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renderings courtesy norr South West Detention Centre by Tiffany Sloan maximum-security detention centre probably isn't the first place you'd think to go for a picnic with the kids or a pick-up game of floor hockey, but Windsor's newest public facility – which just so happens to be a correctional centre – is also billing itself as a recreational destination for the general public. Just inside the main entrance of the 240,000-square-foot building is a welcoming lobby free from detention-style locking devices, as well as a multipurpose room and gymnasium for public use; in the expansive park out front are a covered picnic area, accessible trails, a competition-standard cricket field and a FIFA–standard soccer pitch. There's a conspicuous absence of fences, PA systems and high-level security cameras – the usual adornments of prison property. Yet the 315-bed South West Detention Centre, intended to relieve inmate overcrowding and replace the aging Windsor Jail, has been designed to meet the highest of security standards. This new prototype, which targets LEED Silver certification, is the result of Ontario's Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services' recent commitment to a model of inmate surveillance in which correctional officers are in direct contact with the inmates and movement throughout the facility is limited. "Given the direct-supervision model, the South West Detention Centre had a very intense design consultation process," explains Daniel Douek, senior project manager with Infrastructure Ontario, noting that correctional officers, maintenance staff, nurses, security specialists and female unit advisors were among the many user groups consulted. In addition to staff, inmate and public safety, there's also a great emphasis on normalizing the living environment, says Jonathan Hughes, project lead for the design team at NORR Ltd. "You want as much natural light as possible, and for support areas [educational facilities, and doctor and lawyer consultation rooms] to be in the direct vicinity of their living area pods so they can move between areas themselves without the escort of a correctional officer." As an Alternative Financing and Procurement project, speedy construction was of the essence – and the prospect of liquidated damages in the case of late delivery kept the project moving at pace, says Trevor Bracey, senior project manager with Bondfield Construction Company Ltd. But the tight timeline presented several challenges. "It was difficult managing the sequential permit applications for foundations, for superstructure, for interiors, along with tender packages for those elements, because you're still designing while you're building." A One of Bondfield's most innovative timesavers was using precast cells produced in the U.S. "They produce an entire cell in a plant. That includes everything: toilet, sink, bunk, stools – the only thing missing is an inmate and a door lock!" Bracey jokes. "Then they ship it up by rail and you assemble these things like Lego blocks – though Location 4819 8th Concession Road, Maidstone, Ontario Owner/Developer Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services Project Manager Infrastructure Ontario Design Build Finance Maintain Forum Social Infrastructure Architect/Landscape Architect/Structural/ Mechanical/Electrical Consultant NORR Architects Engineers Planners General contractor Bondfield Construction Company Ltd. Total area 240,000 square feet Total project cost $247 million that was a significant construction challenge, too, because your footings and foundations have to be bang on in order to receive the cells." Another timesaving solution came in divvying up the two main components of the building. "It's a very big footprint, with an administrative component and public area in front, and then the cell blocks and inmate areas in back," explains Hughes. "The inmate areas were obviously built using reinforcement, but we made a conscious decision to build the administrative area up front with steel frame construction. By doing that, the contractor could have two completely separate trades working on the site, building simultaneously." While the South West Detention Centre's current capacity is 315, the facility was conceived to accommodate future expansion. "The whole building is designed to double in size," explains Hughes. In fact, the systems were designed with 30 per cent spare capacity for future program changes. The penthouse space allows additional space to facilitate future chillers and boilers to accommodate twice as many cell blocks. The consideration that takes precedence over all others is, of course, security. "When you work on public buildings, it's all about how people experience the building – get in the building, get through the building and get out of the building," explains Bracey. "In a jail, it's the exact opposite. It's about keeping people in the building. It's about keeping inmates safe from one another. It's about keeping staff safe from inmates." Thus, not only does the floorplan minimize inmate movement around the facility, but electronic security measures are integrated into every facet of the building: security cameras that record all activity; low-voltage security equipment; automated alarms that alert when a door is left ajar; separate IT servers to protect the privacy of stored information; and a central control room from which to monitor it all. Such complex electronic security systems were no small feat to build in, adds Bracey. "All the masonry walls are filled solid with mortar, so if you miss something it's a real pain to go back and remove mortar and block. It's the most difficult thing I've ever done in my life," says Bracey. "I cannot overstate the complexity of the security within this facility," adds Hughes. "It pervades throughout absolutely everything, from the locking mechanisms on the doors right out to the way the park in front is designed so that it's very intuitive where people are walking so they don't inadvertently go into an area where they don't really need to be." Yet all this security is surprisingly discreet – especially from the outside, where there are no telltale signs. The goal, says Hughes, is to create normalized environments for the public, inmates and staff alike, "so they don't always feel like they're in an institution or correctional facility." n South West Detention Centre p58-59SW Detention.indd 59 13-09-13 4:00 PM

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