Penitentiary City - Penitentiary Commissions

Laying the Groundwork: the Penitentiary Commissions from 1830 to 1833

In 1830, the Legislature, finally heeding Hugh Thomson's suggestion about a new penitentiary, appointed a Select Committee on the Expediency of Erecting a Penitentiary with Thomson as the Chairman.  In his first report, submitted early in 1831, he outlined the contemporary practice of how crime was dealt with in British North America, and he presented his argument for the need to build a penitentiary. It was in this report that he first suggested Kingston as the preferred location.  He cited the advantages of the existence of the military garrison and extensive fortifications if needed for support, the "healthy situation" on Lake Ontario and the moderately priced real estate.  He also suggested that the abundance of limestone found in the area's "inexhaustible quarries" would afford plenty of employment opportunities for convicts. Revenue was always a primary consideration.  As the Kingston trades and craftsmen feared, Thomson suggested that, through the sale of convict-made produce, the government could recoup the costs of incarceration.

With Thomson's first report accepted, a Commission for the Purpose of Obtaining Plans and Estimates of a Penitentiary to be Erected in this Province was established later in 1831, again with Thomson as Chairman, and with his one-time newspaper rival John Macaulay (1792-1857) as fellow Commissioner.  
John Macaulay was a local businessman, politician, militia officer and publisher of the Chronicle newspaper. Was it more than chance that two newspaper publishers worked to found the penitentiary?  Apart from their good intentions to improve the criminal justice system in Upper Canada and the morals of its inmates, one wonders if they were thinking about the goldmine that the goings-on at the "pen" would provide to the local press!

Thomson and Macaulay submitted a lengthy report in 1832 outlining the results of their visits to existing penitentiaries in the United States such as Auburn, Sing Sing, and Blackwell's Island in New York and Wethersfield in Connecticut.  The report describes in detail what they saw as the merits and the failings of each penitentiary, and included an initial draft of what would eventually become the Rules & Regulations governing the operation.  It also provided a very brief account of the international history of penitentiaries; for example, the report states, "the mode of punishment by solitary confinement with hard labour, appears to have been adopted in the Netherlands as early as 1770 . . . ."

Apparently, two sites were considered for Canada's first penitentiary, namely, Kingston and Hamilton. Both locales offered healthy markets and an abundance of stone; n fact, details were given about the qualities of the stone in each town. Kingston's "very durable limestone of a bluish colour" and Hamilton's "Portland free stone of a softer texture" were compared.  Some government representatives expressed concern that, because Kingston's limestone was harder, it would be more expensive to work with -- requiring more labour and ruining more cutting tools.  Despite this, the momentum continued towards locating the penitentiary in Kingston.

With the second report accepted by the Legislature a third Commission was appointed.  The Commission Appointed to Superintend the Erection of a Provincial Penitentiary again comprised of Thomson and Macaulay, along with the addition of Kingston merchant Henry Smith Sr.
During their visits to the U.S., the Commissioners again examined in great detail two penal systems: firstly, the New York "Auburn system", in which convicts were held in individual cells at night, and worked together in industrial shops in strict silence during the day; secondly, the Philadelphia "Pennsylvania system", in which inmates lived and worked in complete isolation in individual cells for the duration of their sentences.  The Philadelphia cells were equipped with individual exterior yards.  In reality, very few "Philadelphia" prisons were actually built because of the expense involved.  The Committee selected the Auburn model of prison management, and consulted extensively with the Auburn Penitentiary Deputy Keeper, William Powers.  In 1833, their detailed report was adopted, and £12,500 over a period of three years was approved to buy land and erect a building.  

On 30 May 1833, the government purchased 100 acres to the west of Kingston and extending north from the shore of Lake Ontario.  Purchased from the Pember family, the land had been granted by the Crown to Loyalist Philip Pember, a Revolutionary War veteran of the King's Royal Regiment of New York.  Upon securing the property, the construction of the penitentiary got underway in earnest. Rumour had become reality.

The location was some two miles beyond Kingston's western border on West Street.  This was considered sufficiently "separate and away" to be isolated from the population, yet close enough for conducting business with the community.  As the report described:

Recognizing the unique nature of this type of construction, the Penitentiary Commissioners hired Deputy Keeper William Powers from Auburn Penitentiary in New York to oversee the construction of the complex.  John Mills, also of Auburn, was hired as the Master Builder.  Day labourers were hired to carry out the actual construction of the penitentiary, as the government felt it would be unwise to entrust the job to a single contractor who might be compelled to cut costs.

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