[4] Project Turnaround operated on a boot camp approach, part of a tough on crime response to increasing youth incarceration rates by the government of Premier Mike Harris.

[5][6] Solicitor General Bob Runciman stated that Project Turnaround was "about getting people up at six o'clock in the morning [and] reducing the kind of privileges [young offenders] have currently across the system.

[3] 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.

[9] Other researchers, such as University of Toronto 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.

[10] Following the change of government in the 2003 provincial election, new Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services Monte Kwinter announced that the contract for Project Turnaround would not be renewed.