Save the Kingston Pen and Prison for Women.

A postcard that I purchased from the Corrections Canada Museum, across the street from The Big House.

Recent News

The federal government is now charging the City of Kingston $1.1 million dollars a year to lease the Kingston Pen, instead of $1 dollar a year.
The television programs "Murdoch Mysteries", "Titans" and "Star Trek: Discovery" were recently filmed in the Pen and a Danielle Aykroyd video entitled "Small Minds by Vera Sola."

Individuals and organizations trying to save Kingston, Ontario's architectural history:
Friends Of Kingston Penitentiary.
Frontenac Heritage Foundation
Coalition of Kingston Communities
Kingston Municipal Heritage Committee

Chris Ball, a municipal candidate in the Portsmouth District, told a local reporter:
"The biggest thing that everyone's mentioned when I'm at their door is change, between all the redevelopment that has been happening in Portsmouth District: the Kingston Pen, the Provincial campus and the Prison for Women. There's a big concern about the changing character of neighbourhoods." (To see the YouTube video Google "Kingston Municipal Election Candidates: Portsmouth Village" by Elliot Ferguson, Whig Standard.)

Bill Glover, a city councillor for Sydenham District:
"It's not inconceivable that they could level the entire site." ("Group tries to get Kingston Penitentiary heritage status" by Peter Hendra, Toronto Sun, September 2012.)

The Taylor Hazell Architects Report recommends that the entire KP site be given heritage designation.

Politicians Ted Hsu, Mark Garretsen and Bridget Doherty.
Petitions
ipetition - Don't Erase History, Protect the Kingston Penitentiary.
#ygk Challenge - Save Kingston Penitentiary and the Regional Treatment Centre.

Floyd Patterson, President of the Frontenac Heritage Foundation:
"The federal government has the power to demolish them. (All of the Penitentiary Buildings.) However we have concluded that would be absolutely atrocious, grievous, scandalous." ("Group tries to get Kingston Penitentiary heritage status" by Peter Hendra, Toronto Sun, September 2012.)
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The Kingston Penitentiary proposal- "The proposal...recommends preserving roughly half of the existing federally owned penitentiary grounds as is, for tourism and heritage purposes. The other half of the grounds-mostly closer to the waterfront-could be re purposed for commercial or residential development, including towers as high as 25 storeys." (Sailing Centre, waterfront park touted for Kingston Penitentiary redevelopment" by Trevor Pritchard, CBC Radio, All in a Day, 2017.) Three of the four perimeter walls surrounding the site will be demolished and the guard towers will be preserved if possible.
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YouTube videos 
Music from The Big House - Rita Chiarelli.
He's 38 years old and never kissed a girl - Tragically Hip.
I've come to get My Baby Out of Jail - The Rattlesnake Choir/ Handsome Ned.
We become our own wolves - an animated video by Rae Spoon. Words and art by women prisoners at the Isabel MacNeill Halfway House, across the street from the Pen and P4W.
Time Off for Good Behavior by Neil Young:
     "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."
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Local historian Jennifer McKendry stated that ten irreplaceable limestone buildings at the Pen are slated for demolition. ("Concern raised regarding the Penitentiary planning process" by the Coalition of Kingston Communities.) Books by Jennifer McKendry: