| The guides who answer visitors’ questions at the Old Prison of Trois-Rivières are former inmates. Based on personal accounts and faithful reconstructions, the Musée québécois de culture populaire Go To Jail exhibit gives visitors a very strong, very real and sometimes disturbing experience.
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Entering the Old Prison of Trois-Rivières is much more than just a visit to a historic building; it’s a glimpse at prisoners’ living conditions in the penal system of the 1960s and 1970s.  The restoration of the building’s interior shows the original state of the cells, the chapel, the prison yard, the visiting room, the “hole”, the dungeons...  The prison has rules and standard procedures: arrival and departure rituals, daily routines, food, dress code, regulations…  A prisoner’s existence is marked by boredom, violence, solidarity, love, sexuality… Even in the close confines of the prison, inmates must constantly search for close ties with family, other inmates, or even guards… in spite of the rules. |
The Trois-Rivières prison was built in 1822. Designed by architect François Baillargé, it was designated a historic monument in 1978. Originally conceived to house around forty inmates, the prison was sometimes packed with more than a hundred. Even today, similar unacceptable penal conditions – some even worse, persist around the world. The unhealthy conditions of the prison led to many renovations over the years. Before closing in 1986, Trois-Rivières’ Old Prison was the oldest functional corrections establishment in Canada. |
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