1993

prison violence and a mother’s fight for justice

On October 24th, 1993, prisoners within the Kingston Penitentiary began to protest after having gone twenty-one hours without being fed [1]. When two guards approached his cell, a Black man named Robert ‘Tex’ Gentles reportedly asked them why the prisoners had not been fed. After a brutal assault by six guards, Tex was pulled from his cell unconscious. A staff nurse at the penitentiary reported that Tex showed no vital signs, and he was later pronounced dead at the emergency ward of Kingston’s downtown hospital. 

 

Tex Gentles was involved in creating the Prison Violence Project, an organization dedicated to minimizing violence in prisons, protecting inmates and preventing further cycles of violence once they were released.

 

Despite overwhelming evidence from eyewitnesses and the autopsy report that Tex’s death was a result of racism and excessive use of force, no charges were laid by the Kingston Police Department. If not for the tireless efforts of Tex’s mother, Ms. Carmeta Gentles, his death would have been covered up as accidental or natural. With support from friends, family, community members, and a legal team, Ms. Gentles held a private prosecution in front of the Justice of Peace. The Justice of Peace ruled manslaughter charges against the six prison guards, but charges were later dropped [2]. This was the first time in Canadian history that correctional officers had ever been charged in connection with the death of a prisoner. 

 

On the two-year anniversary of the murder, approximately 100 protesters marched from the John Deutsch University Centre to Kingston Penitentiary and the provincial headquarters of the Correctional Service of Canada to protest prison violence. Throughout the march and vigil, protesters covered the front of the penitentiary with the names of the six guards and slogans, such as “Justice for Gentles” and “Jail the Killer Guards”. 

 

In summarizing the ten-year battle to attain accountability for her son’s murder, Carmeta urged everyone to “never to accept injustice but rather to demand their rights no matter how difficult the fight may seem to be.” In Canada, there is a growing abolitionist movement working to end prisons, and to address the prison industrial complex more broadly. Local groups focused on abolition include the Prison for Women Memorial Collective, End the Prison Industrial Complex (EPIC), and Care Not Cops.

 

[1] AInfos. 1996. “The Death of Robert Gentles.” The Anarchives. http://www.ainfos.ca/A-Infos96/8/0140.html.

[2] Stone, K. n.d. “Resolution of the Ron Gentles Case”, CARR Hamilton, Retrieved July 18th, 2021, from http://www.ccarhamilton.ca/Issues/Resolution%20of%20the%20Rob%20Gentles%27%20case.htm