Stony Mountain Institution

Stony Mountain Institution is a federal multi-security facility located in Stony Mountain, Manitoba, about 11mi from Winnipeg. The medium security prison opened in 1877, the minimum security unit (formerly Rockwood Institution) opened in 1962 and the newest addition to the prison, the maximum security unit, opened in 2014.On September 30, 2013, Kingston Penitentiary in Ontario officially closed its doors and ceased being a federal prison, making the Stony Mountain Institution (medium security site) the oldest federal prison in Canada.HistoryIn the years immediately following Confederation, Kingston Penitentiary was joined by several new institutions: St Vincent de Paul in 1873, British Columbia Penitentiary in 1878, and Dorchester in 1880. The establishment of the "Manitoba Penitentiary" was authorized by the young Canadian federal government in 1872. Lands were expropriated at Stony Mountain, some 11mi from Lower Fort Garry, where Sir Garnet Wolseley’s expeditionary force had been stationed as part of the effort to quell the first Riel Rebellion of 1869-70. One of the members of that force, Samuel Lawrence Bedson, did not return East following the Rebellion, but went on to become the first Warden of the new Penitentiary.