Constructed from 1833 to 1834 and opened on June 1, 1835, as the "Provincial Penitentiary of the Province of Upper Canada", it was one of the oldest prisons in continuous use in the world at the time of its closure in 2013.

[1] The site was chosen for "combining the advantages of perfect salubrity, ready access to the water, and abundant quantities of fine limestone.

[2] English author Charles Dickens visited Kingston in 1842 and commented in his American Notes: "There is an admirable jail here, well and wisely governed, and excellently regulated, in every respect.

The men were employed as shoemakers, ropemakers, blacksmiths, tailors, carpenters, and stonecutters; and in building a new prison, which was pretty far advanced towards completion.

To put a stop to what was threatening to become a massacre, another inmate, Barrie MacKenzie, made a decision to release the hostages early on the morning of 18 April 1971.

[7] On 22 November 1971, the Crown made a plea bargain with the charges of two counts of first-degree murder against Brian Beaucage, who had organized the murders, were dropped in exchange for Beaucage making a guilty plea to one count of assault causing bodily harm with regard to the beating he had inflicted on Ensor.

Swackhamer, reported that they had "already noted a number of causes for Kingston's failure: the aged physical facilities, overcrowding, the shortage of professional staff, a program that had been substantially curtailed, the confinement in the institution of a number of people who did not require maximum security confinement, too much time spent in cells, a lack of adequate channels to deal with complaints and the lack of an adequate staff which resulted in the breakdowns of established procedures to deal with inmate requests.

"[6] This riot, together with successors in 1975, led to an official Sub-Committee on the Penitentiary System in Canada, chaired by Justice Mark MacGuigan.

Two weeks later, surrounded by police in Toronto, Conn suffered a fatal self-inflicted gunshot wound while speaking on the telephone to CBC producer Theresa Burke.

[citation needed] Other notable inmates include Lizzie Lessard,[23] Wayne Ford,[24] Russell Williams,[25] Paul Bernardo, Clifford Olson, Roger Caron and Grace Marks.

Tim Buck, leader of the Communist Party, was a prisoner at Kingston Penitentiary convicted under Section 98 of the Criminal Code during the early 1930s.

[27] Several of the Port Hope 8 such as Gary Comeau, Merv Blaker, Jeff McLeod, and Richard Sauvé were held at Kingston Penitentiary in 1979–1980.

[30] Gregory Woolley, the boss of the Hells Angels puppet gang, the Rockers, served his prison sentence at Kingston Penitentiary between 2005 and 2011.

Two men, Ravin Gill and Bradley Waugh, placed wanted posters for the six guards around Kingston which led to their being charged with criminal libel.

Michael Rafferty was serving a life sentence for his role in the kidnapping, rape and murder of eight-year-old Victoria Stafford of Woodstock, but has since been relocated.