Prison News | Ontario

• Education & Rehabilitation
• Executions, Death Row, & the Death Penalty
• Gangs in Prison
• Health & Medical Treatment
• Prison Classification, Placement, and Release
• Prison Conditions & Corruption
• Prison Life & Prison Culture
• Riots, Lockdowns & Escapes
• Suicides in Prison
• Workplace & Industry News and Science & Tech

Education & Rehabilitation

Executions, Death Row & the Death Penalty

Gangs in Prison

• Alleged Mafia boss and convicted killer quietly arrested near Toronto for allegedly breaching his lifetime parole
  
  Jimmy DeMaria, a man named as one of the most powerful Mafia bosses in Toronto — who is already suing the government over his treatment by the prison and parole system — was quietly arrested and returned to a federal prison....[more]
  National Post, Thursday, November 28, 2013
  
  
• Poorly planned escape bid at Kingston Pen a bust
  
  Two federal inmates trying to escape from Kingston Penitentiary managed to get onto the roof of the maximum security prison and attach a homemade grappling hook to the razor wire near the walls ......[more]
  The Globe and Mail, Wednesday, August 20, 2008
  
  
• Intensive Support Units for federal offenders with substance abuse problems: An impact analysis
  
  Offenders can volunteer to live on an ISU to more effectively address their drug and alcohol problems. ISUs were also designed for offenders who do not have a substance abuse problem but who are seeking an environment that supports them in their drug-free lifestyle......[more]
  Correctional Service Canada, Friday, December 28, 2007
  
  
• Province looks to protect guards
  
  federal legislation that would force inmates to take blood tests if they scratch, cut or prick guards with needles, or if they assault guards with urine, feces, semen... ...[more]
  The Whig-Standard , Saturday, June 2, 2007
  
  
• Millhaven hunger-strikers end riot
  
  The hunger strike and riot that began on April 13 with prisoners in Millhaven's J Unit finally ended last week. Last Monday, inmates......[more]
  Insideprison.com, Monday, May 1, 2006
  
  

Health & Medical Treatment

Prison Classification, Placement, & Release

• New Toronto superjail goes hi-tech
  
  TORONTO — Ontario's newest and largest jail is almost 234,000 square-metres of concrete, steel and impenetrable Plexiglas windows and has the technology to cavity-search an inmate without laying a hand on him....[more]
  Stanford Beacon-Herald, Friday, October 4, 2013
  
  
• Intensive Support Units for federal offenders with substance abuse problems: An impact analysis
  
  Offenders can volunteer to live on an ISU to more effectively address their drug and alcohol problems. ISUs were also designed for offenders who do not have a substance abuse problem but who are seeking an environment that supports them in their drug-free lifestyle......[more]
  Correctional Service Canada, Friday, December 28, 2007
  
  

Prison Conditions & Corruption

• How long will Ottawa ignore our broken prison system? The federal government has been ignoring the evidence on sound corrections policy for too long. Now a high-profile case against three guards could force the feds finally to face facts.
  
  It has been three months since the coroner’s jury in the Ashley Smith inquest delivered the verdict of homicide and made a series of recommendations designed to prevent similar tragedies in the future. The suggestions included limiting the use of solitary confinement, encouraging transfers of seriously mentally ill prisoners to treatment facilities, and promoting adequate oversight of prison conditions....[more]
  Toronto Star, Tuesday, March 25, 2014
  
  

Prison Life & Culture

• Kingston Penitentiary leaves visitor "chilled"
  
  KINGSTON—I did not sleep much the night after my tour of Kingston Penitentiary.

  I have driven by the "Pen," which has often been called Canada's Alcatraz, many times, but now my wife, Liz, and I were getting a chance to walk inside the walls of our country's most notorious prison. It was a chilling experience....[more]

  Waterloo Region Record, Friday, October 11, 2013
  
  
• Kingston Penitentiary Tour Tickets Sell Out Ahead Of October Dates
  
  For three weeks starting Oct. 2, visitors will be able to tour Kingston Penitentiary, the formidable maximum security facility that has housed Canada's worst criminals....[more]
  Canadian Press, Friday, September 27, 2013
  
  
• Bernardo won't be moving to cushier cell, minister vows; Schoolgirl sex killer is said to have sought transfer from antiquated Kingston pen
  
  Schoolgirl killer Paul Bernardo won't be enjoying a transfer from a tiny segregation cell in ancient Kingston Penitentiary to a more comfortable medium-security prison, the federal minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness says....[more]
  Hamilton Spectator, Friday, August 2, 2013
  
  

Riots, Lockdowns & Escapes

• IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF PUBLIC ENEMY NO. 1 \ Author believes he's solved the mystery of what finally happened to the last man to successfully...
  
  It was the night of Aug. 17, 1947, when three inmates I t went over the wall at Kingston Penitentiary, the first to make it out since the 1800s. Within a year, one of them was caught trying a night burglary in Oakland, while a second turned ......[more]
  Kingston Whig-Standard, Saturday, April 6, 2013
  
  
• Canadian prisoners captured after daring helicopter escape
  
  (CNN) -- Even by dramatic jailbreak standards, this escape was particularly brazen. Two men posing as tourists reportedly commandeered a helicopter from a Canadian tour company, ordered the pilot to fly over a detention center near Montreal...[more]
  CNN Wire, Monday, March 18, 2013
  
  
• Poorly planned escape bid at Kingston Pen a bust
  
  Two federal inmates trying to escape from Kingston Penitentiary managed to get onto the roof of the maximum security prison and attach a homemade grappling hook to the razor wire near the walls ......[more]
  The Globe and Mail, Wednesday, August 20, 2008
  
  
• Millhaven hunger-strikers end riot
  
  The hunger strike and riot that began on April 13 with prisoners in Millhaven's J Unit finally ended last week. Last Monday, inmates......[more]
  Insideprison.com, Monday, May 1, 2006
  
  

Suicides in Prison

Workplace & Industry News, and Science & Tech News

• Province looks to protect guards
  
  federal legislation that would force inmates to take blood tests if they scratch, cut or prick guards with needles, or if they assault guards with urine, feces, semen... ...[more]
  The Whig-Standard , Saturday, June 2, 2007