Sprucedale Secondary School
Encyclopedia
Summary
This youth center is a secure custody prison for young peopleYoung People
Young People is a 1961 Mexican crime film directed by Luis Alcoriza. It was entered into the 11th Berlin International Film Festival.-Cast:* Teresa Velázquez - Olga * Julio Alemán - El Gato* Adriana Roel - Alicia...
aged 16 to 18 years old. Generally young persons older than 18 are moved to adult prisons. Sprucedale has the highest level of security for a correctional facility, and young people convicted of serious offences under the Youth Criminal Justice Act
Youth Criminal Justice Act
Canada's Youth Criminal Justice Act is a Canadian statute, which came into effect on April 1, 2003. It covers the prosecution of youths for criminal offences...
, up to and including murder are found within the prison
Prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
. Until the 1990s, the school was not part of the Grand Erie District School Board, or any public school board.
The province of Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
which runs the facility ran the high school as an independent unit within the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services; however, an administrative change was made throughout the province and the obligation to run the school was placed in the hands of the public school board that operated in the facility's region. The teachers
Teachers
Teachers may refer to:* Teachers, people who provide schooling for pupils and students* Teachers , one of the five Ascension Gift Ministries* Teachers , a British sitcom* Teachers Teachers may refer to:* Teachers, people who provide schooling for pupils and students* Teachers (ministry), one of the...
that worked in the prison became employees of the Grand Erie District School Board upon this shift.
The school is design to provide Ontario Academic Credit
Ontario Academic Credit
The Ontario Academic Credit or OAC was part of the curriculum codified by the Ontario Ministry of Education in Ontario Schools: Intermediate and Senior and its revisions. In common parlance, the term is used to describe the fifth high school year that used to exist in the province of...
s and allow young persons in custody to complete their high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
or upgrade functional literacy
Literacy
Literacy has traditionally been described as the ability to read for knowledge, write coherently and think critically about printed material.Literacy represents the lifelong, intellectual process of gaining meaning from print...
and work related skills. There are no school teams or extracurricular activities. The teachers are not expected to be involved in correctional activities, rather they are dedicated to providing education like in any other high school environment and are often unaware of the prisoner's case history or criminal background
Conviction
In law, a conviction is the verdict that results when a court of law finds a defendant guilty of a crime.The opposite of a conviction is an acquittal . In Scotland and in the Netherlands, there can also be a verdict of "not proven", which counts as an acquittal...
. In 2002 when the prison staff went on strike, the school closed dispersing GEDSB teachers to other schools in the board for the length of the labour unrest.