ng treatment program for offenders. Coupled with severe overcrowding, crumbling living conditions, staff shortage, improper placement of low-risk individuals into high-security units, idle time, and a notable lack of staff or communication channels responsive to inmate complaints and requests. Specifically, the Swackhamer Inquiry that followed the riot identified what it termed as "depressing and dehumanizing" qualities of imprisonment to be at the top of its list of potential factors.
According to psychiatrist George Scott, an environment of hopelessness, disinterest, and apathy surrounded correctional rehabilitation and the prospect of actually completing one's sentence successfully. As conditions worsened and this sentiment progressed, correctional staff naturally began to restrict more privileges to constrain rebellion, establishing an increasingly more strict, maximum-security regime that gave inmates littler and littler breathing room as the years went by. Conditions progressed to a point at which inmates at Kingston Penitentiary were daily experiencing a kind of "maximum security psychosis" (p.20), where inmates were confined to their cells 16 hours a day, were forbidden cell decorations, and required to subject all personal possessions such as books, or musical instruments to search and seizure. In a merciless attack on the conditions at Kingston Penitentiary, the Inquiry stated that such an environment will render the convict "submissive to the inmate culture," and it concluded by saying that "such a regime does a real injustice to a human being and is destructive of whatever humanity may be within him."
14 years later, in March of 1985, inmates took four nurses and one prison guard hostage at Kingston Penitentiary's hospital. The hostages eventually managed to slip through a door and lock it behind them, allowing a tactical team to sweep in. One hospital nurse, Gladys Whelan, who was a diabetic, was released early.
After it was over, the hostage takers were put into solitary confinement. There were no injuries sustained or pharmaceuticals taken from the hospital. 10 days prior to the hostage-taking inmates had staged a strike, in which they presented a list of complaints to the warden that included cold food, overcrowded visiting room, guard harassment, and overcrowding. (15 March 1985 Associated Press)
One year after the riot, in 1986, Robert Edward Brown was knifed
to death by a fellow inmate who had been serving a life sentence
for first-degree murder since 1983.
3 years later, in August of 1988, two inmates in the Regional Treatment Centre located within the psychiatric-section of the penitentiary took one nurse hostage in order to secure enough drugs to commit a prison suicide. Inmates barricaded the doors with furniture, belts, and clothing tied into knots.
The prison was locked down, as a tactical team stationed itself outside the cell and negotiated with the prisoners throughout the day, even though Correctional Services of Canada does not make "deals" with hostage-taking inmates. The Treatment Centre, which houses sex offenders, and disturbed and unmanageable inmates serving two years or more, is located on the third floor.
Dr. George D. Scott has written briefly of his experiences with suicidal and self-injurious inmates at Kingston Penitentiary, and several of these experiences are listed below.
One inmate, who committed suicide in 1964, collected over the course of his 2 years as an office cleaner minuscule amounts of carbon tetrachloride from each office in the institution. When he eventually collected enough to destroy his kidneys (approximately 6 ounces) he killed himself.
The Coroner's Report revealed the death of another inmate in 1974 that had overdosed on methyl hydrate, known as rubbing-alcohol, from an inmate who distributed cleaning supplies throughout the penitentiary.
In another act of self-injury, one female inmate broke her water glass in her cell, wrapped it with damp toilet paper, and swallowed it. She died six days later from bowel perforations. Some have tried swallowing razor blad