Abandoned Prison For Women Urban Exploring

Abandoned Prison For Women Urban Exploring

A complete Urban Exploring gallery from a the abandoned Prison for Women in Kingston, Ontario. The Prison For Women in Kingston, Ontario, was a Correctional Service of Canada prison for women that functioned at a maximum security level from 1934 to 2000. A notable inmate was Karla Homolka, the wife of Paul Bernardo.

The very first female inmates arrived on January 24, 1934. Before this all maximum security female prisoners were housed in the Female Department of the max security Kingston Penitentiary located directly across the street.

Beginning in 1995, female inmates in Prison for Women were gradually transferred to other federal correctional institutions. On May 8, 2000, the last female inmate was transferred from Kingston P4W.

In January 2008, Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario took ownership of the former site of the Prison for Women. The property is 8.1 acres (33,000 m2) in size. The university archives were originally slated to be housed there once renovations were completed, but this is no longer the case

In November 2017 my friend DDoggVlogs posted some photos of an abandoned prison and I recognized it right away as one that I’ve wanted to explore for a few years.  Back in 2013 my friend and fellow Explorer JERM IX explored the Kingston Prison for Women and I recognized the location right away from reading his post.

RiddimRyder, Carlo Paolozza and I reached out to DDogg and asked if he would like to host us for the weekend and take us to see it, he gladly agreed and the plan was set. We would spend Friday night at the Rockwood Asylum for the Criminally Insane up the road and after a fun night and equally fun morning we moved onto the prison to explore by day and by night.

Day two of our 48 hour exploring residence took us to the now abandoned and badly decaying Prison for Women, another one with stories that would shock many. We would spend hours by day and by night exploring the many hallways, cells and deep deep tunnels of this institution.

Later in the evening we were joined by YouTube sensation Moe Sargi who came to explore with us and discover the secrets that lie deep underneath the city as we spent hours beneath the streets in the long labyrinth of tunnels that connect this institution with many others.

The decay inside is amazing and the natural light from the many large windows is just awesome. I didn’t want to ever leave this place, as funny as that sounds given the type of place this is. We went down into the basement and found steam tunnels that went on and on and on for miles, breaking out into different directions at a few spots. We had really hoped that these tunnels would take us into the larger facility across the street, but sadly that would not be the case.

Imagine, you are roaming the halls and stairways inside an abandoned prison. You are navigating the turns, opening doors, waiting with anticipation for the moment you find the spot you have been looking for.

You turn around a corner, you pass through a doorway.

And you are met with this incredible sight!!

After winding our way through the staff areas leading to the main cell-blocks we finally came to one of the ranges with rows of jail cells, two levels high and so much decay.

Making our way over to the other side and the main range, the natural light coming in from the large windows was just incredible.  Also, this side was somewhat larger than the other side with more space between the cells and the wall.

Ready to get a closer look, I started exploring the inside of the cells and capturing some of the closer details of this abandoned prison.

We moved lower to the bottom levels of this abandoned prison where we found the prisoner segregation cells, protected by a very heavy steel door, the room was eerily quiet with a few cells that had thick doors rather than bars.  The room was overseen by a large set of thick windows where the guards would watch over the cells 24 hours a day.

 

 

Day turned to night and the darkness set in and we were ready to take another tour of this abandoned prison in the dark to see what else we might find and how the mood of this building changed as the sun went down.

We explored high and low until we discovered a long system of steam tunnels that went on for literally miles below the city that this prison calls home.

Abandoned Prison for Women Tunnels Video 2017

Our explore was complete, we had spent an entire day and night exploring this old historic abandoned prison.  It has remained closed to the public for over 17 years and it’s future remains uncertain to this day.

Thanks to my friends DDoggVlogs, RiddimRyder, Carlo Paolozza and Moe Sargi for joining me on this awesome experience!  Be sure you click those links and follow their work for more awesome explores from each of them.

I could not have asked for a better crew to explore and spend the weekend with!!

 

2019 Abandoned Prison For Women Weekend Sleepover

The Prison For Women was a Correctional Service of Canada prison that functioned at a maximum security level from 1934 to 2000.

The first female inmates arrived on January 24, 1934. Before this date, maximum security female offenders were housed in the Female Department of the maximum security Kingston Penitentiary located across the street.

The Prison for Women was closed following a number of controversial incidents. LSD was administered to inmates at the prison as part of tests that are today considered to be ethically dubious.

As well, a riot at the prison in 1994 resulted in Justice Louise Arbour, then of the Ontario Court of Appeal heading up what became known as the Commission of Inquiry into Certain Events at the Prison for Women which found that the treatment of prisoners at the facility had been “cruel, inhumane and degrading”.

Routinely overclassified in their security category, Indigenous inmates constituted a considerable proportion of the inmate population and reported particularly violent treatment by prison staff.

Beginning in 1995, female inmates were gradually transferred to other federal correctional institutions.

On May 8, 2000, the last female inmate was transferred away from the P4W.

In January 2008, Queen’s University took ownership of the former site of the Prison for Women. The property is 8.1 acres in size.

The university archives were originally slated to be housed there once renovations were completed, but this is no longer the case.