Kingston Penitentiary Tour-Part 2, Visitor Centre

Return to Kingston Pen Tour part 1

Upon entering KP, you know you are in a secure facility.  Every door is heavy, every window has bars. Even the doors, they are windows and bared.  No way to hide on the other side to ambush.  Everything is designed for security and safety.  There are bins like at an airport.

And all the rules and regulations are posted for the visitors.  There are lots of them, some obvious--some less so.  No Gum? Feet on the floor?  Sounds like rules from kindergarten.  Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour will not be tolerated? Sounds like a high school dance.  They had a dress code, and list if proscribed items: No sun glasses, Hoodies, Lipstick???, Chap Stick???, Hats or cell phones.  I can understand these somewhat, but would never have guessed it going in.

As you get closer to the V&C (Visitation and Communication) centre, there are adult and child sized foot prints painted on the floor.  Later we found out, these are to keep proper spacing for the drug sniffing dogs to walk though the visitors.








And on the wall..any of the fliers you didn't read on the way in are available.  Including..in RED..Getting Married.  Really?  I was quite surprised that a maximum security prison, and there are enough people who want to marry a prisoner that the top slot, is reserved for that.  And before you ask, no, the fliers were not there anymore. Apparently, the information is hard to come by (try Googling it to see what I mean).

The Actual V&C is broken up into different rooms, a large one with windows looking into the yard, where we waited.  They had another sign about acceptable conduct.

Really?  A room full of strangers, kids, guards watching..and the rules have to spell out "No Intercourse? And we are NOT talking about a private room here. 

I did not take any pictures..too many other people.  But I did take a picture of the corner play area.  It made me sad that there are so many kids involved in the system that they need an area like this.  It reminded me of a waiting room in a Hospital.

And they would not even let adults play ..how very sad..and understandable!

And the view from the windows, that in the real world you were not allowed near, was a bird-feeder..such an innocuous room overall.

All photos available on Flickr.

Return to Kingston Pen Tour Part 1
Go to Kingston Pen Tour Part 3

Kingston Penitentiary Tour-Part 1, The public face.

Kingston Penitentiary aka KP is a fixture here in Kingston, Ontario.

Aerial View of KP, looking Northeast.

Built at a time where sailing ships plied the Great Lakes KP was strategically situated.  The entrance to the Rideau Canal, the Great Lakes and The St Lawrence River all combine to make Kingston a focal point of the times.  The ease of access combined with the ready local access to limestone made the choice an easy one. In fact, within 5 years of KP opening, Kingston became the first Capital of Canada before the fear of American invasion forced a move.

Fort Henry as seen from above.

At the End of September, 2013, KP was closed as a prison.  Tours were set up to benefit a local charity and tickets were quietly put on sale.  Then, word got out and the tickets became the hottest commodity.  I was lucky enough to get tickets for the first weekend of tours.

Not the nicest day, but the foreboding weather suited the nature of the visit.  KP looks like a giant fort, sharing a lot of design choices as Fort Henry, with an imposing outer wall, topped with razor wire and what looks like electric fencing.  Having toured Fort Henry multiple times, I was expecting the walls to contain rooms, not just be walls...

View to the South from the parking lot on the East side.
Lake Ontario is seen past the Guard tower.
This is the corner the last successful escape of KP occurred when
Ty Conn (no kidding) escaped in 1999

Electric Fencing?

Note how the corner Guard Towers have
sealed over gun ports.

Go to Kingston Pen Tour Part 2

All the tour images are available on Flickr.

Experiencing bio-diversity with photography.

One of the things that I am getting a better and better respect for is just how many different animals, plant, fish, bird and insects there are in a small urban area.  And sometimes, you can see it many times, and never even notice until you take a good picture and are able slow down and look at it!

A few days ago, I was watching some gulls, waiting for an Osprey to hopefully come by for a supper snack.  We had seen an Osprey hunting here a week ago so I had high hopes.  I noticed some of the gulls did not look like gulls to me...Then I saw one that looked a little bigger body, and a little greyer.  That caught my eye and I was hoping he would hunt up a fish in front of me...but he landed on the far shoreline..and was not acting like a Gull at all..more like a Heron!

I did not get a great look, since he was at least 150 meters (500 feet) away (yes, I checked!).  But when I got home, with the hints based on the way he moved, Dawne and I came to the conclusion it was a Black Crowned Night Heron.  I had barely heard of these, but by paying attention to the world around me, I saw one..and went back the next day and saw him again.

While I was waiting there I saw one of the most finely delicately colored butterfly.

 I was musing over this and decided to bring my camera to work and go for what our receptionist calls "One of my walkies" in the back 40.  I managed to capture a lurking Leopard frog, who was one of about 10 I saw, including some big and some smaller than I have ever seen.

And how about this tiny moth.  That is a regular blade of grass he is barely overhanging

Or these mating Dragonflies.

These were tiny leopard frogs.

This Heron caught my eye on the way home..

 While tracking the Great Blue Heron for other shots, I noticed one of the ever present "Gulls" was acting different and looked different too..

 It was of course a Common Tern, not a Gull.  But I had always missed noticing the different.

I had also recently learned about Killdeer...



Then I saw a Green Heron, which I had never seen before either.

I even saw a painted turtle peeking it's head out of the lake..

So in a very eclectic 2 days, I saw over a dozen different creatures right in my own backyard and surrounding neighborhood.  If you open your eyes, it is amazing how much there is there!
Then today, walking in front of the office, I noticed something else I had never seen before..

Every day opens new doors to the world!!

Water Water Everywhere...

Water fascinates me.  The duality it represents is awe inspiring.  When I want to feel calm serenity..I go to water...

And when I want to feel the power of nature and feel like there are forces much bigger than me in the universe, I also rely on water...every canyon, every waterfall, every grain of sand...

The other thing water does for me is all the reflection potentials..

But have you ever really looked at water and how it moves. Zoomed in and seen a drop of water hit? Up close, water still holds a lot of surprises!