Strong Feelings Coming from Prison

If you have been there yet – YOU need to GO! I have driven by it many times – but had never gone in. It is the Correctional Service Canada – Prison Museum. You will do a lot of thinking after you take part in the tour.

This small museum sits directly across from the Kingston Penitentiary. Originally built and used as the home of the Warden of Kingston Pen – it now serves as a Museum.

Shown in the photos below are two kinds of discipline apparatus used in the 1800s.

The one shown above is chair that has the “stocks” holding restraints for arms and legs. The head is then covered with a small barrel. This barrel has a hole in the bottom where the neck is surrounded… and a hole in the top where another hole allows the cold water to rush in over the prisoner’s head from the barrel up above. The method was used to help the Prisoner’s Body Temp/Anger cool down. It was thought that this method would serve well to control the person’s attitude.

The next method displayed was for women – shown above. It was a Discipline Box – in the shape of a coffin. A sturdy coffin lid was fixed to it by powerful hinges – and one small hole to allow air. It was said that the disruptive woman could be placed in there for 8 hours or more.

There were other methods of old time prison methods shown. The final one here I show is the “Strapping Table”. After the prisoner was secured to the table with strong leather belts, a leather eye covering was fastened in place to not allow him to see which Keeper was strapping him. This simple part of the discipline would prevent the prisoner from getting retribution later against the one who had hit him.

So you shudder a little when you see these photos eh? Well think of the convicted man or woman that was marched into room and then disciplined.

Exiting the Museum the first sight is the mighty walls of the Kingston Penn… standing solid for well over a hundred years. Mighty and powerful expressing Canadian’s displeasure with Bad People – thousands of them over the years that have lived and many that have died inside its walls.

I serve as a Volunteer with the CAC – the Citizen’s Advisory Committee in Ontario. I am witness to the ways and methods that are used today to control, apply and dispense discipline in a humane way.

Today there is now use of these methods shown. We are better than that now. Prisoners are treated with respect and care. However they are prisoners of the Justice System serving time for what they have done. 22 years inside is not easy at all…let alone 27 or 32 or…

Living closely with other men that have attitude problems is not easy. Working with these men is not easy either. I Observe, Liaise and at time Advise when there seems to be something that may not look right or be done properly.

I am recouping today from being inside of prison settings for three days. Can you imagine what you might feel like if you were coming out after 15 years or 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year.

Most good Canadians will give it some thought when the man’s name is flashed on the Front Page of their news papers. Then they will not hear about him again until he is released from prison and tries to live next door to these kind folks.

You can tell that I have lots of feelings swirling around inside of me now. I need a good long bike ride. Whew….!

~ Murray Lincoln ~
www.murraylincoln.com/