The Timeline: 1985

welcome to the hotel california

In 1985 the most recent cell block was added to the prison. Referred to as general population or ‘hotel California’, it is the largest of all cell blocks holding up to 10 people. The living conditions in this cell block are significantly better than the others due to protests about the prisoner conditions at the SDG jail. The individual cell blocks contained bathrooms inside the cells and had a significantly larger cell to move around in due to complaints from the public of inhuman treatment.[1] These cells only held people with a sentence of two years or less. 

Around the same time, the female cell block was also added, it is the same style of cell that was put in the general population. It is only designed to hold two people due to the fact that this jail did not often have a large number of women incarcerated at the same time. 

There were a lot of additions added to this prison around the same time, the infirmary and the kitchen were put in around 1990. The infirmary had nurses that worked 36 hours a week, while a doctor would appear 2 days a week.[2] The room is not designed to handle severe injuries or illnesses and was most likely used for mild injuries. For those with major injuries, they most likely would have been sent to the local hospital.  The most recent kitchen was added on the outside building to replace the kitchen that was located in the basement of the prison, which is why the hallway to the kitchen has an outside wall. 

[1] The Ottawa Citizen. March 16, 1995

[2] Ottawa Citizen. January 3, 1997