The Penal Press
The Early Penal Press
The penal press in Canada originated with Telescope at Kingston Penitentiary in September 1950. It was joined within twelve months by Pathfinder (Saskatchewan Penitentiary), The Diamond (Collins Bay Penitentiary), The Beacon (Dorchester Penitentiary), Pen-o-Rama (Saint-Vincent-de-Paul Penitentiary), and Mountain Echoes (Manitoba Penitentiary). The French-language publication Horizons (Centre Federal de Formation) followed suit in 1956.
The Criminology Library acquired the majority of their penal press collection through direct subscription. Given that the library was established in 1963, the collection only has later issues of these early publications. Mountain Echoes (holdings from January 1953 to December 1965) and Horizons (holdings from March 1956 to December 1967) are notable exceptions. Issues from these two titles bear annotations such as "wardens files" and "chaplain," indicating the possible original owners of these titles now in the library's collection.
An editorial in the August 1960 issue of Mountain Echoes pondered the significance of the penal press, and aptly described the early approach to publishing. It emphasized the goal of the press as educating the public on aspects of prison life such as recreation programs, sporting events, concerts, and visits by dignitaries, alongside allowing inmates to write their own opinions and experiences. The editorial acknowledged the challenges in achieving this latter objective, stating, "These articles are hard to write a lot of them do not get past the censors office." These early publications, which were largely supported and financed by the administration, also served the purpose of keeping "prisoners busy in a constructive activity." The editor of Tarpaper would reflect back on the early years of the penal press in 1973, stating, "you can’t organize a riot or dig a tunnel while beating the hell out of a typewriter or watching to make sure that the duplicating machine doesn’t gobble up the whole stack of paper in one gulp."
Existing scholarship on the subject demonstrates the research value of these early issues. Dr. Robert Gaucher, a retired professor of Criminology from the University of Ottawa, well-known for his expertise in the field of the penal press, emphasizes that the early penal press provides "an exceedingly rich enthnographic source of prisoner experience and prison life in Canada during the post-war period of prison reform and change" (Gaucher, Journal of Prisoners on Prisons, Autumn 1989, pg. 4). Furthermore, he states, these early titles focus on vocational and educational training, the "problems of post-release, the stigmatization of a prison record and the need for post-release facilities and work opportunities for the released 'reformed convict'" (pg. 4).
Pathfinder's July 1964 editorial directly speaks to this stigmatization of the prisoner by the outside, "Prisoners are human beings. They are people. I know that to many men and women the word 'convict' conjures a vague shape of something extremely ugly, generally with short horns in the area of the head ... this would be almost funny if it weren't the truth. ... because the public today are not, by and large, penally educated."
Throughout the 1960s, prison publications shifted increasingly away from sports scores, and movie nights to content focused more on the experience, opinions and thoughts of the prisoner. They increasingly, tackled more controversial and timely topics including censorship, early Indigenous activism, and editorials and articles on the death penalty, parole and the Habitual Criminal Act.
These publications also served to share knowledge amongst prisoners, both in their own institution and at other prisons and penitentiaries. An exchange of penal press titles allowed inmates to learn how other prisons and penitentiaries functioned, their news - as much as they were able to share it - and to gain further insight into topics pertinent to them. This was significant as prisoners were not allowed to write or contact other inmates, in fact in the 1950s and 1960s, mail was extremely restricted. For example, at Kingston Penitentiary inmates were only allowed to write to immediate relatives and their spouse, and one same-sex friend providing they were of "reputable" character. These restrictions meant that the penal press emerged as an important vehicle of communication, information and news.
The Penal Press Comes of Age
By the end of 1968, all the original penal press titles had ceased publication, but were quickly replaced by the second generation, including Advance (Joyceville Institution), Avatar (Collins Bay Penitentiary), Off the Wall (Saskatchewan Penitentiary), Tarpaper (Matsqui Federal Institution), Terminator (Manitoba Penitentiary), Communicator (Springhill Institution), the Outlook (Warkworth Institution) and two titles produced by women: Tightwire (Prison for Women) and The Inside-Outlook (Vanier Centre).
The new approach of the penal press is aptly described in a manifesto published by Avatar in December 1977. “It exists as a subtle, quiet fellowship of cons among cons. It is the secret expression of sanity that endures the insanity of prisons. In a manner of speaking, the penal press is a silent prison manifesto to the world. It is the crying out of injustices that contradict the philosophy of criminology."
These new publications became increasingly focused on activism, addressing issues such as prison labour, parole, rehabilitation, and injustices within the penal system. This shift included a pushback against the treatment of inmates inside prisons, encompassing concerns such as violence, segregation, solitary confinement, inadequate medical and mental health care, suicide, and incidents of guard violence. However, despite the burgeoning voices seeking to address these concerns, the full extent of their discourse was often absent or curtailed due to administrative censorship. Consequently, this censorship fostered the emergence of 'outside' publications—titles completely or partially authored by former and current inmates but published beyond the confines of the prison system. These external platforms provided a venue for uncensored expression, exemplified by titles such as Transition, Bulldozer, Break Through, and Prison Journal.
The late 1970s and early 1980s witnessed the advent of more militant and radical publications, notably Odyssey (Millhaven Penitentiary) and Tocsin (Collins Bay Penitentiary). In Volume I, Issue 1 of Tocsin, published by the Collins Bay Chapter of the John Howard Society—a non-profit organization dedicated to prison reform—the editors delineated their aims and objectives. Their statement (see image below) shows the most important topics pertaining to prisoners at Collins Bay and underscored the evolving landscape of discourse within the penal press.
View more examples of the second generation of penal press titles below
