Going inside infamous Hamilton correction centre

It’s a rare glimpse inside a recognizable Hamilton building that has sat on bustling York Boulevard for two decades.

It housed sex offenders and violent criminals who had served their time, and were looking to make their transition back into society. But now the controversial federal correctional centre is closed permanently.

Until just a month ago, 25 former federal inmates were housed at the Hamilton community correction centre. Tomorrow, the centre’s lease with the Salvation Army building expires.

“If you figure 25 residents over 20 years, it’s actually stood up better than I thought it would.”

Kim Gillespie has been the manager of the HCCC since 2006. She is sad to see the centre go: “And all the staff and all the volunteers that have come through the doors of this facility, I respect them and I thank them for all the hard work that they did over the years.”

For decades residents enjoyed their own rooms with a dresser and even a mini-fridge; a kitchen to cook their own meals, and a television lounge complete with a pool table. Not too different from a youth-hostel — except with round the clock security and locked doors — a reminder the centre housed convicted sex offenders and violent criminals.

Although years have passed without any major incidents, it was in 2004 when a convicted rapist with mental issues came through that door, Michael Gardiner, and went across the street to Jackson Square where he stabbed a female shopkeeper nearly to death — a crime that angered the downtown core and started a campaign to close the centre.

The executive director of St Leonard House, John Clinton has over 30 years in corrections. He says the closing of the centre in the core is less of a safety issue than a service one: “I have mixed feelings about it, I hate to see the loss of any community support. I think that the whole process was probably flawed from the beginning. Moving into a temporary facility, not being to find a permanent site, operating it without building those levels of community support is to me seems to me now in hindsight not the best way to move forward.”

The last resident officially moved out December 13th. Tomorrow Kim will turn the keys over to the Salvation Army who are taking over the third floor space for ministry programs. Residents and staff alike are being moved to other facilities.

As they leave the community centre, Gillespie wants to remind residents that over the years, the centre housed over 1,800 residents. And while there were some violent incidents and re-offenses, they account for a very small percentage of the people who lived here.