Well, if they freed me from this prison,
If that railroad train was mine,
I bet I’d move out over a little,
Farther down the line,
Far from Folsom Prison,
That’s where I want to stay,
And I’d let that lonesome whistle,
Blow my Blues away.
The old British Columbia Penitentiary stood in the city of New Westminster for over a hundred years.
After prison riots that occurred throughout the middle to late 1970s caused the closure of the by now infamous B.C. Pen, I started polling local and regional politicians to allow me access to the jail so I could photograph it. I was turned down repeatedly. Various excuses, both official and anecdotal, were given for the refusal, but I persisted.
The prison, it was said, remained in a state of total disrepair and decay after a particularly nasty riot and its population had been transferred to other correctional facilities across the country. In fact, if reports were to be believed, everything was left where it fell that final day prior to the prisoners’ relocation. The Pen was officially closed for good in 1980, and all but forgotten. The subject came up in the press once in awhile as to what would be done with the structure and land it sat on, but no one ever seemed to agree on the proper approach.
My photographic interest was historical certainly; the Pen was rife with stories about its sordid past, attempted break-outs and even it’s cemetery which still exists to this day. A young woman who worked at the prison, Mary Steinhauser, was shot and killed by the Emergency Response Team during a hostage crisis in 1975. The press had had a field day with that, speculating that perhaps she had been targeted because of a fling she may or may not have had with an inmate.
Sure, all of that was in the back of my mind. But I was also gripped by an intense 12-year-old-like curiosity. How cool would it be to roam through this giant granite castle taking pictures? Cool. Very cool. (more…)