Juvenile Boot Camp Programs

Paper Summary:

In this article, the writer notes that there has been a significant increase in juvenile crime rates, overburdened juvenile courts, and growing costs of youth detention in the past decade, that has in turn caused an overcrowding of prisons. The writer points out that the United States as a society has been forced to create alternative means for placing young juvenile delinquents and that one of the alternatives to placing these teens in prisons is to place them in juvenile boot camps. These boot camps are a correctional program for youth that are formatted in a military style atmosphere. The writer discusses that placing troubled teens in these juvenile boot camps has both pros and cons, but overall they are not a good option. The writer concludes that, although these do have a few good aspects such as cost effectiveness, they are not the best option for juvenile delinquents, and then argues that something smaller and community based would be a much better option for troubled youth.

From the Paper:

"Boot camps are meant to emphasize physical labor, exercise, and are usually arranged around a military type atmosphere. Adherence to the rules and regulations of the program are strictly enforced. They were originally designed for adults but juvenile correctional facilities began using them as well. Three pilot sites were established in 1992 in Cleveland, Ohio, Denver, Colorado, and Mobile, Alabama. They primarily held nonviolent offenders that were age 18 or younger. They also are mainly designed for males rather than both male and female. The program would consist of a three to sixth month program and once the offender graduated they would then begin an after care program that would last between six and nine months. Most commonly the initial phase would be broken up into three thirty day phases to total ninety days. The youth are exposed to a military like routine, discipline, physical conditioning, and rehabilitative programming including academic instruction, counseling, and substance abuse education."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Burns, Jerald C., and Gennaro F. Vito. "An impact analysis of the Alabama boot camp program." Federal Probation. 59 (1995): 63-7.
• "Juvenile Justice Reform Initiatives in the States." 16 Jun. 2008. <http://ojjdp.ncjrs.org/pubs/reform/ch2_g.html.>
• United States. National Criminal Justice Reference Service. 16 Jun. 2008. <http://www.ncjrs.gov/txtfiles/fs-9636.txt.>

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