Behind Bars
Inside Ontario's Heritage Gaols
- Publisher
- Dundurn Press
- Initial publish date
- Sep 2006
- Category
- General, General, General
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9781897045176
- Publish Date
- Sep 2006
- List Price
- $22.95
-
eBook
- ISBN
- 9781459711143
- Publish Date
- Sep 2006
- List Price
- $8.99
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Description
Travel across Ontario and pay a visit to Ontario’s nearly 50 heritage jails. Built before the modern era of the OPP, they range in size from single cell lockups to massive monuments such as the Kingston Pen and the Don Jail. Although Spartan inside, many are architectural wonders on the outside and have been declared heritage buildings. A few have been converted to museums and show the harsh conditions that convicts had to endure. Behind Bars also tells of the many hilarious escapes, gruesome hangings and unusual trials which made Ontario’s old jails the centre of attention.
Highlights include ghost-town jails in Silver Islet and Berens River; torture devices on display at the Penitentiary Museum in Kingston, along with the "shower" and the coffin-sized "box"; the man who was executed but didn’t die; mysterious escapes; the battle over Ontario’s smallest jail; Woodstock’s death mask; love stories gone wrong; Ontario’s first terrorist attack; the worst mass murderer; and haunted jails.
"Noboby knows Ontario like Ron Brown."
- CBC Radio
About the author
Ron Brown is a freelance travel writer and photographer. He has published twenty books on the visual heritage of Ontario, including The Lake Erie Shore: Ontario's Forgotten South Coast; Behind Bars: Inside Ontario's Heritage Gaols; The Train Doesn't Stop Here Any More: An Illustrated History of Railway Stations in Canada; Ontario's Ghost Town Heritage; and Top 100 Unusual Things to See in Ontario. He is past chair of the Writers Union of Canada, and is active with the Travel Media Association of Canada, Access Copyright, where he sits on the board of directors, and the Book and Periodical Council. He lectures and directs bus tours based on his book topics. He lives in Toronto.
Editorial Reviews
"The book is an excellent reference for historians. Every Historical Society should have a copy."
The Rural Voice
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