DEATH ROW

I remember sitting on Death Row in Cell # 3 at Oakalla Prison in late 1991.
I was trying to memorize every detail of my cell, when the officers came to
get me and escorted me to the room where the gallows was. I could see the
noose hanging over the trap door which had its release lever beside it. In
front of me were the benches for the witnesses to sit on to watch the
executions and in the corner of the room was a heavy sandbag that had
obviously been used to test the gallows. The officers closed the door behind
me. Moments later there was an explosion as the thick steel door connecting
Death Row to the outside world was blown off of its hinges and crashed to
the ground outside of the building.

I had a great time! As Curator of the local city museum I was given
permission to take ANYTHING I wanted from the prison - oh yes, did I mention
that the prison had just closed and was about to be demolished? The ONLY
people in the huge complex were myself and some Royal Canadian Mounted
Police officers who were practicing with explosives to blow down doors for
hostage rescues etc. I had chosen to 'field collect' a jail cell, among
other things, for our museum collection but people had walked off with all
of the special keys. I needed to get the heavy steel bars and cell door
outside, so I simply asked the RCMP if they would kindly blow open this
thick steel door for me. As someone once said, "And the rest is history."

By the way, Canada only abolished the death penalty about 2 years ago. This
surprises most Canadians as they think it was abolished many years ago. It
was, ... for civilians, but the Canadian Armed Forces only recently deleted
it from their book of punishments (about Dec 1999?).

TRAVELLING EXHIBIT

Burnaby Village Museum, in co-operation with the BC Corrections Branch
History Committee, has a travelling exhibit about Oakalla Prison (1912-1991)
which was located in Burnaby, BC. The exhibit features an actual gallows, as
well as a hood and restraints for the person being hung, weapons made by
prisoners, riot gear etc.

At the prison, this gallows was not free-standing, but was built into the
building. There was a shaft (like an elevator shaft) below the gallows trap
door. The gallows consists of a wooden platform with trap doors, release
lever, and an overhead beam with padding on it over which the rope was hung,
and a replica noose. Capital punishment is not the theme of the exhibit, but
does feature in it. The exhibit was at Penticton, BC, is presently at
Kamloops, BC until September 1st. 2001.

CURATORIAL PROCESS WHEN CHOOSING WHAT TO COLLECT

Early on in this process I had decided that I wanted to collect a complete
cell (less the concrete) from Oakalla Prison in Burnaby so that the museum
could recreate a cell in the future. The question was which cell would I
take out of the hundreds that were there? I basically had three choices:
1. A generic cell.
2. A cell identified by Guards as having housed very infamous mass murderers
etc.
3. A cell off of Death Row.
I wanted something that would not only educate our visitors, but also
hopefully cause the hair to stand up on the back of their neck. That
eliminated choice number 1.  I knew that if I chose a cell associated with
an infamous murderer that it would make them even more infamous. I already
have a grudge against the media which immortalizes the mass murderers in
society to the extent that we all know the names of the murderers, but we do
not remember not the names of their victims. I then made my decision to
chose a cell from Death Row. Although about 30 people were executed at
Oakalla Prison over the years, this choice did not immortalize any one of
them. The cell could pass as a 'typical' gaol (pronounced 'jail') cell or
could be displayed for what it was, a Death Row cell.

We have the cell bars, sink, toilet, bed, guard's peephole for the rear of
the cell, air vent wire mesh, light bulb and even a razor blade that I found
hidden in the cell when we removed the bars! We also have a large brass
control dial and lever for remotely opening the cells.

My special interest is Canadian military history, and while collecting on
the prison site, I approached it as if I had been given a time machine and
could travel back to 1945 to collect at a military base that had just been
closed. I knew from trying to collect 20-50 years later what sort of things
were not normally saved from a large government facility and how difficult
it could to tell about the daily life when people usually only saved the
exotic material (substitute "wedding dress" instead of "housedress" in a
civilian scenario). The result was that I collected items to represent both
the staff and the prisoners an all aspects of their lives. This included
primary readers (which showed the lack of education for some of the adult
prisoners), sports equipment, erotic and politically incorrect cartoons (we
may never display them, but they were very much a part of that life for both
guards and prisoners), eating utensils, weapons made by prisoners from a
variety of items, drug paraphernalia, riot gear, farming tools, signs (e.g.
"Load and unload guns here"), schedules, menus, the camera to photograph
inmates when they arrived, special prisoner boots made there with white heel
pieces to aid in recognizing prisoners who were trying to or who had escaped
etc. We even equipped some offices at the museum with desks, coat racks,
wastepaper baskets and file cabinets from the prison. This included the
office of Susan Green who was at that time my superb Assistant Curator.

One day a Docent was surprised when children in a school group she was
greeting, started laughing at her. The clipboard she was clutching to her
bosom had on the back of it, facing the children, the words -- "Oakalla
Prison, Sept. 1991"


Colin Macgregor Stevens
Curator
Burnaby Village Museum
City of Burnaby, British Columbia, CANADA
[log in to unmask]

The opinions expressed here are my own.

==========================================
-----Original Message-----
... Behalf Of Daniel Karp
Sent: March 9, 2001 9:25 AM
... Subject: The Death Penalty!!!!

Ok its not as bad as it seems.   I am looking for institutions that have
traveling exhibits on the subject of the death penalty.  The University
of Oregon is interested for the '01-'02 Season.
...
Daniel Karp
Visual Arts Coordinator
UO Cultural Forum
[log in to unmask]
541.346.0007

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