Similarities between Alcatraz and the Kingston Pen.

 One million people visit Alcatraz every year, and the Kingston Pen is a popular tourist venue.

 Alcatraz is an American National Historic Landmark. The Pen was a National Historic Site of Canada and a Classified Federal Heritage Building.

In 2008 the Alcatraz penitentiary faced demolition. Kingston Pen faces the removal of eleven buildings to make room for high rise condominiums and townhouses.

Alcatraz was built on a huge limestone rock, hence the nickname "The Rock". KP was constructed with limestone, by inmates. Several other buildings in the Village of Portsmouth, Kingston were built by inmates using limestone:

The Prison for Women

Church of the Good Thief

Rockwood Asylum

Isabel McNeill House

Penitentiary Museum

Penitentiary Water Tower

The two prisons were film locations:
Alcatraz
The Rock - starring Nicolas Cage and Ed Harris.
Escape from Alcatraz - Clint Eastwood
Point Blank - Lee Marvin

Kingston Pen
The last scene of the first Superman movie.
Alias Grace, adapted from a Margaret Atwood novel.

A music video was filmed at The Pen, "vera Sola-Small Minds" by Danielle Aykroyd  can be viewed on YouTube.

Nicknames
Alcatraz is known as "The Rock" and "Uncle Sam's Devil's Island."
KP is "The Big House" "KP" and "The Pen".

SONGS
Neil Young's "Time Off for Good Behaviour" is about the Pen:
     "My brother went to prison/
       he's in Kingston doin' time/
       he got seven years for sellin'
       what I've been smokin' all my life."
Gord Downie wrote a song about Millhaven Penitentiary, which is located a few miles down the road. See the YouTube video "38 years old - Escape from Millhaven". Also, the Cajun Ramblers recorded "Misbehavin' in Millhaven".
The Blue Diamonds recording "Live at Collins Bay Penitentiary" is now on YouTube.
"Kingston Chain" by Stevedore Steve.
"Kingston Prison" by James McKenty. See the YouTube video.

 Alcatraz songs:
"Alcatraz" by Leon Russell - 1971.
"89 Days of Alcatraz" by Emm Gryner.
"Alcatraz" by Nazareth.
( When Linda Ronstadt entertained prisoners at a penitentiary in Tennessee, she sang "You're No Good" and "Desperado." )

Political intervention and public pressure saved Alcatraz.
Several individuals and organizations are trying to save the Pen:
Friends of Kingston Penitentiary
Frontenac Heritage Foundation
savecfbrockcliffe - Ottawa, Ontario.
The Haunted Walk of Kingston
Coalition of Kingston Communities
Dr. Jennifer McKendry
Bill Glover, a City Councillor for Sydenham.
Simonne Ferguson, president of the Friends of the Penitentiary Museum.
Kingston Municipal Heritage Committee
ipetitions - Don't Erase History- Protect the Penitentiary.

Members of the public saved the Joyceville and Collins Bay prison farms; the Frontenac Institution Land refers to Collins Bay:
     "Located in the urban boundary of the City of Kingston, the Frontenac Institution Lands consist of 338 hectares (835.216 acres) of land...Currently the Correctional Service of Canada, a custodial department of the Federal Government owns the Frontenac Institution Lands, and, if divested, the uses of these lands could be constrained by decisions made by the Canada Lands Company."
Petitions and articles that lobbied for the survival of prison farms in Kingston and half a dozen other locations:
Save Our Prison Farms!
Keep the Prison Farms - Manitoba Co-operator.
Evolve Our Prison Farms.