Why were the men buried in the cemetery incarcerated in the first place?
The majority of the men buried in the BC Penitentiary cemetery were serving time at the penitentiary for theft or theft-related offences. In one 1948 case, that of Alphonse Alvin Duquette (6497), the amount stolen was $70; in another, that of Gordon Hawley (8869), the item stolen was $15 worth of men’s socks. Some of those convicted of theft were serving penitentiary time because they were sentenced under the 1947 Habitual Criminal Act (since repealed) to indefinite periods of incarceration as “habitual criminals” — those with lengthy criminal records who, at the discretion of a judge, could be permanently removed from society. In terms of violent crime, only eight of the men buried in the cemetery were convicted of murder, an additional three of manslaughter, two more of attempted murder and one of “accessory after the fact” to murder. One of the men buried in the cemetery was serving time for common assault, and another for “causing the death of an unborn child”. Three of the men bu
