NCJ Number
124102
Journal
Corrections Today Volume: 52 Issue: 3 Dated: (June 1990) Pages: 104,106,108,110
Date Published
1990
Length
4 pages
Annotation
In December 1988, one of Canada's oldest prisons, the St. Vincent de Paul Penitentiary in Laval (Quebec) closed its doors after a two-year moving period.
Abstract
The Canadian government decided to close the penitentiary because it was too antiquated to provide the variety and quality of programming required by the Correctional Service of Canada's mission document. It had been scheduled to shut down in the 1970s, but was kept open due to a shortage of cell space in the region. Upon its actual closing, the Service and Commissioner Ole Ingstrup had to consider where and with what safety measures to relocate the 500 inmates, what arrangements to make for staff, and how inmates and the public would react. Some of the region's most violent offenders were among those that had to be moved. Most of the inmates were moved to Donnacona, a two and one half hour drive from Montreal, and Port Cartier, an 11-hour bus ride away. Inmates deemed ready for lower-security institutions were relocated within the region. Staff tried to earn the inmates' cooperation and settle any fears about their new facilities. Three hundred inmates were moved in ten weeks starting in October 1986. The remaining 200 protective custody inmates were moved to another part of the penitentiary and finally, between November 17 and December 20, 1988, were flown to the maximum-security facility at Port Cartier. The old penitentiary was opened as a public museum on June 3, 1989.