"We'll make a modern Pr*son": Prisoners and penal reform in 1930s Canada

For four days in October 1932, during the height of the Great Depression, prisoners at Kingston Penitentiary revolted, protesting conditions in the Pr*son until the guards and militia regained control. Soon, prisoners at other federal prisons joined them to protest their own confinement. The shock of these events led to public calls for Pr*son reform, changes within the Pr*son system, and eventually the 1938 Royal Commission on the Penal System of Canada. This talk looks over what motivated prisoners to revolt: their complaints, criticisms, fears, hopes, dreams, and frustrations. How, once the riots had happened and the prisoner leaders were on trial, were their demands amplified, adopted, or ignored, by newspapers, by social workers, by politicians and reformers. What, in short, did the prisoners in the early 1930s want?

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Algonquin College in the Ottawa Valley, 1 College Way, Pembroke, Canada