Her Majesty’s Penitentiary: Part 2 – Rage, Riots, and Redactions
⚠️ Trigger Warning: This post contains descriptions of suicide, violence, institutional abuse, and systemic injustice. Reader discretion is advised.
In Part 1, we traced the origins of Her Majesty’s Penitentiary—from a colonial experiment in order and punishment to a decaying structure by the lake. But a prison isn’t just stone and steel. It’s people. Decisions. Secrets. And sometimes, screams.
This is the part of the story where we crack the doors open—and what spills out is chaos.
The Great Escapes
December 12, 1964 – A Mountie Dies
It was cold. Quiet. Until it wasn’t. Four inmates scaled the walls of HMP in the middle of a freezing December. They were gone before anyone noticed. They stole a car. They vanished. But freedom came at a devastating cost.
In Whitbourne, they encountered 24-year-old RCMP Constable Robert Amey, who tried to stop them. One of the escapees, Melvin Young, pulled a gun and fired. Amey was killed on the spot. A young life lost, simply for doing his job. The shockwave spread across the island. Newfoundland grieved. And HMP’s already fragile reputation took a hit it would never recover from.
All the fugitives were eventually caught. But that didn’t matter. A Mountie was dead. HMP had failed.
August 3, 2000 – The Predator Walks Free
He was the kind of inmate the public feared most—Richard Ryan, a man labeled a violent “sexual sadist.” HMP granted him a compassionate visit to see his dying mother. But only one officer was sent to escort him. And that officer let his guard down.
Ryan vanished.
What followed was a 25-day manhunt across Newfoundland. It gripped the province in fear. Was he armed? Would he strike again? When they found him—camped out in the woods like a ghost—the public breathed a sigh of relief. But questions remained.
An inquiry exposed a culture of complacency at HMP. Fourteen staff were disciplined. The Assistant Superintendent resigned. The system had been cracked open, and what spilled out was shame.
Riots, Hostages, and Blood
August 1982 – A Guard Held Hostage
Details are fuzzy, buried in hearsay. But in the early 1980s, inmates briefly took a guard hostage. Their demands? Better conditions. More respect. The event didn’t make headlines, but it rattled staff. It was a taste of worse things to come.
August 5–6, 2013 – The "15 for 2" Riot
A full-blown riot erupted. Inmates overpowered guards, took over a cellblock, and held at least one staff member hostage. During tense negotiations, they threatened to kill and behead their captives. At one point, a prisoner was traded for two cigarettes.
When tactical units stormed the unit, over $100,000 in damage had been done. It was one of the worst prison uprisings in Newfoundland history. Court records later revealed how dangerous the situation truly was.
February 9, 2014 – The Chapel Riot
A gang-style beating during a chapel service triggered a mass melee. Inmates had warned staff an attack was coming, but nothing was done.
Nine inmates were charged. One victim received $45,000 in a settlement for the prison’s failure to protect him. Staff accused management of negligence. Some believed the riot had been allowed to happen to "relieve pressure."
The Citizens’ Representative later said the incident was preventable.
Deaths Behind Bars
In Remembrance
Every name here carries weight. These were real people—many of them mentally ill, vulnerable, or awaiting trial. Some never made it to court. Some never made it home. Their deaths didn’t just happen—they were symptoms of a system collapsing from the inside.
Let these names be remembered:
Augustus Zarpa
Brian Fagan
Austin Aylward
Douglas Neary
Samantha Piercey
Christopher Sutton
Jonathan Henoche
We remember them not just for how they died—but for how they were
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