Name: Millbrook Correctional Centre Location: Millbrook, Ontario Status: Closed Accessibility: Difficult Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Flavour of the Month Bryan, Shiroi and I cruised through the small town of Millbrook in search of a closed maximum security prison we had read about online. I had a pretty decent idea of where the building would be from minimal research on Google but the only problem now would be finding suitable parking nearby the prison. Millbrook is not a large place and as we get closer and closer the small two lane road continues to be surrounded by acres of farmland, which does not bode well for us. The prison sits atop a steep hill, and at the base of the hill we found a small bowling alley. The three of us agree to park there, we’re still being blatantly obvious about where what we’re doing but it’s better than parking on the shoulder or in front of the main gate. Wait, there is somebody parked in front of the main gate, a red minivan! The vehicle is empty but I get a bad feeling that we might be running into someone today. Thankfully the weather was miserable, a mix of freezing rain and snow, we’d have less chance of being pursued by nosey over protective locals. The three of us climb up the hill quickly hoping to avoid being spotted by passers by on the main road, the surface of the hill is nothing more than a frozen sheet of slippery mud but it doesn’t cause the three of us any problems heading up, besides needing a bit of a breather once we hit the top. Our group quickly enters a small abandoned house a few hundred meters from the prison and stop to scope the area out for security, there’s an eerie lack of activity in the area and we’re not sure what to expect. Waiting a couple of minutes we walk toward the prison wondering just how we plan to infiltrate the beast, the three storey brick wall surrounding the entire property is a tad intimidating to say the least. As we reach the administrative offices the entry point becomes extremely obvious to us, some local vandals have thoroughly destroyed the main entrance. We step out of the cold and into the damp darkness of the correctional facility, there’s junk all over the floor, fire hose propping open doors and safety glass scattered throughout. A horrifying thought suddenly comes to mind, we’re on the wrong side of the glass. We’re in the civilian part of the prison, the administrative offices, the visitation rooms… where are the cell blocks and dormitories? We begin to navigate the maze of hallways and stairways in the administration building through the pitch black until finding a spiral staircase into a watch tower. We get our first chance to see the maze of buildings beyond the 30 foot prison wall and we are not disappointed. At the bottom of the spiral staircase is the entrance to the rest of the prison: isolation rooms, holding rooms, dormitories, classrooms, chapel, kitchen, laundry room, sewing room, auto shop, hospital, dentist… it’s all there! The three of us attempt to get out into the yard but fail, all the exterior doors have been welded shut, the windows have been all barred and we settle for a walk out onto the roof. Rumors of an extensive basement throughout the building and padded cells prove to be false, the only basement in the building is a tight utility tunnel crammed with pipes and a small storage room. It isn’t a couple of hours before the charm of the jail begins to run out, we find ourselves walking from cell block to cellblock, each one looks identical to the next. Each cellblock has a set of showers, a couple of metal benches and a spot for a television to be anchored into the roof. Each cell contains bunk beds, a toilet, sink, and a desk. And the building repeats itself over and over again until we are bored with it. It’s time to leave. And with my rotten luck I manage to tumble down the hill on the way out. February 12th, 2009 BACK