Are Juvenile Boot Camps Safe and Effective?

Introduction

This paper discusses about the effectiveness of Juvenile

Boot Camps whether these programs are beneficial and effective for the young offenders or not? Boot camp programs are a correctional sanction modeled after military basic training camps. According to the National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS), boot camps are in-prison programs that resemble military basic training by emphasizing vigorous physical activity, drill and ceremony, manual labor, and other activities that ensure that participants have very little or no free time at all. They are often referred to as shock or intensive incarceration. The first correctional boot camps originated in the adult correctional systems in Georgia and Oklahoma in 1983. Since then, correctional boot camps have grown rapidly within the adult correctional systems as well as juvenile correctional systems. They are now a part of many federal, state and local juvenile and adult jurisdictions in the United States of America (Clawson 71).

Now the question arises whether they are effective and to what extent they are effect?

Discussion and Analysis

For over 15 years, there are the U.S. camps for offenders, modeled on basic military training, emphasize discipline and physical fitness. It is only recently that legislators have begun to consider this formula as punishment for young offenders (MacKenzie 344).

The military-style penal institutions have proliferated in the United States in the 80 and 90 for three main reasons. First, in the 60s and 70s, some have questioned the fact that rehabilitation efforts were successful in preventing recidivism and protecting the population. For them, "nothing worked" and therefore rehabilitation has lost its importance in the choice of sentence. Second, the principle of "get what we deserve" has supplanted the rehabilitation element of the sentence, meaning that the punishment should be proportionate to the crime. It was believed that the severity of punishment should be set according to the seriousness of the offense, not its author whose treatment needs or the risks it poses. Third, issues surrounding criminal justice have been politicized. A working group on iron discipline for young offenders, appointed by the Minister, recommended the establishment of a program to the following key features: 16-hour days of highly structured, compulsory education, the port a uniform. An iron discipline is the key to the proposed program. Our government is determined to develop a program that will introduce young offenders the discipline and sense of responsibility.

The men released from the camp of Georgia actually had a recidivism rate higher than the reference sample. This discouraging result was attributed to the fact that the camp focused on physical fitness and military-style discipline, and he offered a minimum of interventions to treat detainees who needed to be.

Features of Juvenile Boot Camps

The boot camp inmates require a U.S. plan tough and demanding. The programs are similar to those of minimum security, although the facilities do not resemble those of an ordinary prison and that the time is spent is relatively short (usually between 90 and 180 days). All such camps observe the system ...