Page six The Other Press April 8, 1980 B.C. Pen: 100 years of history _by DAN HILBORN A tour of the now empty British Columbia Pen- itentiary is a sombering thing. Thirty foot walls with watchtowers posted at each corner stare down on eleven acres of what was once home to up to 700 prisoners at one time. The inside of the prison would shock any visitor, not because it is vulgar but because it looks almost surreal. Stone buildings’ with barred windows stand defiantly behind a small garden path that leads past an old church bell. Tennis court rest beside the thick outer walls. The whole scene. has a permanency ‘etched into it, from the stone in the walls to the finely cared for lawns which surround the buildings. The Pen was originally built in 1878 with the outer walls added between 1923 and the 1940’s.. The three cellblocks now remaining, the north wing, east wing and the B7 block were built in 1904, 1914 and 1937 respectively. The Pro- testant chapel was built in 1927 and the _ industrial shop, where prisoners turn. out benches, teeter totters and other toys for city playgrounds, was com- pleted in 1909. Whenever the topic pri- sons is mentioned one is obliged to wonder about the horror stories that surround them. Brutal. beatings by the guards, rape of prisoners by their peers, hostage takings an unrealistic citizen but enough sto wonder. Prisoners cl statistics s percent o released rett for later cri programs Straight’ ¢ because th the individual — more emphasis should be placed on diversion. Most prisoners seem to to the Columbia) and : accept their fate and are willing to wait out their sentence until they are elegible for parole but still there have always been escape attempts from the Pen, but very few are ever toally successful. The most elaborate at- tempt Parkinson recalls was about ten years ago when — several prisoners slowly filed away ona set of bars, in an out-of-the-way corridor, on their way to and from the kitchen. After months . of meticulously filing puttying and painting the bars so the filing wouldn’t be noticed they were thwarted on the night of their attempted esca Another _ prisoner aged to manufactu own ‘zip gun’’ industrial shop out a Get. length of tubing and a spring loaded bolt. He then managed to get himself injured enough to be taken hospital ( Each prisoner in the Pen has certain privileges such as a toilet, sink, pillow, mattress, ‘chair, cupboard and a radio, yet prison activist are constantly complaining that treatment of the prisoners is . too . harsh. One report from 1976 stated that the prisoners were getting unsettled over the treatment of inmates in the: segregated, super maximum security unit. Prisoners were complaining about lack of fresh air and exercise, derelection. of duties by the medical staff, lack of medical attention, eating cold tinned food with their hands and_ two prisoners, R. Miller and Stri Charette, the number of incidences inside the Pen has risen pees ed by” the pri soners. In 1975 seven prisoners won in a case concerning the Canadian Bill of Rights. when the Federal. Court of Canada ruled . that. the solitary confinement unit at the Pen was ‘‘cruel and unusual punishment’. That «same year seven \stated that the acilities at the B.C. Pen were more severe than other prisons in Canada and on the same scale as Soledad and San J 4. were . evidence that . some _pri- Quentin in the U.S. Not all of the incidences have been favourable from a prisoners standpoint, however, such as. one foam mattress unexplain- ably exploded in his cell, killing him instantly. Treatment by guards is the biggest complaint at any institution and the B.C, Pen -is no exception. Accusations have ranged from illegal use of high pressure — firehoses on inmates to harasment with rifles to mental harrasment leading to suicide, and although no one denies that many of the charges are true. there is oners bring such _treat- ~ ment upon themselves. The British Columbia Penitentiary infamous for it’s many riots and hostage takings such as the 1975 occurence where after a 41 hour long siege in a small in that inciden be involved in three hos' taking, been found | knife and a syringe inside his body and has attempted suicide three times. while in solitary confinement. | : Prisoners claimed. that: ¢ guard had : weapons used in the attak — on the room so that the guard firing the fatal shot could not be identified. The Pen is no different then the outside in the|’ respect that if you want. something bad enough you can get it. Drugs have been brought into the prison in many ways, during open visits, thrown over the walls inside tennis balls, or even by bribing the guards. At one time there was a club for prisoners who were drug addicts and wanted to stay that. way. The medical room was constantly turning away requests for drugs and one Pen doctor was quoted as saying that one inmate, ‘“‘became the way he is not from LSD.’’ In an attempt to lower the consistency of unwanted happenings inside the Pen the administrators had the ringleaders transferred in 1976 but that only incensed the prisoners more. When a person is locked up day after day after month. after year the tension can get to be too much. The only result from ‘closing the Pen is that the problem is moved. There are — approximately ten thousand people in jail in prisoner: ‘who-died-when-his- «Canada. today and they all have the same rights. A toilet, sink, pillow, matt- ress, chair, cupboard and a radio. Ken Parkinson has no idea what will become of the 64 acre site now that public pressure and old age have made it obsolete. Nearby railway tracks and a dock make the poor site for a ld be unfeasible. re however several no birds that 3 in nks to Irene n and to Dave Warren for his cooperation and tolerance as a tour’ ae ‘