Report on education in Ontario youth detention centres finds 'vastly different' experiences across facilities

The quantity and quality of education offered to youth in Ontario's detention centres varies greatly by facility, and the COVID-19 pandemic has only heightened those discrepancies, according to new report by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.

The report, based on interviews with youth who spent time in facilities and adults involved in the youth justice system, says there are major differences in the number of hours of education available to youth in each centre.

There are also differences in the scope and depth of programming available, with participants in some facilities voicing concerns that youth were being granted high school credits without having learned the material in order to make the centre "look good," it says.

Combined, these lead to "vastly different educational experiences and opportunities for a youth, depending on the facility they happened to be placed in," the document released Tuesday says.

The amount and quality of schooling in facilities was also notably different to what's offered to students attending mainstream schools in the community, where the standard school day is five hours excluding breaks, the report found.

It notes that Ontario school boards are not legally required to provide education in youth detention centres, but instead do so through voluntary partnerships that can be cut short at any time, "leading to significant disruptions to youths' education."

"The good news is that in some institutions, people are working very hard to deliver the best schooling they can to kids in jail. 

"The bad news is this: I'm sorry to report that in some institutions, the youth jails are little more than human warehouses, a place where kids don't get better, and probably get worse."

The report says the discrepancies have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, but appear to be caused by differences in organizational culture.

Some facilities seem to treat youth as "security threats to be managed," rather than students who deserve an education — particularly in cases where the majority of youth are Black, the report says.

In one security-focused institution, a decision was made to separate youth living in different units due to a belief that allowing them to mix would pose a threat to security, the report says.

As a result, schooling hours were split between  living units, meaning one group could only attend in the morning, and the other in the afternoon, it says.

The document lays out 19 recommendations, including establishing minimum standards for education in youth detention centres, and an audit of the educational programs currently available there.

The research project began in 2016 and involved more than 50 interviews, about a quarter of them with youth. All participants were self-selected volunteers.