Opened in 1988, the facility is operated by the Nova Scotia Department of Justice in the rural community of Waterville, Kings County.

[5][6] The Nova Scotia Government Employees Union criticized the door control system at Waterville for allowing the melee to take place.

[7] The Canadian Press requested, under Nova Scotia's freedom of information legislation, the results of a probe that the justice department had launched over the incident.

[8][9] A March 1995 report by Viki Samuels-Stewart, commissioned by the Nova Scotia Department of Justice, found that young offenders were victims of abuse at both the Shelburne and Waterville youth centres.

[11] In 2019, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police launched an investigation, called Operation Headwind, into allegations of sexual abuse at the youth centre between 1988 and 2017.