sobering.

I could picture the cells full and hear the loud echoes of the men in their cells. I saw the consequences of a sin ravaged world and felt the hopelessness and the heaviness. I saw suffering of the people who were impacted by the crimes, the families of the inmates who lost their person and the price the inmates themselves had to pay for their crimes. I may be extra sensitive, but I could feel the tears, the oppression and the anger. That sounds dramatic, but it's real and it was palpatable.

No man is beyond God’s reach and every person is a sinner, but to commit some of those crimes, evil must have touched that person. I don’t know why I have so much trouble writing and posting that sentence. It’s true. But I think sometimes we stop there. There is another side that can't be ignored. These men have a story. There could be mental health issues involved. If you look at their family history, you may see that they were stuck in a cycle of violence, crime and poverty that they didn’t have the support, the vision or strength to get out of. These men could have been subjected to a life of abuse. I feel compassion and I see both sides clearly. Some men could have had very difficult lives that led them to this point AND they need to pay for their crimes. Both can be true. It’s a whole bunch of both/ands with some black, white and grey and they all collide. It could be a controversial issue, but I am not qualified to give an academic answer.

I am sure that there were men that heard the gospel in prison and were converted. To find a peace that only the Lord could give, must have given them more freedom in that prison behind those wall and bars than they had when they were out and walking the streets. I have watched videos of men worshipping the Lord in prison and it’s such beauty in the middle of a place that is filled with chaos. 

I had a favourite building, but my favourite parts in the prison were the two domes. They were beautiful and so bright. The one with the red is like a hubcap with the halls as it's spokes. Two men would sit in that thing that looks like a big bird cage. One had a big gun and the other one would control the corridor doors. There is an armoury of sorts undrneath that cage with vests, sheilds and battons. There is actually also a tunnel underneath that would let the guards escape if things got really dangerous. 

Here we learned about the 1971 riot. It turned into a 4 day show down. She explained the why and I get how it could happen. The inmates were hearing rumours that in the new prison being built in the area that there was going to be smaller cells and more difficult living conditions. This caused the morale to go down. The culture started getting toxic and then turned explosive. A plan was made and then carried out. A group of inmates that were housed in the population that the other inmates hated, were tortured and 2 died. I am surprised only 2 died after what they went through. Six guards were taken hostage and their keys were taken and used through the prison to open the cells. Each guard had an inmate to protect them and it was not because they cared, but because they were the bargaining chips. You can’t kill your tickets. Only two of them came back to work afterwards. The others struggled with PTSD so badly that they couldn’t. The prison was trashed and the inmates had to be moved out while things got put back together.  

Here is the second dome. This one was called the workshop dome. Here there was a metal and wood working and mattress shop, a school  etc. They were all the places to keep busy. In the early days, the prison was more self sufficient and almost everything was made in house, so there was lots to do. In the very early days, inmates would leave the prison to work. The bell would ring in the morning to let the community know to be watchful and it would ring again when the inmates went back to the prison. That would be a no thank you for me. I am not sure I could live like that. 

The solitary confinement cells were actually much nicer and were more spacious than the regular ones. I would have much preferred them, but 23 hours a day in a room by myself would make me crazy. They got an hour in the yard a day, but the yard had a chair in it and nothing else. You would get fresh air and some sun, but the yard was smaller than my living room and it had high wall around it. It felt suffocating. The yard for the general population was huge and had basketball nets and was much better. It could be put into two sections with a gate and 50 would go on one side and 50 on the other. You could also 'feel' the lake. It's pretty close over that back wall. There was a look out tower in the corner and really big windows on the prison side for the men to watched. 

I could go on and on about history and events. Our tour was an hour and half, if I would have known, I would have taken the extended tour. We saw lots, but there were lots of places we didn’t see. I will include some of my other pictures. I found that the blue sky, the beautiful limestone and the feel of the lake was such a contrast with the prison and what it represented and contained.  

This first one is my favourite building. The dates are significant  I just can’t remember exactly  I was too busy looking at how beautiful it was to listen to the explanation. (: I am pretty sure it was the starting date of the build and the other two were dates that they added on buildings or wings. Some of the pictures in this post are kind of crooked. I was having a crooked day and I didn't really edit these. The crookenedness is bothering my brain now, but I am done and I am not going to fix them. (: 

 

Here ends my tour. I would recommend the tour if you are in the area. 

This may have been a need to be there kind of a post, but I felt the need to share to get it out of my brain.