# Rideau Correctional & Treatment Centre



## jerm IX (Dec 15, 2011)

Opened in 1947, The Rideau Correctional Centre in Merrickville, Ontario originally served as a minimum security facility where inmates learned farming skills while serving out their sentences. The agricultural component was phased out over the years, in favour of treatment programs. In the latter years of the jails operations, it housed mainly sex offenders and drug addicts in the 354 beds, and offered various treatment programs in an attempt to combat recidivism. These treatment programs included anger management, substance abuse, and relapse prevention.

The Rideau Correctional & Treatment Centre closed in 2004 as part of the Ontario governments Infrastructure Renewal Program, and the inmate population was transferred to the new super jail in Lindsay. The program also brought about the closure of almost twenty other provincial jails, including the Millbrook Correctional Centre, which I also explored recently.

Our exploration begins with a long walk across the farmer's field, which was once maintained by the inmate population. We continue through dense vegetation and thick brush under the hot summer sun. Ninja and I, clothing covered in thistles and thorns, eventually make our way down a steep embankment, and then back up the other side of the crevice, pushing aside grasses and weeds that are taller than ourselves. We are overjoyed to come across what inmates here would surely have loved to encounter: A hole in the fence.

And so here we are, breaking into prison.

Click the link below to read the entire write-up and see all of the photos...


http://jermalism.blogspot.com/2011/12/abandonment-issues-rideau-correctional.html




Here are a sampling of the photos...




escapee by jerm IX, on Flickr




cellmates by jerm IX, on Flickr




the riot by jerm IX, on Flickr




outlook not so good by jerm IX, on Flickr




solitary confinement A by jerm IX, on Flickr




solitary single cell amoeba by jerm IX, on Flickr




EMERGENCY EVACUATION PROCEDURE by jerm IX, on Flickr




bottom bunk blues by jerm IX, on Flickr




let the courts decide your fate by jerm IX, on Flickr


----------



## jerm IX (Dec 17, 2011)

135 views and no comments?!!

What, no one is as obsessed with old jails as I am or what?!
I love this place.


----------



## Priority 7 (Dec 17, 2011)

Nice work Jerm...and unlike the inmates you didn't have to be released


----------



## Ratters (Dec 17, 2011)

Lovely work


----------



## UrbanX (Dec 17, 2011)

I'm sure Ive seen a documentary of this place while in use. Appalling. Beautiful photographs as always, thanks for sharing.


----------



## Pincheck (Dec 17, 2011)

Interesting story mate about finding the Hole  ,Nice shots bud


----------



## Foxylady (Dec 17, 2011)

jerm IX said:


> 135 views and no comments?!!


Some of us are slow at catching up with the latest posts. Me, I prefer to say that I'm fashionably late! 

Fab photos Jerm. I especially love the pic with the view through the cracked glass...superb. Fascinating explore.


----------



## jerm IX (Jan 21, 2012)

Thanks guys.


----------

