The fact that the transcontinental railroad had not yet been constructed made transporting prisoners long distances east to other federal institutions costly and difficult, which further exacerbated this need.

[8] However, increasing costs of its operation, decreasing costs of buying food from outside sources, the perceived decline in the usefulness of providing agricultural training to inmates, and the increasing urbanization of the surrounding area, led to the decision to close the farm and sell the farmland to the City of New Westminster.

Staffing requirements increased over time in accordance with standards dictated by the Canadian Penitentiary Service.

[13] However, this did not prevent the series of violent riots and hostage-takings that plagued BC Penitentiary in its final years.

These included, among other things, cell blocks, offices, a hospital, a kitchen, work and school facilities, and two chapels (one Catholic, one Protestant).

The remains of most inmates who died at BC Penitentiary were claimed by their families; those that were not were buried at Boot Hill.

BC Penitentiary was heavily involved in government conflict with the Sons of Freedom sect of British Columbia Doukhobors in the mid 20th century.

When the majority of these sentences expired, the prison camp was closed and the remaining Doukhobor inmates were transferred to the main penitentiary.

New huts were constructed at BC Penitentiary, but this time they were used to house members of the general prison population in order to free up space to move the Doukhobors into fire-proofed cells in the main cellblocks.

Another round of arsons in 1961 and 1962 prompted the creation of the Agassiz Mountain Prison as a satellite of BC Penitentiary.

The entire prison was designed to avoid incendiarism, with everything, including furniture, being made of concrete or metal.

The inmates began a hunger strike in August 1962, which carried on for over a year and resulted in one death due to malnutrition, despite forced-feedings.

Methods of punishment for violations of prison rules employed within BC Penitentiary evolved along with the times.

[20] Other common form of punishment included working on the chain gang, punitive diets of bread and water, and solitary confinement.

Prisoners could be placed in segregation for three reasons: at their own request; as punishment for up to 30 days; or for administrative purposes for an unlimited amount of time.

The cells contained only a wash basin/toilet combination (cold water only), and a radio selector (there were two channels), and a concrete pad covered with a sheet of plywood four inches off the floor on which the inmates slept.

Inmates were not permitted to speak to one another, work, attend school, visit the library, watch TV, or engage in any other interactive activities.

Before the abolition of the death penalty in Canada, executions were carried out at provincial gaols rather than federal prisons.

Smith and another inmate at BC Penitentiary, Herman Wilson, killed a guard during an escape attempt on October 5, 1912.

The official reasoning for conducting the execution at BC Penitentiary was that it was easier to continue to house Smith there rather than transfer him to a provincial institution.

A scaffold was specially constructed for the execution, near the spot where the guard had been killed during the failed escape attempt.

[26] Like most maximum security prisons of its vintage, BC Penitentiary experienced a number of inmate suicides, self-mutilations, assaults, stabbings, escape attempts and murders throughout its history.

However, it began to experience exponentially more of these major incidents as the facility aged and became less suitable as a modern prison.

Most of BC Penitentiary's major violent incidents occurred in its final 10 years of operation in the 1970s.

[26] The worsening of conditions and increasing number of violent incidents at BC Pen contributed to its decommissioning in 1980.

The riot was instrumental to the Canadian government implementing a policy of paying its federal inmates five cents per day.

"The mad ringleader, Gerry Casey, his lean face suffused with anger, struck the knife against Dennis' throat and screamed at me," Webster wrote in a story for the Vancouver Sun.

One of the inmates, convicted murderer Andy Bruce, grabbed a hostage, classification officer Mary Steinhauser, to use as a human shield.

Police riot control squads, and Canadian Army soldiers surrounded the perimeter of the prison.

After the newly formed Citizens' Advisory Committee arrived on site and began participating in negotiations, the hostage-takers released one hostage in a show of good faith, and a nine-point deal was eventually struck on October 2, peacefully ending the riot and hostage-taking.