#collins bay penitentiary

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Prisoners’ Justice Day is coming up on Wednesday, August 10, 2022. As usual, the Prison Radio collective at CFRC 101.9 FM - Queen’s University Radio will be taking over the airwaves at 101.9 FM and CJAI 92.1 FM on Amherst Island (near Millhaven Institution) from 4-10PM to talk about the day and to honour and remember those we have lost inside Canadian prisons and jails since the first PJD in 1975.

Along with our special content, we’ll be playing song requests and messages of love and solidarity from friends and supporters going out to local prisoners, many of whom will be fasting and refusing work to mark PJD.

Our signal reaches Collins Bay Penitentiary, Joyceville Institution, Millhaven Institution, Bath Institution, the Quinte Detention Centre and across Lake Ontario to the prison in Cape Vincent, New York.

Send a message or song request by writing to: 

427 Princess Street Suite 409 Kingston, Ontario K7L 5S9 By e-mail: cfrcprisonradio@riseup.net Phone: 613-417-3359 Social media: @cprkingston

[baileywhite]

Watch: If everyone agrees he isn't a criminal, why is he in jail?

While covering the trial of a young man accused of killing his mother’s partner, this was the question I kept asking. Graham Veitch admitted to the killing and desperately needed help. But for the better part of two years, he was in jail, instead of a mental health care facility. 

Find the web version of this story on the CBC N.L. website or keep reading here.

Tomorrow is the day everything changes for Graham Veitch. Tomorrow he learns his fate.

Two years and six months after what was almost certainly the worst day of his own life and of many other lives around him, Veitch, 21, will learn if he will be held criminally responsible for the brutal killing of his mother's partner, David Collins.

Veitch is charged with second-degree murder, and a handful of other offences stemming from his flight from police after his attack on Collins.

He is being tried by judge alone, and his lawyers are arguing that he is not criminally responsible due to a mental disorder.

"Arguing" might actually be too strong a word. There's very little debate about anything in this trial, as the Crown and defence agree on just about everything.

Yes, Veitch killed Collins. Yes, he fled from police. Yes, he struck an officer with a stolen car.

And yes, Veitch has schizophrenia. Yes, it was undiagnosed when he slipped into a deep and dangerous psychosis.

No, he could not appreciate the consequences of his actions when he brought that hammer down on David Collins's head.

No, he should not be held criminally responsible.

However, for most of the last 30 months, the man who all sides agree is not a criminal has been living at Her Majesty's Penitentiary.

By many estimations, it is a jail fit for no man, let alone one grappling with the most serious of mental illnesses.

Jail before justice

"When a person is held in jail before trial, that's called remand custody," said Rosemary Ricciardelli, a sociologist at Memorial University who studies crime and corrections.

"That individual is considered either a flight risk or a risk to themselves or others, and thus they get held."

The provincial justice department said in an emailed statement that the "placement of inmates is done on a case-by-case basis" and inmates may be transferred to hospitals if they experience a mental health crisis.

Such arrangements are to deal with immediate problems, not long-term care.

"Unfortunately, they can't be held at the Waterford unless they're found guilty or [not] criminally responsible," Ricciardelli said.

Brutal attack

The gruesome nature of Veitch's actions is not in contention at this trial.

The first piece of evidence entered by the Crown was a lengthy agreed statement of facts, outlining the manner in which Veitch killed Collins, just moments after the two ate dinner together in their shared Logy Bay home on Dec. 18, 2016.  

The younger man came up behind the elder and bludgeoned him with a hammer, over and over, until he believed Collins was dead.

To friends and family, the attack seemed to be a bolt from the blue. Though the teenager expressed to friends and family some misgivings about his mother's partner, witnesses said Collins was an upstanding person and the two got along fine. Veitch had never been violent.

Psychiatrist Nizar Ladha testified that Veitch was suffering intense delusions when he killed Collins. He believed Collins to be a danger to the Veitch family, and that killing him was the right thing to do.

What seemed to everyone else like a sudden explosion was actually a slow-burning fire.

An escalation toward a breaking point is typical for people with undiagnosed schizophrenia, said Dave Banko, executive director of the Schizophrenia Society of Newfoundland and Labrador.

"People aren't going to go and tell their friends and their family members that they're seeing things, hearing things," he said.

"They bottle that up, and oftentimes they will get worse until they have a psychotic episode," though such episodes aren't usually violent, Banko stressed.

The long wait

Scores of jurists, journalists and other advocates for free and open societies have argued that justice must be seen to be done.

If the most brazen of thieves and liars can skulk through the system without their peers knowing their crimes, it is reasoned, justice has not truly been meted out.

Similarly, if the public cannot see a defendant's mental health tested, how can we trust that the test has been conducted strenuously?

Veitch's mental health was tested by several psychiatrists who all came to the same conclusion.

Experts told the court it is impossible that Veitch faked his symptoms. The details of his behaviour after his arrest are disturbing. Less extreme incidents included eating paint chips, drinking toilet water and walking around naked.

For justice to be seen and done takes time in this country, and Veitch, like many others who have been deemed threats to society, has spent that time held in jail awaiting trial.

"It's interesting because prison in itself, depending on the conditions of confinement and how a person is treated, can really impact how a person fares," Ricciardelli said.

Some people do well in jail, the professor said. People who struggle to take their medications regularly, for instance, may find the regimented nature of prison life beneficial.

She believes the health department should take on a bigger role in corrections, something the province says is already in the works. A justice spokesperson said the two departments are working together and that the health department should have "responsibility for the provision of health services in prisons and the associated funding" by next year.

Ricciardelli says it is possible to treat people more like patients and less like criminals even before their trials conclude.

"Maybe it shouldn't have to wait until after trial," she said.

"Maybe if we can speed that up and do that sooner, we might be able to have a more effective experience."

An excruciating diagnosis

Schizophrenia is a cruel disorder, not only because of its severity, but because of the cascade of misery it can unleash. It manifests most often in teenagers and young adults on the cusp of maturity with their futures ahead. It is often misdiagnosed or misunderstood.

"Usually people will get diagnosed after everything else has been eliminated," Banko said.

"You don't really know if someone is hallucinating or seeing anything because they're the ones experiencing it. So oftentimes when people go and seek help, if they're not sharing that aspect … then they may only get treated for depression."

It's not until later, as the disorder progresses, that a true diagnosis is typically made, Banko said.

By then, a person living with it may have slipped into psychosis and away from reality, enveloped in a delusion and surrounded most often by auditory hallucinations that may command any number of actions, including suicide.

Only a small fraction of people with schizophrenia are violent, Banko said, but those are the cases that usually make the news.

"We don't hear the positive stories, we only hear the stuff in the news where someone commits a horrible act," he said.  

The cost of this, he said, is tremendous stigma that discourages people who are suffering from seeking help and can even lead families to ignore important signs.

No one wants to believe they have a disorder that others are afraid of.

It's a disorder that, even when well managed, will require careful moderation and frequent changes to medications, many of which have taxing side effects including weight gain, loss of libido and organ damage.

"There is no one-size-fits-all," Banko said. "Sometimes the medication might work, and then for whatever reason, it might stop."

Banko wants everyone to know that it is doable for people with schizophrenia to lead perfectly normal lives. But is it doable in jail?

"Recovery is possible with pretty well everyone with a mental illness, but they need the support of family, caregivers, community supports, medical professionals," he said.

"But they don't have that in the correctional system. Especially in this province."

Decision day

At the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador, no one is arguing that Graham Veitch is guilty of second degree murder, but the decision is Justice Sandra Chaytor's to make.

During closing submissions, Chaytor described the evidence as "not contentious" and thanked the two sides for their collaborative, sensitive approach.

If Graham Veitch is found not criminally responsible by reason of mental disorder, it does not mean he will walk free. He will almost certainly be transferred to the Waterford Hospital to be held indefinitely, until a review board deems him fit to be released.

Whatever happens, Ricciardelli said, it is unlikely that Veitch will be the last person with schizophrenia to be held in jail before a trial.

"In order to change our system," she began, "we have to start by changing the attitudes individuals have towards the people who are incarcerated and be willing to invest in all persons in our society."

[atlanticcanada]

Busy court docket for 2019

It is shaping up to be a busy year in Supreme Court with at least five murder trials already on the book.

Allan Potter (left),53 and Daniel Leonard (right), 35, were charged with second degree murder in September 2016 (Photo: NTV)

In February the trial of Al Potter is expected to get begin. He is one of two men accused of first degree murder in the 2014 death of Dale Porter. Both men will be tried separately. Dale Porter was found dead on his property in North River in June 2014. The 39-year-old was reportedly stabbed to death, but few details have been released since his death. Two members of the  Vikings Motorcycle Club, Daniel Leonard and Potter, were arrested and charged with first degree murder. The two originally planned to go to trial together in 2019 but will now be tried separately. Potter will go to trial by judge and jury on Feb. 4. His co-accused, Daniel Leonard, will go to trial Sept. 10.

Trent Butt has been in custody since his arrest in April 2016 (Photo: NTV)

In March, the first-degree murder trial for Trent Butt is scheduled to take plea, after having had been postponed earlier this year at the last minute. Butt, 39, is charged with murder and arson in the death of Quinn Butt, whose body was located inside Butt’s burning Carbonear home in April of 2016. Butt and the child’s mother were estranged at the time.

In June, Craig Pope is scheduled to go on trial in connection with the stabbing death of David Collins last year. Pope, 32, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder. Collins died after an altercation on Alderberry Lane in the west end of St. John’s in September of 2017. He was found bleeding in the street and was taken to hospital where he later died of his injuries. Pope was released from Her Majesty’s Penitentiary just two weeks before he was charged. Pope remains in custody after being denied bail.

Graham Veitch, 19, is accused of murdering his mother’s partnet, David Collins (Photo: NTV)

Accused murderer Graham Veitch is expected to go to trial in March after pleading not guilty to first-degree murder, assault causing bodily harm, unlawfully assaulting a peace officer with a weapon, failing to stop a vehicle and theft of a vehicle. Six weeks have been set aside for the trial. The 20-year-old is believed to have been responsible for the bludgeoning death of 55-year-old David Collins in December of 2016. Collins was the partner of Veitch’s mother and they lived together in Logy Bay-Middle Cove-Outer Cove. Police and paramedics were called to the home to find Collins gravely injured. He was taken to hospital and later died of his injuries. Veitch is reported to have fled the scene in the victim’s car, only to be arrested about four hours later. He reportedly attempted to escape and rammed the vehicle into a police cruiser, then struck another one.

Meanwhile, the man accused of killing Victoria Head in November of last year won’t stand trial until January 2020, more than 26 months after her body was found in a field alongside a dirt road in St. John’s. There were earlier trial dates available, but the lawyers weren’t available. Steve Bragg was listed as a missing person the night after Victoria Head was killed. He’s since been charged with first-degree murder in her death. Bragg is accused of killing Head, 36, on Remembrance Day in 2017. Her body was found near the historic O’Brien Farm property off Mount Scio Road.

It is expected to be 2020 before a 36-year-old C.B.S man accused of killing his brother will go to trial. Butler has elected to go to trial by judge and jury in Supreme Court. Philip Butler was charged with second degree murder after he allegedly killed his brother, George Allan Butler on May 21. It happened on Comerford’s Road. Butler is due back in court in January for a preliminary inquiry.

from ntv.ca http://bit.ly/2s2sf5E

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“JUDGE DECLARES POLICE CONDUCT PROVOKED MEN,” Kingston Whig-Standard. October 27, 1932. Page 1. ---- Acquits Six on Charges Unlawful Assembly, Riot, and Assault ---- SCORES PENAL SYSTEM ---- WINNIPEG, Oct. 27 - Judge L. St. G. Stubbs, in County Court yesterday, delivered a verdict acquitting six men of charges of unlawful assembly, riot and aggravated assault. They are: Samuel Barber, Steve Horbul, James Spinvolov, James Collin, Jared Liddle, and David Rousen.

 The Judge said that although all six were acquitted "five of them could no doubt - on strict technical construction of the law be considered guilty: but in the circumstances of this case, in view of the arbitrary and provocative conduct of the police, and the fact that as much wrongdoing has been established on their part as on that of the accused, I feel that justice does not require strict technical construction of the law and that they ought not to be declared guilty and branded as criminals tor the rest of their lives." 

Honorable Acquittal Judge Stubbs placed David Rousen in a different category from the other five, wholly exonerating him from any complicity in the offenses with which he was charged and according him an honorable acquittal and discharge because of evidence that established that Rousen had not been near the Wellwood Box Factory in Elmwood when police clashed with strike sympathisers and arrested the other five men. 

Regarding the other five, the Judge said: "Even if they were found guilty and sentence suspended, they would have a conviction recorded against them, to follow them to the ends of the earth if they were sent to a penal institution. Being working men they would receive no ‘preferred Class' or preferential penitentiary treatment but would feel the full rigor and severity of our antiquated barbarous and unscientific penal system. 

“I do not believe the accused were actuated by any criminal intentions in what they did and honestly feel the ends of true Justice will be best served by acquitting them. I therefore find them not guilty and discharge them from custody," he said.

[AL: Stubbs is a notorious and fascinating character, a ‘Red’ on the bench who alone among judges sided consistently with workers and accused against the police and state.]

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“TWO BROKERS ARE NOW FREE,” Kingston Whig-Standard. June 9, 1932. Page 1. --- Shutt and Hepplestone Released From Collins Bay Penitentiary ----- TORONTO June 9 — W. T. A. Shutt and James Hepplestone, members of the former brokerage firm of W. A. Moysey and Company here, are no longer in custody at Collins Bay penitentiary, according to the Financial Post.

Shutt and Hepplestone were sentenced to two and a half years and three years  respectively in penitentiary in October 1930, when they pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charges brought against a number of prominent brokers at that time. They were the only brokers who did not fight the case through the courts and had thus served four or five months when the others lost their appeals. 

Release of the men was discovered by litigants who are suing the Moysev Company, Shutt and Hepplestone in the civil courts and were anxious to have them produced to give evidence. They applied to prison authorities, who are said to have announced the release.

OFFICIAL CONFIRMATION OTTAWA, June 9 — Official confirmation was made here today of the report that W. T. A. Shutt and James Hepplestone, members of the former brokerage firm of W. A. Moysey and Company, have been released from penitentiary.

The two brokers had served more than half their terms of incarceration. An application for clemency was made and granted. The official practice is not to make any statement on the release of men who are released from custody following the serving of time in custody.

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“Star’s artist’s sketch giving a graphic study of the daily routine of prisoners in the new preferred penitentiary at Collin’s Bay, where ex-brokers and convicted armed robbers rub shoulders in their daily work, more after the plan of a construction camp than a penitentiary. The warden says that no really ‘tough eggs’ are among the inmates of the new ‘prison without walls.’”

- from the Toronto Star. June 7, 1931. Scrapbook page.  Beautiful line drawing and aerial sketch showing the early years of what is now Collins Bay Penitentiary in Kingston, Ontario, stressing the novel aspects, unknown in other federal prisons at the time, of this ‘prison without walls’ as it is dubbed. Notably, the Star shows the dormitory inside, where “each man has a window, bed, chair, and a table” and the congregate dining hall, unique to this prison, where “each inmate takes his turn as a waiter, serving his fellow inmates. Every man gets a diner tray holding different food in each compartment.” Most of the work was done by prisoners in the piggery, quarry, dairy, laundry, carpentry and machine shops, and construction, with only three mounted officers carrying firearms outside the perimeter. Most inmates were selected from nearby Kingston Penitentiary for being of the ‘preferred class’: first time prisoners, teenage prisoners, men with long good conduct records, and ‘accidental’ criminals like white collar types including the imprisoned stock brokers mentioned in the story. Some day I’ll write a better piece about this new prison, the complexities and moral panics of penal reform, the birth of modern ideas of rehabilitation, and the scandal around it that erupted after this story came out.

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“THE PEOPLE ARE ENTITLED TO KNOW,” Winnipeg Tribune. November 5, 1932. Page 13. ---- More rioting in Canadian penitentiaries, grave and determined in manner, makes imperative the Inquiry urged upon the government when the riots occurred at Portsmouth Inquiry was refused then, Mr. Guthrie taking the ground that it was merely a departmental matter and to be handled as such. Inquiry will not be refused now, if Mr. Guthrie has a spark of political wisdom. 

The people of the Dominion are entitled to know what is happening and the reason for it, and they will not be content to take the word of a department official for either. Friday's outbreak at St. Vincent de Paul penitentiary was clearly, from the scattering and unsatisfactory reports available outside. the walls, a determined mutiny. Either there is there, as there was at Portsmouth, obvious weakness in the administration of the institution or there were real grievances cherished by the convicts. There is something wrong when unarmed men will revolt in the fare of armed authority - and no vague references to Communistic agitators or anything of the kind will take the mind of the Canadian people off that fact.

Until the recent outbreak at Kingston rioting has been practically unknown in Canadian penitentiaries. There have been references to an alleged outbreak at Stony Mountain last year, but that of course was not a riot in any sense of the word-simply an individual attack by two convicts on a guard in which the convicts as a body took no part. The first rioting was at Kingston, and it did a great deal to destroy the confidence of the people in their penal institutions. When it in so quickly followed by a mutiny in another penitentiary there is natural alarm.

Mr. Guthrie is proceeding as if it were merely a case of disciplining some penitentiary guard or minor official. He does not seem to understand that the criticism the people are formulating in their minds, and which they are by no means backward in expressing a directed against the department itself. It may be unjust criticism, but it will remain in their minds and it will grow in volume unless there is a full public inquiry clearing the administration of the penitentiaries of responsibility for the conditions which led to these three serious outbreaks of violence and mutiny. Such an enquiry was held in England a year or two ago into conditions in Dartmoor prison, following a somewhat similar out break there. There is excellent precedent for it, and there is assuredly every reason back of the demand. Something is wrong. It may be the preferred treatment accorded prison are at Collins Bay, as Eastern newspapers and some public men have strongly urged. It may be a lack of firmness in the departmental administration. It may be that unsuitable and unqualified men have been appointed to wardenships. 

Whatever it is, more than a departmental inquiry will be required to satisfy the minds of the public. They are entitled to knew, and if Mr. Guthrie again refuses their reasonable request he will court the penalty that follows a defiance of strong public opinion.

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"Penitentiary Inmates Give Blood," Kingston Whig-Standard. June 9, 1943. Page 2. ---- The work of the Kingston Blood Donor Clinic has expanded to receive donations from inmates of the three penitentiaries in this vicinity, who have volunteered.

Over 400 inmates in the Kingston Penitentiary have volunteered to donate their blood to Canada's war effort. The local clinic staff visits the penitentiary weekly with its own staff and does approximately 60 volunteers at each clinic held.

One clinic has been held in the Women's Penitentiary where all the volunteers were handled.

At the Collins Bay Penitentiary, weekly clinics will be held until all the volunteers have donated their blood. Sixty-five per cent of the population at this penitentiary have volunteered. About 40 donors are taken at each clinic.

After the ground work had been accomplished through the local Red Cross Society, for the travelling clinic to visit the penitentiaries, the actual clinics began three weeks ago, and the same procedure is used at the penitentiaries as at the local clinic.

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"Privileged Visitors of Penitentiary Named," Kingston Whig-Standard. August 29, 1933. Page 2. ---- All Members of Parliament, Legislature, Senate and Judges Make Up the Number 500 --- Some surprise was expressed by citizens on Monday at the statement in General Ormond's report on Kingston Penitentiary, that there are over 500 privileged visitors to the Kingston Penitentiary.

Enquiry, as to how the number is arrived at elicits the information that every member of the Parliament of Canada, every member of the Senate of Canada, every member of the Ontario Legislature, every member of the Supreme Court of Canada, every member of the Supreme Court of Ontario and every Ontario county judge is a privileged visitor to the Kingston Penitentiary and Collins Bay Penitentiary.

General Ormond's contention is that if these visitors would take their duties seriously and visit the institutions the general public would be convinced that Kingston Penitentiary is being conducted humanely as possible.

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"Convict Broke Leg At Collins Bay Pen," Kingston Whig-Standard. June 1, 1933. Page 3. --- Warden Not Able to Give Any Particulars of Mishap ---- One of the convicts at the Collins Bay Penitentiary suffered a fractured leg in an accident at the penitentiary on Wednesday. A representative of The Whig-Standard asked Warden R. M. Allen for particulars regarding the accident, but the Warden stated that under the regulations of the Dept. of Justice he could not give out any information. Any details would have to come direcct from the Department. at Ottawa. This regulation has been in effect for half a century but has not always been strictly enforced.

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"Collins Bay Guards Will Wear Khaki," Kingston Whig-Standard. April 27, 1933. Page 3. --- With the next issuance of supply, the uniforms of guards at Collins Bay Penitentiary will be changed from the present blue uniform to khaki, the same as worn by the guards at Kingston Penitentiary, according to information given The Whig-Standard by Dr. A. E. Ross, M.P. Asked when the change would be made, Dr. Ross said he expected that the present uniforms would be worn as long as they are serviceable. and replaced as they wear out, by the new khaki uniform. "It is a wise decision on the part of the department," said Dr. Ross. "It will tend to avoid confusion, and put all on the same basis in respect to uniform.”

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“Le système Borstal appliqué au Canada,” La Patrie. July 23, 1938. Page 45. ---- Le problème des jeunes détenus dans les prisons et les pénitenciers du Canada est à l'étude depuis nombre d'années. On a toujours cherché un moyen de séparer les jeunes criminels des plus âgés et des endurcis.

A cet effet, depuis quelques années, le gouvernement fédéral a chargé certains de ses fonctionarires d'étudier tout particulièrement le système Borstal établi en Angleterre. 

Le lieutenant-colonel P-A. Piuze, commissaire de la Sureté provinciale, naguère prefet du penitencier de Saint-Vincent de Paul, fut l'un de ceux qui étudièrent la question en Europe. 

Le colonel Piuze, à son retour, soumit aux autorités un long rapport de nombreuses recommendations.

A mon humble avis, écrit-il, le système Borutal, avec certaines modifications, est le mieux adapté à notre pays. Toutefois it serait impossible, actuellement du moins de l'adopter immediatement en raison den conditions territoriales et aussi de l'insuffisance des locaux.

Solution provisoire "Pour le présent, j’estime que la meilleure solution serait de hater in construction des bâtiments Laval à Saint-Vincent de l'aul et ceux de Collin's Hay, à Kingston (Ontario), où les jeunes délinquants pourraient être logés. Le pavillon Laval recevrait les jeunes du Québec et des provinces maritimes, et celui de Collin's Bay, ceux de l'Ontario et des provinces de l'Ouest.

"En attendant que les deux établissements mentionnés solent prêts, une certaine ségrégation pourrait être opérée dans nos penitenciers, mais seulement à titre provisoire. Même alors, il y aura toujours l'ambiance, et peut-être contact avec les autres. 

"Je ne suis pas en faveur des dortoirs communs pour les jeunes détenus comme en ont la plupart des établissements Borstal. Les chambres individuelles sont bien preferables.

"Je ne recommanderais pas non plus trop de récréations, et une discipline bien équilibrée devrait être maintenue. Je ne suis pas non plus porté à recommander qu'on accor e aux jeunes delinquants plus de privileges que n'en obtiennent à l'extérieur les jeunes gens honnêtes."

Les institutions Borstal sont des institutions d'Etat dirigées par des commissaires de prison qui font partie d'un service du Home Office.

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“‘Sparing the Rod’ Spoiling Younger Folk. Says Hughes,” Ottawa Citizen. February 21, 1933. Page 2. ---- Young Men Committing Most of Present-day Crimes, Says Former Supt. of Penitentiaries. --- (Canadian Press) PETERBORO, Ont.. Feb. 20.  Lack of parental control, and sparing the rod ,was spoiling the present generation, Brig.-General St. Pierre Hughes, former superintendent of penitentiaries, declared in an address here tonight.

Most of the present-day crimes, he said. were being committed by young men between the ages of 18 and 25 while 47 per cent of the prisoners in British Columbia were young men convicted of murder, manslaughter, or armed robbery.

General Hughes stated that while it was not possible to prevent minor unrest among the inmates of the prisons, it was possible to prevent rioting. It was simply a matter of being on the job.

Possibility of serious outbreaks of fire as has been suggested by certain newspapers was ridiculous. Cells were entirely constructed of concrete, the beds were of steel. The only inflammable material was to be found in the bed clothes.

Contrary to popular belief, talking was allowed among prisoners except between the hours of nine at night and dawn. There were no dark cells and no dungeons. Regarding the preferred class prison at Collins Bay, General Hughes stated that 20 or 30 years ago he had advocated that the roughneck be segregated from the better class of prisoners. He had seen "brokers' working just the same as the other prisoners, up to their necks in trenches with pick and shovel.

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“Two Guards Hurt By an Explosion,” Kingston Whig-Standard. February 17, 1933. Page 5. ---- Were Blasting at Collins Bay Penitentiary Reserve on Thursday ---- Guards Silas Ash and G. Child of the Collin Bay Penitentiary were painfully injured in a premature explosion of blasting powder in the quarry of the institution yesterday afternoon. 

The two guards were the only men injured and medical assistance was immediately summoned Dr. S. E. Porter attending the injured men. They were removed to the Kingston General Hospital where it was found that their injuries, while painful, were not serious.

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“E. R. Jackson Gives Opinion of Report On the Penitentiary,” Kingston Whig-Standard. February 8, 1933. Page 1. ---- OTTAWA, Feb. 8 — “Gen. D. M. Ormond (Superintendent of Penitentiaries) is, like anyone else, entitled to his own opinion, but anyone reading his report with knowledge of prison work will not pay much attention to it.” 

So stated E. R. Jackson, retired last month as Inspector of the Penitentiaries Branch, when speaking today of the report of Gen. Ormond tabled in the House of Commons on Monday by Hon. Hugh Guthrie, Minister of Justice. The report dealt with the riots last fall at Kingston Penitentiary. 

“It is a known fact," Mr. Jackson said “with men acquainted with prison work, that if you start giving favors or granting exceptional requests to inmates they will be nice inmates and obey the regulations, so long as you can hand out the favors.

"The prisons of this country are second to none. Proof of the pudding is that under Gen. St. Pierre Hughes (former Superintendent of Penitentiaries) the prisoners are kept quiet, irrespective of what Gen. Ormond who has been in office since August 1 only, may say the proof is there. 

At the time Gen. Ormond made his report. he had only visited three prisons (Kingston. St. Vincent de Paul, Que., and Dorchester, N.B.) and there has been a riot in everyone of these prisons." 

Jackson was retired on January 14 last. He was formerly connected with the Collins Bay prison near Kingston and was returned to Ottawa headquarters a year before.

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“Penitentiary Staff Changes Result of Riot Investigation,” Ottawa Citizen. January 18, 1933. Page 3. --- But Minister of Justice Declines to Make Any Statement on Latest Retirements ---- The changes made at Kingston penitentiary by the retirement of inspectors, some guards and others on the staff, are clearly the consequences of the inquiry which was held into the riots last November. The minister of justice declined today to make any statement on the subject, saying ‘I have given no information and have none to give.’

At the inquiry, evidence of each convict was taken and, a couple of weeks ago, following a report by the superintendent of penitentiaries, the rules were extensively revised. They apply, of course, to all institutions.

It is understood that the inquired revealed conditions which did not reflect favorably upon some of the officers of various grades and the charges which have been made are designed to bring about a thorough reorganization in the interest of efficiency.

Talk is heard of likely changes, not in the method of appointing guards by the Civil Service Commission, at least in providing that they shall undergo a period of training before being confirmed in their appointments. That is the English system.

On Full Superannuation Gilbert Smith, retired on superannuation by the Department of Justice as an inspector of penitentiaries, had no comment to make for publication this morning on retirement, which took effect Saturday with six months’ retiring leave.

"I'm through with the department and they are through me," Mr. Smith remarked. "I am being retired on full superannuation after 37 year, with the department in various capacities.’

Mr. Smith, who is 54 years of age, and who was acting warden of Portsmouth penitentiary at Kingston when the first riots occured there on Oct. 17 last, said he had nothing to say about the new regulations recently announced by the Justice Department in allowing greater freedom to prisoners confined in Canadian penal Institutions. He said that for two and one-half hours he was held captive by some prisoners in one of prison outbuildings during the riot and that his life was threatened.

E. R. Jackson, who also has retired by the department on superannuation. could not be reached for any comment to the press. Jackson only joined the department in the capacity of penitentiaries’ inspector in 1924, under Brig.-General St. Pierre Hughes, superintendent of penitentiaries. 

H. C. Fatt is the only one of three former penitentiary inspectors remaining in the department under Brig -General D. M Ormond, the new superintendent of penitentiaries. The other day an item appeared in the press from Kingston that W. H. Craig of that city had been appointed an inspector. 

Inquiry this morning elicited information that Mr. Craig’s appointment as an inspector is only temporary, since the Civil Service Commission has not yet been asked by the Justice Department to advertise and hold an animation for the two vacancies of penitentiary inspector. This probably be done almost at once.

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