Ottawa Jail - Ottawa, Ontario - Artistically Decorated Utility Boxes on Waymarking.com

As Ottawa (then known as Bytown) grew, the County of Carleton determined that a new gaol was needed and the Nicholas Street Gaol opened in 1861. It held men, women and children whatever their offence for the next 110 years. Built of solid limestone and fashioned with arches and columns, the Gaol was considered to be a model of its kind: roomy, well ventilated, and heated.

Despite it’s reputation – one author even describing it as “ornamental to the city” (Boldwen Davies, Ottawa, n.d., p. 85) prisoners were kept in small cells (3 feet by nine feet) and the glassless windows meant that there was nothing but bars separating them from the outside elements.

We know much about the lives of inmates in the late 1870s and 1880s because of a surviving Gaol Inspection Register. The inspectors’ reports provide insights into the inner workings of the gaol and the lives of some of the prisoners.

On these pages we read (bottom right p. 27 to top left p. 28): “Reference has again to be made to the case of Margaret Dogherty who, owing to outrageous conduct / has constantly to be kept under punishment, being at this time tied to the cell door. Although properly speaking the woman may not be insane there can be no doubt she is a fit subject for an asylum.”

In this entry of 7 May 1881, an extract of which you read on our installation, the inspector reported that there were 33 prisoners in the jail (12 men and 21 women) sentenced for crimes such as larceny, misdemeanour, vagrancy, causing bodily harm (“cutting and wounding”), and prostitution. One woman was “waiting trial for concealment of Birth” and another was noted as a “harmless lunatic awaiting a vacancy in the Kingston Asylum”.

The Gaol was closed in 1972 because the conditions were considered to be inhumane. It became the Hi-Ottawa Jail Hostel and prisoners deemed to be non-violent restored the building. It now features in the crime and punishment walk offered by Haunted Walks of Ottawa."

Reference: (visit link)

From an inscription on the utility box:

The prisoners sentenced to hard labour are kept employed in stone breaking and cleaning. Some small revenant (return) is gained by the proceeds of such labour.

In these images, we see the horses and wagons entering the enclosure of the jail bringing the logs for the inmates to saw into boards for construction projects or for fuel to heat the jail. Built in stones with high walls, the jail is reminiscent of the fortresses of old. It is a bit disconcerting to see a mother and her children, sitting on wooded boards placed on the ground, with nothing to do but wait for night to come and go to bed on slatted boards. And to think that the bars within the window casing were there only to prevent prisoners from escaping, but not to stop the cold, rain and snow from entering the small cell all three were sharing.

Title of the Art: Ottawa Jail Year Decorated: 2017 Name of Artist: Not listed

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