A report in 1833 by a committee of three respected Kingston colonials called for the construction of a limestone penitentiary on Hatter's Bay to the west of the town. Their report contained these words of advice for its future governors: ..". shall] be a place by every means not cruel and not affecting the health of the offender, but] shall be rendered so irksome and so terrible that during his lifetime he may dread nothing so much as a repetition of the punishment..." The obvious contradiction within this historical mandate of Canada's Big House has bedevilled the entire history of the...