On The Side Lines: General Penitentiary the new home of incarcerated dancehall artiste Vybz Kartel

General Penitentiary

This is the new home of incarcerated Dancehall artiste Vybz Kartel who was recently moved to this new maximum security facility built just after slavery ended 1845. Slavery officially ended 1838.

This stately looking design looks similar to the Penitentiary commonly called the “Kingston Pen”, located in Kingston, Ontario. Canada. This would not be surprising as both countries, Jamaica and Canada were former British colonies … you will notice similar names, “Kingston”.

Kingston is the capital of Jamaica and was also former capital of Canada.

In my yet to be published book “Tales Of Two Kingstons” these similarities are catalogued.

The undersigned lived, studied and was a, newspaper writer, broadcaster etc. in Kingston, Ontario, Canada in the late 1990s.

Hopeton O’Connor-Dennie is Senior International Correspondent & photojournalist for Vision Newspaper Canada/Caribbean Region.