#royal commision to investigate the penal system of canada

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

“KINGSTON PENITENTIARY SECRETS UNFOLDED BY RECENT INMATE,” Hush. July 13, 1942. Page 6 & 13. ---- Amazing Disclosures By Ex-Convict Told To Hush ---- From behind the stone walls of Kingston Penitentiary - those grim stone walls which hide more of hell on earth than could be found anywhere outside the battlefields of Europe, Asia and Africa - comes to HUSH from a one-time prisoner, an authentic, first hand glimpse of some things that go on within. This informant is no grouch, no enemy of society with an axe to grind. On the contrary he is a man of considerable intelligence who made a mistake, paid the penalty in part, went through mental tortures which no one could wish upon the damned, and is concerned now only with turning on the light a little on dark corners and making life a little safer for those, even the worst of them, who remain.

Kingston Penitentiary! A place where men and women who have sinned against society go to be made ever into something better; where they are interviewed by a kindly warden, segregated into classes - the bad and the less bad, taught useful trades and occupations according to their own choice, fed and exercised to keep up their physical strength, preached at regularly to maintain their spiritual morale, all of it under strict discipline, of course, to teach them the meaning of control, then ultimately released, chastened and made wiser, to become useful citizens of the world. That, in part, is the public and judicial conception of this Institution. It is looked on more as a place of correction, a place where penitents repent, than house of punishment.

Kingston Penitentiary, A grim, closed in concentration camp equal to anything ever devised by a dictator - a mental and moral lazaretto, where human beings are herded and goaded like cattle into a compound, forbidden every normal exercise of civilized life, subjected to the whims of brutal guards, punished, starved, for infractions of rules - yes, even for speaking to each other or for what might be interpreted as a dirty look, kept always on minimum rations, taught nothing really useful, and ground down into a state of sullen desperation which seeks only one or both of two things - freedom and vengeance. That to Kingston Penitentiary as it is. Anyone not rotten, corrupted and criminal beyond hope before going in, becomes so before, getting out: and the process by which that is achieved would be a black and incredible page in Canadian history if and when it were told in all its horrible details.

Said HUSH informant in words which were taken down almost verbatim:

"Publish this, and demand that prisoners be given humane treatment. Many of the convicts there are ex-soldiers who fought for their country. Others have fathers and brothers fighting now, and are themselves willing to give their lives for their country at any time. Don't fall to publish this. You may save a lot of lives.

"That place in much worse than any German concentration camp. We were compelled to work under a rifle in each shop. There is a built-in gun cage occupied by an armed guard. Each cell has a peek hole through which the guards repeatedly spy on the men inside. Men are reported for the pettiest offences, and given severe penalties; 21 days in the hole without a meal is commonplace for the most trivial reports. It is a house of hate, and men live for only one purpose: revenge. Men enter the gate normal human beings, and leave as creatures, and brutal. 

"After the riot there in 1932, much money was spent on a Royal Commission to investigate. Nothing has been done. Kingston penitentiary is a real hell-hole where men are permitted no entertainment, only persecution and punishment at the hands of ignorant, brutal guards. The food is unwholesome and meagre; $25,000 was cut off the prisoners’ food allowance.” 

That and more HUSH was told - some of it too horrible even to be believed; It was told in language which indicated a more than average brain and an unusual degree of sensibility, substantiating the account in part, HUSH was shown a recent "News Bulletin" issued within the penitentiary for the "edification" of convicts. It contained about five war items condensed. Most interesting of all was the following paragraph:

“It has been brought to the attention of the Warden that the convict population is being circularized with the intention that letters to relatives this month contain the request to have the Minister of Justice petitioned widely, imploring him to give time off to the convicts in the various prisons in commemoration of the 75th anniversary of Confederation this year, Letters containing such reference will not pass censorship, and it is considered that any effort on the part of the convicts to "stampede” the Minister in this or any other policy would not be favorably looked upon by the department. The circularization must cease, and any convict hereafter found in possession of copies of the circular or furthering the movement will be subject to disciplinary action.”

So, apparently there had been a little official conflab behind the scenes; and the Minister of Justice doesn't want to be bothered by people exercising their democratic right, and any luckless prisoner who dares to seek mitigation of his sentence will be ground in the mill without mercy!

A penitentiary, reformatory, all, or any other official place of punishment, is a very necessary part of this civilization of ours; and there are men in all such places who, by their crimes, forfeited all claims to pity. There are cow.... who, like Red ....be deemed fit....to dump...mass like...potatoes...mentality...fuse the democratic....ed to me...survival....immunological...punishable...boys were...offences no great ....being a summons to court.

Thinking back over the...civilization, we of the... ...are horrified to find that it has been until comparatively recent years, a history of barbarism and bestiality In many directions which would put some so-called savage races to shame .We profess Christian enlightenment: savages can claim some excuse on grounds of ignorance. And sometimes we wonder if the progress we have made in dealing with law-breakers is not only a bit of camouflage and veneer hiding instincts which found expression Iin the "Hanging Judge” Jeffreys. 

If civilization, Christian enlightenment and British democracy mean anything more than a surface covering for human tendecnies which have their roots in the jungles; they mean conservation of human bodies and souls, they mean the seeing to it that every man, woman and child adequately fed, clothed, sheltered and given an opportunity to find expression in whatever kind and degree of usefulness and productiveness, mental and physical, of which the individual in capable. Yet even when they are at liberty, hundreds of thousands of them are compelled to go hungry, naked and homeless; and when they run foul of the laws of the land - often driven to it by her desperation our penal system dedicates itself to crushing them instead of trying to rebuild their broken lives. Out of that hell bole at Kingston have come worse criminals than ever went into it - men driven to rebellion and revenge by the brutalities experienced.

Democratic governments are noted for their indifference to evil right under their noses. Indeed, unless there are votes in the offing, they are masters of blindness and cover up in matters of Individual sufferings and general human needs. If the federal government had no knowledge of something rotten in Canadian penal institutions, why did it appoint that Royal Commission? Having appointed it, why did it not take some action on the report turned in? Look at the direct relief and the unemployment situation of the past ten years, and you have the answer.

HUSH presents the story as I was received. No daily newspaper in Canada would touch such a thing. HUSH, in the public Interest, tells it to the world and holds it squarely up before the face of Ottawa in the hope that it will bring some sort of action to remove a blot from Canadian political history.

[AL: A Canadian tabloid publishes first hand testimony from an ex-convict - though some of the arguments are dated, the criticism of both of the informant and the newspaper is remarkable for the period or even today. I don’t know who the writer was, however, but his account of conditions is not inaccurate for the period....]

#tabloid #kingston penitentiary #ex-convict #words from the inside #prisoner autobiograpy #prison discipline #prison conditions #dominion penitentiaries #penal reform #royal commision to investigate the penal system of canada #royal commission #canada during world war 2 #crime and punishment in canada #history of crime and punishment in canada

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“Will Petition For Royal Commission On Kingston 'Pens',” Kingston Whig-Standard, May 5, 1933. Page 2. ---- Mrs. Sam Cohen, Mrs. Tim Buck and other members of the Labor Defence League, were in Kingston yesterday to visit Sam Cohen and Tim Buck, who are prisoners at Kingston Penitentiary. They left this city for Ottawa with the avowed purpose of waiting on the Hon. Maurice Dupré, Solicitor-General, and petitioning that the trials of Kingston Penitentiary convicts on charges of rioting be suspended until a royal commission investigates the whole penitentiary situation at Kingston. Mrs. Buck and Mrs. Cohen declared that the evidence brought out in the trials of George Bailey and Murray Kirkland is sufficient to warrant the Government in appointing a royal commission.

#kingston penitentiary #kingston ontario #canadian labor defence league #royal commission #royal commision to investigate the penal system of canada #communists #communist party of canada #1932 kp riot #1933 prisoner trials #political prisoners #prison riot #causes of prison riots #crime and punishment in canada #history of crime and punishment in canada #great depression in canada

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"Harshness Does Not Pay," Toronto Star. July 20, 1943. Page 6. ---- The discussions at the convention of the Police Constables Association of Canada call to mind the reports of the various penal commissions that were appointed in the past twenty years. The most recent was the Archambault commission in 1932. In its 418-page report it detailed how Canadian prisons subjected the inmates to the utmost severity mingled with cruelty, that practically no "sob sister sentimentality" was being shown them, and that the rate of repeaters in Canada was nevertheless the highest among civilized countries. At the time of the commission's investigations there were in the Dominion's institutions 181 prisoners who had been convicted 3,434 times, at a cost to the taxpayers of nearly $5,000,000.

Successive royal commissions on prison conditions in Canada have assembled collections of deplorable facts. Most of them were found unchanged by each commission. With continuous repetition, the commissions have recommended: reform of prison routine, occupational and vocational guidance for prisoners, the abolition of cruel severity, the reform of the parole system, the establishment of a "Canadian Alcatraz," that is, a special institution for habitual offenders, with suitable treatment; the segregation of youths from older prisoners and the segregation also of the criminal insane and drug addicts, with proper treatment for these unfortunates.

The commissions have also sharply criticized the antiquated buildings, the inadequate heating, diets for the prisoners, the lack of adequate workshops and employment system, the lack of trained personnel, the lack of physical exercise for prisoners and the "gruesome and humiliating restrictions" on the prisoners. They have called for more juvenile courts. for adequate court facilities and modernization of the laws, and for the appointment of qualified probation officers and the establishment of Borstal institutions for youthful offenders.

These recommendations have practically all been ignored. The only time that reforms were made, slight ones, was when prisoners have rioted. Riots are more expensive to the taxpayers than sensible and humane prisons.

The chief lesson to be learned from the pile of commission reports is that harsh treatment of lawbreakers does not pay. Canadian prison authorities have ignored recommendations to modernize our institutions. And the repeater rate in Canada was found by the most recent commission to be the highest of any country in the world, and the rate is going up. The commission found that the number of thrice-convicted offenders for indictable offences had quintupled in a decade. In the year 1936-7, 72 per cent. of the inmates in Dominion penitentiaries were repeaters. Seventy-seven per cent. of the prisoners went to prison before they were 23 years of age. Seventeen per cent. were drug addicts. The criminal insane in Canada had increased over 50 per cent, in 1937 over the year 1936, and there was no policy for their treatment.

All royal commissions have stressed the costliness of this antiquated prison system. The Archambault commission estimated that it cost taxpayers $744.60 a year - more than $2 a day - to keep an adult offender in prison. This is a large sum to spend for treatment that experts have shown to be largely inadequate.

#tough on crime #chief of police #chief constables' association of canada #reactionary reform #toronto #editorial #penal reform #royal commision to investigate the penal system of canada #prison riots #causes of prison riots #criminal statistics #failure of rehabilitation #utopia of classification #dominion penitentiaries #canada during world war 2 #crime and punishment in canada #history of crime and punishment in canada

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

“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.

#montreal #la sûreté #penal reform #borstal system #juvenile detention #young convicts #young offenders #classification and segregation #collins bay penitentiary #kingston penitentiary #st vincent de paul penitentiary #federal training centre #p. a. piuze #dominion penitentiaries #royal commision to investigate the penal system of canada #crime and punishment in canada #history of crime and punishment in canada

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

“What of the Penitentiary Report?” Ottawa Citizen. December 27, 1939. Page 10. ---- Unrest again "seethes" in Vincent de Paul penitentiary according to a Montreal newspaper, the Standard. It says the inmates are smarting under grievances that have arisen since the Royal Commission on the Penal System was appointed, and goes on to suggest that the report of the commission. might be acted upon.

Little has been heard of the Archambault report in recent months. The government is occupied with more important things just now, of course, but if it has decided to shelve all the recommendations contained in the report until the end of the war it reveals a lack of appreciation of the urgency of the situation.

It more riots break out in the near future there will be the usual complacent demands in a section of the newspaper press for sterner discipline and condign punishment for the ringleaders. But that will not affect the established fact that the riots will be the outcome of defects in the Canadian penal system. Just as the riots which gave rise to the royal commission were.

There have been reports of "unrest" in other penitentiaries besides St. Vincent de Paul. They have been attributed to notorious and degraded criminals who agitate among their more innocent fellows. Again it needs to be said that, even so, the unrest has its roots deeper than the cunning of case-hardened convicts. But the wall of silence about penitentiary affairs appears to have grown up again and there is no knowing what is happening - if anything.

The British government has inaugurated radical prison reforms since the Archamhault report was issued. Canada ought at least to carry out some of the recommendations made by the commission, war or no war. Even if the idea of a prison commission is rejected until after the war (although less needful projects have been sanctioned) there is no reason why such measures as the reorganization of the headquarters administration, the reconstruction of the pentantary personnel and the establishment of a training school for penitentiary officers  would not be put into effect.

“Démenti formel” Le Droit (Ottawa). December 23, 1939 ---- L’hou. Ernest Lapointe, ministre de la justice, vient d'opposer dementi formel aux ru meur de nouveau troubles parmi les bagnards du pénitentier Saint-Vincent-de-Paul, pris de Montréal. En effet, ersqu'on a soumis à l'attention du ministre de la Justice cent article de journal à ce sujet M. Lapointe a déclaré que la regrettable publicité résultant d'u tel article n'avait aucun fonde. “La situation à Vincent-de-Paul est normale et paisble", precisa-t-il. "Il est deplorable, surtout à l’heure atuelle, qu'on fasse et publie de sembables rapportes.”

#montreal #laval #ottawa #st vincent de paul penitentiary #prisoner protest #prisoner unrest #prison strike #convict revolt #prisoner demands #royal commission #royal commision to investigate the penal system of canada #archambaul report #ernest lapointe #canada during world war 2 #crime and punishment in canada #history of crime and punishment in canada #penal reform

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“PRISON REFORM ON LARGE SCALE TO BE URGED,” Ottawa Journal. September 7, 1937. Page 12.  ---- Royal Commission Carries Inquiry Into Seven Countries - Hear Evidence of 1,700 Inmates. --- Drastic reform of the administration of Canada's penitentiaries will be recommended by the Royal Commission headed by Mr. Justice Archambault which will resume its inquiry shortly after investigating the penal systems of Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Holland and  Germany. 

The Archambault commission will hold public hearings in Ottawa next month and pay visit to some penitentiaries in the Eastern United States. 

Feature of Next Session. The report of the commission may provide some of the major debates of the next Parliamentary session. In addition, reports from Royal Commissions on wheat and the textile industry will be features of the next session.

Before the penitentiaries report is considered, however, the commission will take up the question of the parole system over which there has been much complaint Recommendations to correct abuses will be urged. 

Segregation of young offenders along the style of the Borstal system in the United Kingdom will be recommended by the commission which delved deeply into this subject in England. The young criminals were sorted according to their crimes, the milder being placed together and all given the opportunity of learning a useful trade. 

Less Crime la England. The commission found the penitentiary population in England on the down-grade and the penal institutions well administered. The chief criticism appeared to be that the criminals were housed In buildings far from modern.

The views of the inmates of Canada's penitentiaries were presented to the commission in private and without the presence of penitentiary officers. No fewer than 1,700 men and women prisoners advanced their views of prison reform. Complaints of the inmates and every phase of penitentiary life was presented.

While the commission will not conclude its work for months, it is believed that one recommendation it will make has to do with the condition of buildings. For Instance, it is well known that Kingston penitentiary is an old building and its lay-out provides difficulties in the way of administration.

For Young Offenders. The prediction is made that as a result of the far-reaching investigation being carried on that a new institution may be erected for young offenders and that changes may be made to existing penitentiaries.

#royal commission #penal reform #archambault report #dominion penitentiaries #prison conditions #classification and segregation #utopia of classification #youth detention #words from the inside #english prisons #prison administration #royal commision to investigate the penal system of canada #great depression in canada #history of crime and punishment in canada #crime and punishment in canada

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“Relate Brutal Actions Of Penitentiary Guards,” Ottawa Citizen. February 11, 1937. Page 20. ---- Canadian Press TORONTO, Feb. 10 - Mr. Justice Archambault, chairman of a royal commission Investigating Canada's penal system, agreed today after hearing stories of brutality at Kingston penitentiary that a 'training school for prison officers' should be established. 

The Montreal jurist heard Alfred Crossley, who said he was the first teacher at the Kingston prison, tell of seeing a convict pulled from his cell by a guard who "kicked him like a football" from one building into another. The prisoner’s head was bashed three times against a wall, he said.

Cursed By Guard. Rev. A. E. Smith, representing the Canadian Labor Defence League, had previously told the royal commissioners that a Communist prisoner, who asked to be chanced from a corner cell without light or fresh air because he was ill, was cursed by a guard. 

'It is not a crime to be a Communist," remarked Mr. Justice Archambault, "There must be training school for all officers in penitentiaries. Men are placed in these positions who are quite unfit to handle men or to make decisions." 

The commissioner's comment was echoed by George Hoadley, former minister of health for Alberta, who said he opposed the political nature of appointments to penitentiaries unless training and ability were taken into consideration.

"Importance of careful selection and training of personnel for penitentiary connections cannot be over-emphasized," he said.

The former minister said the parole system was beneficial only to the degree that it was used and organized safely. 

When System Falls. 'If men who get into penitentiaries are turned loose without having been reformed, our system Is a failure," he said. "We must contemplate that seriously." He recommended that the present commission, augmented by a psychiatrist or educator, be made permanent. 

Crossley, who said some of his convict-students passed entrance examinations, told the commission that prisoners attending school classes had to miss the mid-day meal. Classes were held at the noon hour, he said. 

Desire of prisoners for education was demonstrated in the popularity of correspondence courses he instituted, Crossley said, telling of prisoners who worked until three o'clock in the morning answering examination papers. The teacher was employed at Kingston from 1921 to 1927. 

Head Bashed Against Wall. ‘I saw a. guard unmercifully kick a prisoners all the way to solitary, pick him up by the scruff of the neck and pants seat, bash his head against the wall and throw him into the cell," Crossley related. "This was "all because the prisoner said something about the guard." 

Warden J. C. Ponsford, in charge of the prison at that time, "dismissed the matter offhandedly," Crossley said. 

Suggestion by Rev. A. E. Smith and Mrs. Jean Laing, member of the Toronto Board of Education, that convicts put to work in prisons should be paid union wages was received without comment by the commissioners. 

Mr. Hoadley, representing the Canadian National Committee for Mental Hygiene, said he believed there was nothing wrong with the present administrators if they would serve the interests of the people. 

"There should be a strengthening of education and training arrangements within the pen. as well as a strengthening of arrangements for the rehabilitation of dis charged prisoners. 

"Would you say that prisoners should be helped, even financially?" inquired Commissioner R. W, Craig, K.C. 

"Yes.”

"I mean helping institutions and not the individual," added Mr. Craig. 

"I do not say no to that, but prefer to help individually."

#toronto #royal commission #public inquiry #penal reform #prison brutality #prison guards #officer training #prison management #education in prison #canadian labor defence league #mental hygiene #rehabilitation #failure of rehabiltation #purpose of incarceration #royal commision to investigate the penal system of canada #great depression in canada #crime and punishment in canada #history of crime and punishment in canada

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

“Echo From the Past.” Ottawa Journal. August 3, 1942. Page 8. --- Away back in 1938 - remember? - a Royal Commission made a report on Canada's penitentiary system. It was a long report, 418 pages, for the Commission had gone all over the country - we seem to remember that it went to Europe as well - and held many sittings, heard many witnesses, and finally the Government put everything in a bulky bluebook. 

The Commission said that our penitentiary system was awful; that it was archaic and a lot of other things that no enlightened, humane country 'should tolerate; and that we should fire the man who was running the penitentiaries at the time and turn the job over to a full-fledged commission with a chairman. There was loud -applause. Newspapers carried editorials saying that, we were entering upon a new era of penal science; and Miss Agnes Macphail saw the millennium poised on the horizon. 

Alas, nothing happened. The report and the recommendations remained in the . bluebook, and the new era didn't come, and Miss Macphail's millennium got no farther than being poised. There are some things in which Governments are tenaciously consistent. 

The odd thing - or is it? - is that the whole thing seems to have been forgotten by the' reformers; the sentimentalists, apparently, went off on some other emotional job, which is the way of them. Only on Friday did the whole thing come back to us when Minister of Justice St, Laurent explained solemnly to the House of Commons why there has been delay in implementing the report. 

Nobody as much as laughed. People, even. M P.'s, don't laugh at the commonplace.

#editorial #house of commons #penal reform #parliament of canada #royal commission #archambault report #louis st. laurent #royal commision to investigate the penal system of canada #penitentiary act #middle class reformers #history of crime and punishment in canada #crime and punishment in canada #canada during world war 2 #dominion penitentiaries #agnes macphail

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“Penal Changes Have to Wait,” The Globe and Mail. August 1, 1942. Page 26. ---- Building Extensions Impossible During War ---- Ottawa, July 31 (Staff). Of the approximate 88 recommendations of the old penitentiaries commission over 30 of them have been implemented, and those which involve building extensions will have to wait for other days when the financial and material situations are different, Justice Minister St. Laurent said in the Commons today, answering C.C.F. Leader Coldwell’s and Conservative Leader Hanson’s inquiries.

The main recommendation of the penitentiaries commission had been for the creation of a commission administration of a superintendent, as now. While Mr. Hanson said it had been ‘consistently ignored,’ and the former Minister had declared he could not find the right man, Justice Minister St. Laurent said the candidates the former Minister had in mind had not desired to accept under the conditions set out in the report.

Mr. St. Laurent stated that departmental committees were now investigating various phases of the penitentiaries and had been invited to make recommendations. In reply to Mr. Coldwell’s expressed fears of crime increase during and after the war conditions, the Minister said penitentiary population had decreased 600 since the war’s outbreak and decreased by almost 400 in the last year.

#house of commons #minister of justice #louis st. laurent #penal reform #royal commission #royal commision to investigate the penal system of canada #parliament of canada #penitentiary act #dominion penitentiaries #canada during world war 2 #prison administration #history of crime and punishment in canada #crime and punishment in canada #sentenced to the penitentiary

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

“PENAL REFORM RESOLUTION IS ENDORSED,” Regina Leader-Post. April 19, 1940. ---- W.C.T.U. Approves Recommendations Based on Report Of Archambault Commission ---- A resolution from the John Howard Society of Saskatoon asking the Government to begin immediately to carry out the recommendations of the Archambault Royal Commission, was endorsed by the WCTU at a meeting this week in the YWCA. The study on the subject, which resulted in approval of the resolution, was conducted by Mrs G. Toombs and Miss Tunnah.

It was announced that Mr. Lawrence Friesen of the Technical Collegiate and Miss Jean Dis of Albert School had won national prizes with their essays on "The Wisdom of Being Total Abstainers From Alcoholic Beverages.” Miss Kathleen Sutherland of Cory won honorable mention,

Final arrangements were made for the visit of Miss Rachel Palmer, national director of scientific temperance in the United States, who will be in Saskatoon this weekend. 

Among the 88 recommendations of the Archambault Commission which received the particular attention of the W.CT.U. were the following: That the penal system should be under the control of the Government of Canada: complete re-organization of the personnel of the penitentiary staff; all officers should be university trained and should have a knowledge of psychology: the system should be characterized by a firm dignity and work sentimentality or unusual severity has no place; special efforts should be made to enlist the persons discharged no that they may find employment and become re-established: prisoners should be classified and have a complete medical and psychiatric examination: all insane, drug addicts and mentally deficient should be classified and treated accordingly: recreational privileges should be revised and made suitable for all ages: only chaplains suitable for individual contacts should be allowed to conduct educational and religious services. The Borstal system, so successful in England, was also recommended for use in Canada by the commission.

“Stand on Prison Report Endorsed,” Regina Leader-Post. April 19, 1940. --- Implementation of the report of the Royal Commission which investigated the Canadian penal system three years ago will be urged on the minister of justice by the Young Men's Section of the Saskatoon Board of Trade. The executive council of the section, at its meeting Thursday, endorsed a solution passed by the board of The John Howard Society of Saskatoon. The Y.M.B.T. will draw its stand to the attention of the Saskatchewan and Canadian Junior Chambers of Commerce as well as to the minister of justice.

The resolution endorsed with little discussion after it was explained that there was ground for fearing the report of the penal commission might be shelved without action

The Community Council of Saskatoon also gave its support to the society's stand for penal reforms on Thursday evening, when it endorsed the resolution, which will be drawn to the attention of the minister of justice. 

“Ask Action On Prison Conditions,” Saskatoon Star-Phoenix. April 20, 1940. --- John Howard Society in Saskatoon Initiates Concerted Appeal  --- REFERS TO REPORT --- ADOPTION OF CHANGES SEEN AS NEEDED BY COMMISSION IN 1938 REQUESTED ---- The John Howard Society of Saskatoon will make immediate representations to the Rt. Hon. Ernest Lapointe, minister of justice, for the implementation of the report of the Archambault Commission on the Canadian penal system, the Rev. D. J. Mulcahey, president of the recently formed society, announced today. The directors and officers of the society have adopted a resolution which is being sent to Ottawa. Furthermore, steps have been taken for a nation-wide ap peal to the minister for implementation of the commission's report.

WIDE SUPPORT SOUGHT As a first step, the resolution of the board is being went to 40 Saskatoon organisations for endorsation and similar action. These organizations are being asked to make their stand known to their provincial and national headquarters, and thence to local branches throughout Canada.

"We have grounds for believing that the Government plans to shelve the report, which, while finding certain merits, also disclosed serious abused and deplorable conditions in Canadian prisons," said Father Mulcahey. "We do not want this report to share the fate of reports previously made. If the re port is shelved, it will mean a set back of many years in Canadian penal reform."

The Archambault Commission was appointed in 1936, and in the following year it made an exhaustive investigation of the Canadian penal system, visiting also countries in Europe and the United States. The report was published in 1938. As a result of the report, the superintendent of penitentiaries resigned and one prison inspector was transferred to another Government department. The commission to administer the prisons, suggested by the Royal Commission, has not yet been appointed.

Text of the resolution adopted by the John Howard Society follows:

"Whereas the Royal Commission appointed in 1936 to investigate the penal system of Canada, although recognizing certain merits, still reported unsatisfactory, and in some instances deplorable conditions in the penal institutions, and

"Whereas the Royal Commission made recommendations for the alleviation of these conditions and for the improvement. of Canadian penal methods, in harmony with recognized penal standards elsewhere, and

"Whereas the Government of Canada has not yet appointed a commission such as recommended by the Royal Commission to administer the penitentiaries,

"Therefore be it resolved that we the John Howard Society of Saskatoon, urge upon the Government of Canada the implementation of the Royal Commission's recommendations, the first step toward which should be the appointment of the new administrative commission.”

#saskatoon #regina #john howard society #penal reform #prisoners' aid #archambault report #royal commision to investigate the penal system of canada #dominion penitentiaries #prison administration #penal reformers #women's christian temperance union #middle class reformers #canada during world war 2 #crime and punishment in canada #history of crime and punishment in canada #saskatchewan history

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“Canada Plans Jail Shake-Up Over Rioting,” The Philadelphia Inquirer. October 17, 1937. ---- UPRISING STIR PRISON SURVEY BY ROYAL BOARD --- Desperate Criminals May Be Segregated Under New System; Alcatraz Studied

[AL: Americans report on the progress of the Royal Commission to Investigate the Penal System of Canada. From the scrapbook of George E. Shortt, Inspector of Penitentiaries for Canada]

#philadelphia #penal reform #royal commission #royal commision to investigate the penal system of canada #prison administration #dominion penitentiaries #canadian prison system #canadian prison history #mackenzie king government #great depression in canada #canada as viewed from the united states #crime and punishment in canada #history of crime and punishment in canada #prison riots #prison riot #prisoner riot

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“Reform Plans Gathering Dust,” The Globe and Mail. September 16, 1941.Page 6. ---- An address before the Canadian Bar Association has drawn attention anew to the failure of the Government to carry out one of the principal recommendations of the Royal Commission to Investigate the Penal System of Canada. This recommendation was the appointment of a permanent commission to administer the country’s prisons. Some proposals made by the Royal Commission have been adopted, but on the whole there is little improvement over the conditions which led to the appointment of this body.

The address which revives this question of a permanent commission was delivered by His Honor Judge J. A. Lackson of Lethbridge, Alta. a member of the Bar Association’s subcommittee on criminal law. His Honor covered in a brief talk the whole field of the administration of justice in the sphere of criminal law. He urged lawyers to take steps to bring the administration of justice up to date. If they waited until the war was over, he warned, it would be too late; others would take control. The new order would, he said, include lawyers either as instruments to bring it about or as its victims.

Judge Jackson covered the advanced thinking on the subject of the reclamation of criminals, urging that useful training be extended. The results, he said, of what has been done have been satisfactory. For some, he commented, general education might be more suitable than vocational training.

On the subject of the habitual criminal, Judge Jackson proposed that men so classified by imprisoned for not more than three times the maximum penalty for any crime of which they have been convicted, or to detention at the pleasure of the Governor-General-in-Council. The Royal Commission proposed preventive detention in a separate institution for habituals.

It is the case that much more than is now being done for the reclamation of men could be one and should be done. It is certain that some habituals could be restored to social usefulness by medical and educational means. For the others detention should be extended for the protection of society.

The need for manpower is steadily increasing. It is tragic that thousands of young men are in our penitentiaries when they might be playing a useful part in the war effort. Certainly many of these are the victims of incurable mental quirks, and they will never be useful to society or to themselves. But efforts should be extended to re-educate those for whom these is hope. To this end a prison commission should be appointed and the salvage machinery set in motion. The outlook is that our need for manpower will be greater next year than it is now. With the taking of the proper measures, it should be possible for many young men who are today in prison to be restored to liberty equipped and anxious to take a part in the world’s work instead of being prepared only to prey on others.

The Royal Commission, which had as its members the Hon. Mr. Justice Archambault, R. W. Craig, K.C., and J. C. McRuer, K.C., issued its report in 1938, and since then it has been gathering the dust of the year. It was a notable study of the penal problem. The penitentiary troubles that gave rise to the agitation for prison reform subsided as the result of minor concessions made ot inmates, but the larger benefits that could have come have been lost. This Governmental laxity is most deplorable. Second only in importance to the winning of the war come reforms in Canada, and prison reform is one for which the way has been prepared and the knowledge assembled.

#lethbridge #editorial #penal reform #royal commision to investigate the penal system of canada #royal commission #dominion penitentiaries #canadian prison history #history of canadian prisons #managerialism #birth of the technocratic state #prison administration #habitual criminals #preventitive detention #rehabilitation #crime and punishment in canada #history of crime and punishment in canada #canada during world war 2

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“Wants Better Crime Study,” Windsor Star. March 4, 1939. Page 26. ---- Dr. McCann Tells House of Personal Inquiry at Kingston -- OFFERS SUGGESTIONS --- Lapointe’s Bill to Set Up 3-Man Board Gets Second Meeting --- OTTAWA, March 4. A plea for a more scientific approach to the problems of crime and penitentiary administration was made in the House of Commons last night by Dr. J. J. McCann, Liberal, Renfrew South, as a result of a personal study of conditions in Kingston Penitentiary.

DEBATES LAPOINTES BILL DR. McCANN spoke as the House considered Justice Minister Lapointes bill to establish a three-man commission to manage Canadian penal institutions. He said he had spent some time at the big prison at Kingston in order to formulate some suggestions from the point of view of medical doctor. His suggestions included: Greater segregation of convicts into different classes requiring distinct, treatment: Permanent confinement of hardened repeaters and sex-criminals for the protection of society; Medical examination of all criminals on admission and correction of physical defects which contribute to criminal behavior; Appointment of rehabilitation officers in all penitentiaries whose duties would be to study each individual convict and try to make arrangements for his establishment in society in advance of his. release. The bill received second reading and several sections were approved in committee of the whole.

DATA ON PRISONS At the start of the debate, Mr. Lapointe gave the House a statistical picture of the prison population, in reply to requests made earlier. The minister gave the prison population and staff figures as follows, with staff figures in brackets: Dorchester. 457 (1141); St. Vincent De Paul. 1.033 (223); Portsmouth Kingston, 702 (169); women's prison Kingston. 31 (6); Collin's Bay, 250 (101); Manitoba. 364 (103): Saskatchewan. 463 (117); British Columbia. 328 (101); Total, 3.628 prisoners and 934 staff.

 To show changes in prison population. the minister gave figures to show the total rose from 3.187 in 1930 to high of 4.587 in 1933 to a low of 3.098 in 1935. In 1929 the number of prisoners under 21 was 322. This increased to high of 527 in 1932 and fell to 280 in 1936. It was 317 in 1937 and the minister had no later figures in this classification.

DENIES STEVENS CLAIM These figures, the minister said, did not bear out the claim made earlier this week by Hon. H. H. Stevens. Conservative. Kootenay East, that prison populations have been increasing because of economic conditions and that youthful crime was increasing at an alarming rate. Grant MacNeil. C. C. F.. Vancouver North, said the figures for provincial institutions should be presented to get true picture of the crime problem. 

Mr. Lapointe said those institutions are not under jurisdiction of ins department. The minister said lie hoped the new commission would branch out and make needed reforms. The Borstal system for reclamation of youthful convicts was recommended, but these reforms would have to be brought about slowly and carefully. 

When the commission was set up it would study the report of the Royal Commission on penitentiaries and report to the government as to carrying out of its recommendations. To another questioner, the minister said extensions to Kingston Penitentiary are under way and it might be unnecessary to transfer prisoners from that institution to others, as had been done in the past.

WOMEN IN ONE PRISON All female convicts in Canada are congregated in the Women's Prison at Kingston, and the fact there are only 31 inmates at the present time speaks well for the "weaker sex," Mr. Lapointe said. He had been anxious to have this measure passed last session so that the new commission could give consideration to the Royal Commission's recommendations. He believed those recommendations should be handled by the new commission.

J. S. Woodsworth. C. C. F. leader, said he had been fearful of the long delay in dealing with the recommendations of the Royal Commission. There were a number of recommendations dealing with other matters apart from management of penitentiaries. "

What about the prevention of crime?" he asked. 'Prevention of crime Is the responsibility of my honorable friend as well as my own, the minister replied.

CO-OPERATION NEEDED Prevention of crime, especially juvenile crime, and juvenile criminals,    is something that requires co-operation of government departments and other bodies, and also might. be influenced by the manner in which convicts are handled in penal institutions. There are 138 frequent, offenders in Canada, with 10 or more convictions each. who had cost the treasury $49.000. the minister said. 

On the question of treatment of prisoners and reform of convicts there are several schools of thought. It would be the task of the proposed commission to work out. the best system. 

Dr. McCann said the main purpose of any penal system is first to protect society and. secondly, the regeneration, education and rehabilitation of the criminal. Too little attention, however, Is paid to the prevention of crime. Effective preventive measures would save society large sums, as it is estimated recidivists now in Canadian penitentiaries have cost the country and later become serious adult offenders The best preventive approach to home conditions Is through the family courts, he said. 

Outlining treatment, he thought, should be administered to different types of criminals. Dr. McCann said hardened repeaters should be segregated and confined for life. Their release in any case is hound to be useless as they are sure to return to crime. They should be given a sound but not onerous routine and not permitted to return to society. "This applies also to the so-called sex criminal.” said Dr. McCann. "Under no circumstances should a man sentenced for such an offence be permitted to progress along the well-known and tragic path from indecency to murder." 

A large proportion of the men in Kingston penitentiary for indecency are more than 50 years of age. To a medical man this suggests some physical condition in most of them which could be cured by a simple operation. During a recent visit to Kingston. Dr. McCann said he was told the average age of 783 prisoners then confined was 24.

"SAD REFLECTION " It is a sad reflection on our present sociological system when so many young men coming from broken homes have to start their careers in penitentiary. he said. 

A better class of guards should he obtained for penitentiaries than are employed at present. Some of the universities could be encouraged to give special courses to men who would lake up prison work as a career. If the guards commanded respect of the prisoners. rehabilitation would be easier. 

Dr. McCann believed the commission should have medical advice but need not have a medical man as a member. Every prisoner should receive a medical examination at the start of his sentence and any physical condition which aggravated his moral behavior corrected. Medical and hospital facilities at Kingston are wholly inadequate and the whole institution is out of date.  Such conditions not only make proper treatment difficult, but tend to embitter the inmates still more against society. 

Other suggestions made by Dr MrCann were improvements in the remission branch and appointment of a rehabilitation officer m every penitentiary who would make plans for the fitting of convicts into suitable places in society before, their release.

#house of commons #parliament of canada #penal reform #penitentiary act #minister of justice #dominion penitentiaries #royal commission #royal commision to investigate the penal system of canada #great depression in canada #prison administration #classification of prisoners #classification and segregation #habitual criminals #scientific policing #crime control #social control #kingston penitentiary #prison for women #crime and punishment in canada #history of crime and punishment in canada #sentenced to the penitentiary