This book relays the details of the 1971 Kingston Penitentiary riot in a gripping way and it also provides many interesting details about the history of the Canadian criminal justice system. It was one of the nominees for the 2022 Ontario Library Association's Evergreen award.

If you visit Kingston, Ontario, you can tour the penitentiary, which is now a historic site very popular with tourists, instead of a working penitentiary. There is also the Penitentiary Museum, located in the old Warden's House across the road from the penitentiary. ( )

For a first book by an author, this is an extremely readable and fascinating volume. When reading a "What's on Today in History" column in a newspaper, she notice an entry about a riot at the Kingston Penitentiary in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Intrigued, she set out to learn more about it and then to write a book about it.
Researching libraries, archives. the Internet and interviewing participants, she spent five years putting her story together often facing individuals who did not wish to share their memories about the event.

On April 14, 1971, inmates of the Kingston Pen decide to revolted against the many frustrating rules of the prison administration and the overcrowding and boredom they experienced everyday. Taking six guards hostage and locking themselves in the prison, the inmates destroyed much of the infrastructure that imprisoned them with especial anger waged on the brass bell that dictated every moment of their lives.

Lengthy negotiations went on between a civilian committee made up members requested by the prisoners and the Canadian Government. The Government's refusal to negotiate honestly and openly led to the takeover of the rebellion by a group of extremely dangerous cons who took the undesirables, namely sex offenders and stool pigeons, and tortured them murdering two of them to the disgust of many of the other cons.

The result of the riot led to a long revaluation of what Canada's prison system should be trying to achieve and how to make it more successful in reaching its goals but with limited success. A Conservative Government in 2007 changed the focus to a tough on crime agenda and built prisons and filled them with a tough enforcement policies to create safe communities which resulted in full prisons full of men & women without support systems leading to less safe communities. It was just another repeat of past failed polices on how to make our communities safe.

One of the prisoners mentioned in the book is Roger Caron who wrote his version of the riot based on being incarcerated in the Kingston Pen during these events. For more information about the riot check out his book, Bingo! If you can get to Kingston, you may tour the prison in the warmer months through tours organized by the St. Lawrence Parks Commission. Having done so this past Autumn, I highly recommend taking advantage of the opportunity. ( )