Former guards reflect as 174-year-old Chatham-Kent jail prepares for transformation

The Chatham-Kent Jail was built in 1850 and will soon be turned into an apartment complex its former guards have stories to tell and they are giving tours before the conversion takes place.

Dave Arnoldworked at the jail as a corrections officer from 1990 to 2014, when the jail was shut down.

He recalls when the last semi-successful escape from the facility happened in the late 1990s.

He says theinmate managed to get out of the facility by digging a hole through the plaster ceiling and crawling in.

"He kicked out a roof vent [and]shimmied down adrain pipe," Arnold said.

He says the jail was alerted to the escape by a neighbour who saw what was happening.

But the inmate did manage to evade the guards and stole a car.

"He just happenedto look around and there was a case of beer in the vehicle with him."

Arnold says the escapee eventually rolled thevehicle on the 401 while trying to make his getaway.

"An OPP cruiser came to investigate it and saw the man was still wearing orange and put two and two together and bingo, he's rearrested," Arnold said.

Watch Arnold tell the story of what he says is Chatham-Kent Jail's last escape:

Chatham Kent Jail's final escape, according to former guard

2 months ago

Duration 2:45

After 174 years, the Chatham-Kent Jail will soon be gutted and transformed into an apartment complex. Dave Arnold is a former corrections officer at the facility and tells us the story of what he says was the jail's last escape.

Arnold is joining two other former guards giving tours of the jail and an adjoining courthouseuntil September before they are gutted and turned into an apartment complex.

The developers of the buildings are not changing the exteriors as they are designated as a heritage site.

But, according to the developers, theinterior plans are still underway, so details about the layout or the number of units that they are planning to build are not yet set.

Alysson Storey, who is a councillor for the municipality, says the housing that the site will be providingis sorely needed.

"The chance to provide [housing] in such a really interesting and historic structure, I think is really exciting," she says.

Easter riot

Loris Arthurton, another former guard, remembers when a riot broke outat the jail on Easter Sunday in 2000.

"When I came in, I heard just this roar of crazy noise and smoke, that smell of smoke," Arthurton said.

At the time, he says, the inmates were allowed to carry matches to light cigarettes.

Mayhem broke out in one cell block where inmates were lighting fires in their cells he believes they were getting carried away because of drugs that had been smuggled in by a new inmate.

"They were high throwing the the flammable materials out. The smoke detectors were setting them fire bells off every two or three minutes," he says.

He says inmates inanother section of the jail decided to join in when they heard what was happening.

"So it was like 30 or 40 people all kicking the wall, screaming, hooting and hollering, carrying on. But I could see that
wall actually moving as they were kicking it, and I was praying that the rivets weren't gonna crack because then they would get out and they'd be loose."

"It was just bedlam."