The first female inmates arrived on January 24, 1934. Before this date, maximum security female offenders were housed in the Female Department of the maximum security Kingston Penitentiary located across the street.[2]
Beginning in 1995, female inmates were gradually transferred to other federal correctional institutions. On May 8, 2000, the last female inmate was transferred away from the P4W.[3]
In January 2008, Queen's University took ownership of the former site of the Prison for Women. The property is 8.1 acres (33,000 m2) in size. The university archives were originally slated to be housed there once renovations were completed, but this is no longer the case.[4] The transformation of the property included the demolition of three of the four stone security walls.[5] In June 2018 Queens University sold the site to ABNA Investments Ltd.[6] In 2021 Signature Retirement Living announced plans to turn the property into a seniors community.[7] In February 2023 it was announced that this plan had been cancelled and that the property would instead be developed into a mixed-use neighbourhood.[8]
The Prison for Women was closed following a number of controversial incidents. LSD was administered to inmates at the prison as part of tests that are today considered to be ethically dubious.[10] As well, a riot at the prison in 1994 resulted in Justice Louise Arbour, then of the Ontario Court of Appeal heading up what became known as the Commission of Inquiry into Certain Events at the Prison for Women in Kingston which found that the treatment of prisoners at the facility had been "cruel, inhumane and degrading".[11]
Routinely overclassified in their security category,[12][13] Indigenous inmates constituted a considerable proportion of the inmate population and reported particularly violent treatment by prison staff.[14]
^"Prison for Women captures the sorrow". The Globe and Mail, September 10, 1981.
^Kathleen Cranley Glass, "Questions and Challenges in the Governance of Research Involving Humans: A Canadian Perspective" in Trudo Lemmens & Duff R. Waring, ed., Law and Ethics in Biomedical Research: Regulation, Conflict of Interest and Liability (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006) 35 at 36–37.
^Women's Prison Riot Report, by Sharon Doyle Driedger and Patricia Chisholm, from Maclean's Magazine, April 15, 1996, reproduced by The Canadian Encyclopedia.
^Monture-Angus, P. (2000) Aboriginal Women and Correctional Practice: Reflections on the Task Force on Federally Sentenced Women. IN: Hannah-Moffat, K. and Shaw, M. (eds.) (2000) An Ideal Prison? Critical Essays on Women’s Imprisonment in Canada. Pp 52–60.
^Faith, K. (1995). Aboriginal women's healing lodge: Challenge to penal correctionalism? The Journal of Human Justice. Vol. 6 (2). Pp 79–104.
^Sugar, F. and Fox, L. (1989). Nistum Peyako Seht'wawin Iskwewak: Breaking chains. Canadian Journal of Women and the Law. Vol 3 (2). Pp 465–482.