The Kingston Penitentiary riot of 1971 refers to a prison riot that took place at Kingston Penitentiary, in Ontario, Canada, between 14 and 18 April 1971.
Background
Kingston Penitentiary had been opened on 1 June 1835 and was the oldest prison in Canada. The federal prison was widely considered to be the harshest prison in Canada and in 1971 it held 641 prisoners. A journalist, Ron Tripp, who visited Kingston penitentiary wrote: "As soon you walked in, you had a sense that society had crushed and defeated you. It was a human warehouse of death, decay and horror. Many inmates died of murder and suicide within its walls". Prisoners were not permitted to speak outside of their cells. Solitary confinement was frequently used as a punishment for inmates.. At the center of the prison was the dome and in the middle of the dome was a gigantic brass bell that was much hated by the inmates, whose ringing determined everything in a prisoner's life from being woken up at 6:45 am to going to bed at 10:30 pm. Roger Caron, a prisoner at Kingston turned writer wrote about the bell that was rung 100 times every day: "To the cons it was an object of repugnance and outrage, an unjustifiable punishment. A brass monster that we were convinced had been designed solely to shatter our nerves with its loud and strident ringing. For the prison staff it was the golden cow". Caron complained that in 1971 Kingston penitentiary was still governed by "archaic" Victorian rules under which the prisoners were punished by 30 days in solitary confinement if caught masturbating. The cells were equipped with peep-holes to allow the guards to see if the prisoners were masturbating and many of the prisoners sent to solitary confinement were only guilty of masturbation.
Around the circular dome were 640 cells stacked up on four floors. The cells in Kingston penitentiary were small, cold, drafty, minimally furnished and overrun by rats. Starting in 1966, most of the privileges' enjoyed by the prisoners such as a baseball team, writing for a prison magazine, and almost all recreational programs were abolished. In 1968, the Liberal Party under the leadership of Pierre Trudeau won the election of that year under the slogan of the "Just Society". The implication of the "Just Society" platform was that Canada was an unjust society that needed sweeping social reforms, which led to hopes in Kingston penitentiary that the new government would change conditions in the prison. However, the new Trudeau government to counter criticism that it was "soft on crime" made conditions in the prisons more harsher. For an example, starting in 1948, the prisoners were permitted to write for and publish a magazine, KP Telescope, which allowed the lesser educated prisoners to learn how to read and write. In 1969, the Trudeau government abolished KP Telescope under the grounds that the prisoners did not need a magazine to read. The prisoners were not allowed to bring in magazines and the loss of KP Telescope was much resented as depriving the prisoners of their main reading material. The combination of a Liberal government whose rhetoric promised a "Just Society" for all vs. the steadily more harsher conditions at Kingston penitentiary made for a volatile mood in the prison.
Caron charged that the lack of recreational programs was the main reason for the riot as he wrote: "Kingston Penitentiary was one of the few federal institutions that still insisted on keeping the prisoners dead-locked in cages for as long as eighteen hours a day for no better reason than punishment". By the fall of 1970, more and more prisoners were punished by being sent to solitary confinement as the overcrowding at the prison led to tensions between the prisoners, which were often resolved by making accusations to the Warden, Arthur Jarvis of being "trouble-makers". The increasing use of solitary confinement as a discipline tool in 1970-1971 led to an increase in suicides at the prison as many prisoners could not face more solitary confinement. It also led to angry mood with many of the prisoners willing to risk all by lashing out against a system that they believed to be oppressing them. On 18 January 1971, Warden Arthur Jarvis wrote to Paul Faguy, the commissioner of penitentiaries, where he warned: "There is a high degree of tension at Kingston Penitentiary at this time. In fact it appears to be almost at the point of explosion". Jarvis complained that Kingston penitentiary was overcrowded, there were shortages of guards and many of the inmates feared that new prison of Millhaven would be more harsh.