The coffin‑shaped dining boxes that forced women to eat apart

A federal prison in Kingston kept coffin-shaped dining boxes to isolate women during meals - how did that expose them?

The coffin‑shaped dining boxes that forced women to eat apart

In this episode, we chronicle the documented conditions inside the Prison for Women in Kingston, Ontario, tracing its architecture, policies, and the experiences of inmates over decades. What practices inside that Neoclassical building created lasting harm and who bore the cost?

Location: Kingston, Ontario Institution: Prison for Women (federal penitentiary) Date opened: 1934 Reported abuses: coffin-shaped dining isolation boxes, involuntary segregation, psychiatric experiments Affected group: Indigenous women disproportionately over-classified and subjected to harsher treatment

- Women were forced to sit during meals in upright coffin-shaped wooden boxes placed in the dining hall as punishment. - A 1921 RCMP report and a 1938 government report documented poor conditions, inadequate education, and harmful solitary confinement. - Construction began in May 1925; male inmates from Kingston Penitentiary built the new Neoclassical facility designed by Henry H. Horsey. - The Prison for Women was the sole federal institution for women in Canada, receiving inmates from every province regardless of distance. - Between 1988 and 1991, seven Indigenous women died by suicide inside the institution, and psychiatric crises were often met with long-term segregation.

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