Life and death behind bars A Free Press investigation

Stony Mountain Institution is not only Canada's oldest penitentiary, it's also the country's deadliest.

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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 18/05/2021 (1925 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Stony Mountain Institution is not only Canada’s oldest penitentiary, it’s also the country’s deadliest.

The 143-year-old prison has been dubbed Murder Mountain due to the high rate of suicides, homicides and unrelenting violence behind its crumbling walls.

Life and Death Behind Bars is an ongoing series by reporter Ryan Thorpe that examines the deeply dysfunctional conditions that pervade Manitoba’s lone federal prison.

 

Stony Mountain Institution is Canada's oldest federal penitentiary, but also the country's deadliest

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Stony Mountain Penitentiary photographed Monday, April 19, 2021. The federal jail in rural Manitoba is rated as one of the most dangerous in the country.

Posted:

IT HAS BEEN 59 years since the Canadian state last slipped a noose around the neck of a prisoner, and more than four decades since the gallows were formally abolished in this country, yet death continues to lurk behind the bars of Stony Mountain Institution north of Winnipeg.

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Isolation practices in Canadian prisons regularly exceed limits set in international law

John Woods / Canadian Press files
Ryan Beardy now works with the John Howard Society to raise awareness about prison conditions in Canada, and organizes a weekly support group for men in Winnipeg.

Posted:

Devon Sampson, a 34-year-old man diagnosed with schizophrenia, hanged himself at Stony Mountain Institution in 2013. He spent 187 consecutive days in solitary confinement prior to his death; during a previous incarceration, he spent 294 consecutive days in solitary.

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The number of Indigenous inmates in prison is a problem — but Ottawa has no plan to fix it

The number of Indigenous inmates in prison is a problem — but Ottawa has no plan to fix it

Posted:

The number of Indigenous people being locked up in federal prisons is spiking despite overall declines in both incarceration and crime rates across the country.

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Hard time in hell: Inside Stony

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Stony Mountain Penitentiary photographed Monday, April 19, 2021. The federal jail in rural Manitoba is rated as one of the most dangerous in the country.
Reporter: Thorpe

Posted:

Gangs are in control, inmates are armed and the threat of violence is omnipresent at Stony Mountain Institution.

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Guards, inmates at Stony Mountain Institution point to unrelenting gang violence, shocking suicide rate as reasons it should close

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Stony Mountain Penitentiary photographed Monday, April 19, 2021. The federal jail in rural Manitoba is rated as one of the most dangerous in the country.

Reporter: Thorpe

Posted:

When construction of Stony Mountain Institution — then known as Manitoba Penitentiary — was completed in 1877, Queen Victoria was the reigning monarch of the British Empire.

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Stony Mountain inmate’s repeated health complaints minimized, ultimately costing him his life

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Gertrude Lamoureux is the grandmother of Shawn Poitra, an inmate at Stony Mountain who died of cancer last year. Numerous inmates and family members say he was denied proper medical care until it was too late.

Posted:

Gertrude Lamoureux sits on the couch in her William Whyte neighbourhood home in the North End as the midday sun pierces through the living-room window. At 82 years old, she is frail and thin, but her mind is sharp. Her bony fingers grip the sides of an ornate picture frame.

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Stony kitchen staff justified in refusing to work after vicious attack

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES
Stony Mountain Penitentiary.

Posted:

A civilian food services employee at Stony Mountain Institution was brutally assaulted by an inmate in August ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­― sparking a work refusal from the prison kitchen staff that led to an occupational health and safety investigation.

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