Project Turnaround was a

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...

youth detention centre for male young offenders between 16 and 18 years of age that operated from 1997 to 2004 in Hillsdale,

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Canada. The facility held up to 32 high-risk youths at a time who were serving sentences for crimes such as

assault An assault is the act of committing physical harm or unwanted physical contact upon a person or, in some specific legal definitions, a threat or attempt to commit such an action. It is both a crime and a tort and, therefore, may result in crim ...

robbery Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take anything of value by force, threat of force, or by use of fear. According to common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the perso ...

, forcible confinement,

escape Escape or Escaping may refer to: Computing * Escape character, in computing and telecommunication, a character which signifies that what follows takes an alternative interpretation ** Escape sequence, a series of characters used to trigger some so ...

, and weapons charges. Youth serving sentences for crimes such as

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...

arson Arson is the crime of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property. Although the act of arson typically involves buildings, the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles, wat ...

, and

sexual assault Sexual assault is an act in which one intentionally sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their will. It is a form of sexual violence, which ...

were not eligible for admission to Project Turnaround. The program had an annual budget of $2.3 million.

History

Project Turnaround operated on a

boot camp Boot camp may refer to: Training programs * Boot camp (correctional), a type of correctional facility for adolescents, especially in the U.S. penal system * Boot camp, a training camp for learning various types of skills ** Dev bootcamp, a de ...

approach, part of a

tough on crime In modern politics, law and order is the approach focusing on harsher enforcement and penalties as ways to reduce crime. Penalties for perpetrators of disorder may include longer terms of imprisonment, mandatory sentencing, three-strikes laws a ...

response to increasing youth incarceration rates by the government of Premier Mike Harris. Solicitor General

Bob Runciman Robert William "Bob" Runciman (born August 10, 1942) is a veteran Canadian politician and former provincial Leader of the Opposition in the Ontario Legislature. First elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in 1981, he held the seat cont ...

stated that Project Turnaround was "about getting people up at six o'clock in the morning ndreducing the kind of privileges oung offendershave currently across the system." Harris' campaign in the 1995 provincial election explicitly used the term "boot camps" to refer to plans for strict youth detention facilities, but the provincial government and Encourage Youth Corporation both later objected to that label being applied to Project Turnaround. Youth held in the facility were subjected to high-intensity daily activities that lasted approximately 16 hours under a program of military-style discipline. The program—designed to be "more than a boot camp" according to Project Turnaround owner Sally Walker in a 2003 interview— was meant to instill respect and accountability, build productive skills, and offer educational and vocational programming to those who were predicted to re-offend. The provincial government touted the program as a success, reporting that the rate of

recidivism Recidivism (; from ''recidive'' and ''ism'', from Latin ''recidīvus'' "recurring", from ''re-'' "back" and ''cadō'' "I fall") is the act of a person repeating an undesirable behavior after they have experienced negative consequences of th ...

among youth who had been through Project Turnaround was 33 percent compared to 50 percent at public youth centres, and Public Security Minister

announced a plan in 2003 to expand the strict-discipline youth detention model across the province. Other researchers, such as

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

criminologist Anthony Doob, stated those claims were not shown by the government's own data and that youths passing through Project Turnaround were not any less likely to re-offend. In February 2003 the establishment had a mould outbreak requiring temporary transfer of 24 offenders to other provincial institutions. Following the change of government in the 2003 provincial election, new Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services

Monte Kwinter Monte Kwinter (born March 22, 1931) is a former politician in Ontario, Canada. He was a Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1985 until 2018. He represented the riding of York Centre for much of that period. Kwinter was a ...

announced that the contract for Project Turnaround would not be renewed. Kwinter cited the high cost and small population of the program as the reason for the decision and stated that youth correctional services would be better provided through government-run programs. In a December 2003 interview, Walker disagreed that the program did not provide value for money and claimed that Project Turnaround was under-capacity due to judges being more lenient on youth following changes to the ''

Youth Criminal Justice Act The ''Youth Criminal Justice Act'' (YCJA; french: Loi sur le système de justice pénale pour les adolescents) (the ''Act'') is a Canadian statute, which came into effect on April 1, 2003. It covers the prosecution of youths for criminal offen ...

''. All youth at Project Turnaround were relocated to public youth detention centres in December 2003 and the facility was formally closed on January 31, 2004.

References

External links

* {{webarchive , url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021226085906/http://www.corrections.mcs.gov.on.ca:80/english/cservices/young_pt.html , date=December 26, 2002 , title=Ministry of Correctional Services: Project Turnaround Youth detention centres in Canada Defunct prisons in Ontario 1997 establishments in Ontario 2004 disestablishments in Ontario Private prisons