Located right across the street from the Kingston Penitentiary, Correctional Service Canada’s museum is housed inside Cedarwood, the former house of the prison warden. Entry is free.
The lower level has exhibits on early forms of punishment, basically torture, for prisoners until 1969. Water boarding, locking inside a coffin, and beatings were all regular events. There is also a gallery on the history of the Kingston Penitentiary and contraband confiscated by guards.
Upstairs, models of advanced maximin security and rehabilitation facilities from around the country show how correctional services evolved in recent decades. The rooms upstairs also exhibit items gifted to CSC by foreign correctional delegations and art made by inmates.
