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Inmates Paid to Work.
At the start of the 1920s, the Biggar-Nickle-Draper Committee, appointed through the Department of Justice, suggested several changes to penitentiary regulations-changes that were considered quite radical in some quarters. For example, the Committee proposed that prisoners be paid meagre wages for their work (which ranged from breaking rocks, quarrying and stonecutting to farming, metalwork, carpentry, tailoring and brick-making.) -
Argument of Parole
Agnes Macphail, Canada's first female elected Member of Parliament, had many thoughts on the matter. She had become a strong advocate of change to Canada's prison system since taking office in 1922. Her ideas included creating an independent parole board, and making the option of parole available to all offenders. -
6 day riot.
While prison populations grew during the Depression, there was little money available to expand existing facilities or open new ones. Some construction went on, but even so, overcrowding created significant tensions. And these, eventually, erupted in the form of full-scale riots. The first occurred at Kingston in 1932, and lasted six days. -
Improvement
1933 was the turnaround year, actually; things slowly started to improve after then. But a full recovery would not come until the end of the decade. -
A vision of change
Toward the end of the 1930's came further calls for prison reform. Canada's first women's prison had opened in Kingston in 1934, answering a long-called for need to separate male and female inmates. -
Looking into the prisons
After a change of government in 1935, a Royal Commission was established to look into the topic of Canada's penitentiaries. -
WWII Ends! Troops Come Back from the Front!
After six long years of war—in which 37,000 Canadian soldiers lost their lives—the troops returned home in 1945 ready to start again.It was a changed country they came back to. With industry working full-tilt to support the war effort, employment was up and the economy was growing. Technology had made some great leaps forward-allowing companies to manufacture products faster and more cheaply than ever before. The future was looking much brighter than it had in the days of the Great Depression. -
Strugles and solutions
As the troops returned home, crime rates rose—due to poverty and an increase in population. Problems of overcrowding intensified as the number of inmates climbed steadily over time. Between 1947 and 1960 alone, the national offender population almost doubled from 3,362 to 6,344. -
Fires
On August 15, 1954, 200 of the almost 1,000 inmates in Kingston Penitentiary rioted and set fire to the old prison. The fires burnt the central dome, which later had to be replaced by a flat roof. While some concerned observers called to retract offenders' liberties, the commitment to ongoing reform prevailed. -
Mentally Ill Prisoners
In 1958, the Canadian Penitentiary Service appointed its first full-time psychiatrist, and programs for the treatment of mentally ill inmates grew -
New parol
A new Parole Act was passed in 1959, and the National Parole Board was created. It had the power and authority to make decisions about inmates' entitlement to release on a case-by-case basis, giving each individual inmate his or her due. In its first year, Canada's National Parole Board granted 994 paroles—an increase of 42 per cent. -
Rehab!
In the 1960s, new approaches to rehabilitation and reintegration were adopted to ease prisoners back into society. At Collins Bay near Kingston, a first-ever gradual release program allowed inmates to work outside the prison and return to the facility in the evening. -
The right to life
In 1971, to bring attention to human rights issues within Kingston Penitentiary, five hundred inmates started a riot—resulting in two deaths and causing major damage to the facility. The Kingston riot was the beginning of a decade of unrest and significant tension in Canadian penitentiaries. -
No more death
Long-time forms of punishment, such as whipping and lashing of prisoners, were eliminated. The abolition of the death penalty in 1976 marked a significant development in the advancement of human rights—the right to life as enshrined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. -
Prison athletic events
In 1977, Collins Bay Institution Offender, George Marcotte, with the support of CSC staff, launched the Exceptional People's Olympiad - a track and field day hosted by federal offenders for developmentally challenged athletes. Federal offenders, with the help of CSC staff and Citizens' Advisory Committee members, plan and organize this event every year. Each participant is paired with an offender who acts as a coach by offering encouragement and advice. -
Youth Offenders
In response to rising youth crime rates in the 1970s, the government conducted an extensive review of the youth justice system, which resulted in the passage of the Young Offenders Act in 1984. Prior to the legislation, youths who broke the law were treated as "little adults" and received the same sentences as adults-including harsh sentences for relatively minor crimes. -
AIDS/HIV
Studies of in-prison AIDS varied greatly. Some indicated that one in every 100 inmates was infected; others set the figure as high as one in nine. But the fact was clear that the incidence of AIDS in Canada's penitentiaries was anywhere from six to 70 times greater than it was generally.In 1996, HIV/AIDS in Prisons: Final Report, was published by the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network and the Canadian AIDS Society. The goal was to assist the CSC and provincial/territorial prison systems in their -
Prison for Women Only
In 2000, after 66 years of sharing the grounds with male prisoners at the Kingston Penitentiary, women inmates were moved to a separate institution—a new Prison for Women. Although numerous non-heritage buildings and three stone security walls have since been demolished, remaining structures, designated as heritage buildings have been left intact. -
Role of the Comunity
Canada’s federal government created the National Volunteer Association (NVA) in 2001 to provide volunteer support to families of inmates and help released offenders re-adjust to community life. -
Victims Services
In 2007, CSC added a section to its website for victims of federal offenders, providing them with easy-to-access, up-to-date information about the services offered by its National Victim Services Program. This site is one of the tools available to assist victims who may wish to receive information about the offenders who harmed them.
