The information in this archived resource may be outdated and links may no longer function. Juvenile Boot Camps Boot camps for juveniles have evolved from their counterparts in the adult criminal justice system. The first adult boot camp program started in Georgia in Today, more than 70 boot camp programs are operating in more than 30 States. Programmatic features of boot camps include rigorous physical conditioning; discipline; activities to bolster self-esteem, confidence, and leadership; and an emphasis on militarylike rules.
Also included in most programs is a combination of physical labor, drug and psychological treatment, and education initiatives. Participants have typically been convicted of nonviolent crimes and are sentenced to boot camp programs for between 90 and days. Following this stay, the offender is returned to the community, usually with some kind of intensive supervision and aftercare.
The study compared eight boot camp programs -- those in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, New York, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Texas -- and examined the extent to which they met their goals of reducing prison crowding and changing the behavior of offenders.
The results of the extensive survey indicate that boot camps must have a myriad of factors in place before they can elicit cost savings or impact recidivism. According to an article by Layton-MacKenzie summarizing the survey, "The principal findings are that most [boot camp] programs produce positive attitudinal changes in participants, have few if any effects on subsequent criminality, and are likely to reduce prison crowding only if program admissions are tightly controlled to assure that spaces are allotted to prison-bound offenders We do not know yet how to organize boot camps with reasonable confidence that they will achieve their intended results.
According to NIJ, juveniles in custody for delinquent offenses increased 35 percent from to , a period when the youth population of the United States declined by 11 percent. As a result, "satisfactory alternatives to long-term institutionalization are as welcome in the juvenile system as they are in the adult system. Since then, 10 States have begun operating juvenile boot camps, which vary in size, eligibility requirements, and programming. Due to the relative newness of these programs, a limited body of research is available on their makeup and efficacy.
