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Photo Friday | Inside Kingston Pen, 1979

Photo Friday | Inside Kingston Pen, 1979

Photo Friday | Inside Kingston Pen, 1979

Take a look inside Kingston’s infamous high security prison with these great black-and-white photographs from A Warehouse for Bodies (not currently online), a short 1979 doc about life inside Kingston Pen.

Once home to many of Canada’s most dangerous and notorious criminals, including former colonel Russel Williams, Scarborough’s Paul Bernardo, Clifford Olson, Wayne Boden, and more recently, Mohammad and Hamed Shafia, KP closed its doors on September 30, 2013, due to “crumbling infrastructure and costly upkeep.”

Opened in 1835 – 32 years before Canadian Confederation – Kingston Penitentiary was the world’s oldest prison in continuous use at the time of its closure.

In September 2016, the prison reopened for tours. Canada’s Penitentiary Museum is also now housed on the premises, in the former Warden’s residence.

  

See also:

Rent 3 Hard-Hitting Docs on Mental Illness and Violent Crime (all three films are now available free)

Cell 16 (1971), by Martin Duckworth

Penitentiary (1951), by Ronald Weyman

Kids in Jail (2013), by Larry Lynn

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  1. Here is the online website and the tutorial that am always looking for.Thank you so much to share this interesting place.

  2. A great insight into the lives of incarcerated youth, and evidential proof that there must be a safety net for them when they are released, otherwise they will not be able to break the cycle.

    — Norris Nordin,

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