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Cancrime is crime, explained. How are murders solved? Why are crime maps useless? Find out what crime stats don't tell us. Twenty-year veteran crime writer Rob Tripp blogs about Canadian crime, criminals and the justice system plus, the document arch
Recent Posts Tagged With 'correctional service of canada'
Tyrone Conn's escape from Kingston Penitentiary
View Ty Conn Escape in a larger mapA decade ago, Canada's federal prison service was humiliated when a wily bank robber clambered over the 10-metre high stone wall of the country's oldest, seemingly most secure penitentiary, and vanished into the dar...
Max-security convicts handed Molotov ingredient
Goofy things sometimes happen in federal prisons. With seven pens in the Kingston area, there's no shortage of goofy, like this head scratcher, which I wrote about in my day job at the Kingston Whig-Standard. The full story is also after the jump.In ...
A Canadian prison farm fantasy
What do Canadian federal prisoners do on penitentiary farms? It's a reasonable question to ask, now that the Correctional Service of Canada has announced it will close the country's six prison farms. You'd figure that Macleans, Canada's national news...
Why one hour of convict yard time is perfect
Convicts in Canada's penitentiaries are entitled to at least one hour of exercise every day, even those who are thrown into segregation, [prison directives] where they are isolated from other prisoners. What's so perfect about one hour? Why is it the...
Prison boss trots globe at taxpayer expense
If you're a Canadian taxpayer, you might be curious to find out how you spent $91, 828.02 last year, or at least, how that guy in the suit spent your cash last year. He's Don Head, boss of Canada's federal prison system. Seems Don's a bit of a world ...
Critical prisons report hidden for half a year
A report critical of Canada's federal prison system sat on the shelf of the federal minister responsible for prisons, hidden from public view, for seven months. The report was released just over a week ago.Here's the covering letter that was attached...
Recorded: Memories of a prison hostage
Few people remember with clarity the horror of the Kingston Penitentiary riot of 1971. That may be why a warning from Canada's prison ombudsman that history may be dangerously repeating itself likely rings hollow for many. Howard Sapers issued the Co...
Prison minister wants 'rigorous' supervision of ex-cons
As the standard bearer for the government's tough-on-crime crusade, you wouldn't expect Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan (inset), who is responsible for prisons and parole, to contradict Conservative policy. But that's what he seemed to do today...
Saul Betesh's child killer whine
We have an obligation in law to keep people, however odious their crime and their background, alive because there is no other alternative. The life sentence of the court is not a sentence of executio...
What the prison service conceals from public view
Internal prison recordsThere's a lot going on inside Canada's federal prisons every day – suicide attempts, smuggling, hunger strikes, assaults and sometimes, murder. But you'd have almost no idea how violent and bizarre penitentiary life is, if yo...
