This is the history of the foundations of modern carceral institutions in Ontario. Drawing on a wide range of previously unexplored primary material - including the papers of prison inspectors and officials and the correspondence of those who wrote to the authorities - Peter Oliver provides a narrative and interpretative account of the penal system in nineteenth-century Ontario.

In a century of massive social change, the penal system remained rural, local, decentralized, and resistant to transformations that were affecting other areas of society. Despite the efforts of reformers,...

These essays explore, broadly speaking, two related issues: first, the extent to which we have confidence in law to deal with the range of social, political and moral issues which constantly confront us; second, the extent to which law makes room for perspectives which do not speak law's traditional language of logic, reason, certainty, and so forth. Faith in this context refers to that which is known or experienced in ways which are difficult to articulate or justify, but which are nonetheless real and undeniable to many individuals and groups. This idea of faith extends beyond the encounter...