Chapter 2

Era of Punishment (1871-1949)

Confederation

Confederation in 1871 brought British
Columbia into the fold of the new nation
known as Canada. It also ushered in a new
administrative structure to make the gaol
system more efficient, disciplined and
accountable.

The two-year rule was adopted to divide federal
and provincial responsibilities for corrections.
Under this rule, the federal government had
responsibility for housing convicted persons to
two years or more. The provincial government
took individuals who were sentenced to
anything less than two yeats.

The term ‘penitentiary’ referred to facilities
established for federal prisoners. At the
provincial level, prisons were not known as
penitentiaries; they were gaols and lockups. An
attorney general for British Columbia was
appointed with responsibility for these facilities,
excluding lockups under municipal authority.
Administration of provincial facilities became

the responsibility of the superintendent of the
British Columbia Police force.

When British Columbia entered Confederation,
there were three provincial gaols and about a
dozen lockups scattered throughout the
province. The largest provincial gaol (Bastion
Square Gaol at Victoria) had a capacity for 50
prisoners. All prisoners, regardless of age,
gender and crime, were held in the same
facility.' Gaols inherited from the colonial
period were not secure and many were

dilapidated.

One condition of B.C.’s entrance into
Confederation was an agreement by the federal
government to build a penitentiary. British
Columbia had a budget deficit (which the
federal government agreed to assume), and
could not afford to build such a facility. The
British Columbia Penitentiary, however, was
not completed until 1878. In the interim,
offenders sentenced to two years or more were
housed in provincial correctional institutions.

1 Up until the 1850s in Canada and the United States, persons convicted of criminal offences were housed in the
same institutions. Efforts to establish separate facilities for juveniles began in the 1850s.

Era of Punishment (1871-1949)

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