Package: Standard Tour & Prisoners of Age Exhibit Viewing
Type: Guided & Semi-Guided | Duration: 2.5 hour
Standard Tour: Step inside the walls of Canada’s oldest penitentiary and explore the living and working areas, some dating back to the 1830s. Hear the personalized accounts from former staff and learn about the history and the daily routines, including stories of escapes, riots and everything in between on this guided tour.
Prisoners of Age: A travelling exhibit made up of a series of large canvas posters highlighting photographs and interviews with elderly offenders conducted in prisons in the United States and Canada from 1996-2015, will be hosted within a cell range and workshop at Kingston Penitentiary for the 2023 season. While more than 2.5 million North Americans are behind bars, an estimated 35% of them are far past middle age. The Prisoners of Age exhibit, accompanying documentary and 208-page book (available to purchase) captures the complexity of a subject that is seldom contemplated: aging offenders in the correctional system. This self-guided one-hour exhibit and documentary viewing set against Kingston Penitentiary’s impressive architecture encourages guests to consider the human dimension of doing time while growing old in prison.
This tour contains subject matter designed for a mature audience - parental discretion is advised.