Boot Camps, Juvenile

Juvenile boot camps are residential facilities for adolescents who have broken the law or who have been labeled delinquent. The model for juvenile boot camps is taken from military training camps where the emphasis is on socialization for military life. The first juvenile boot camp was established in Orleans Parish, Louisiana, in 1985 following the establishment of the first adult boot camp in the state of Georgia in 1983. The goals of adult and juvenile boot camps are similar in that both are structured as a residential intermediate sanction employing the strategies of shock incarceration. Residency within most boot camps is intended for a brief period of time followed by a period of supervised probation. Although this may vary from program to program, some boot camps include a therapeutic component that may encompass counseling in the areas of anger management and drug and alcohol abuse as well as opportunities for academic and vocational training. The underlying philosophy of the boot camp is that the military style of strong discipline, rigorous exercise, and rigid program structure will serve to rehabilitate young nonviolent offenders. Boot camps are designed to be a deterrent to further participation in criminal activity.

Data on race and ethnicity extracted from the Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement reveal that during the period from 1997 to 2003 the racial makeup of all juveniles in residential placement in the United States, including but not limited to boot camps, was between 38% and 40% White; between 38% and 40% Black; between 17% and 19% Hispanic; 2% Asian; and 1% Other. Based on these statistics, it appears that the racial makeup of juveniles in residential placement mirrors that of juveniles under other forms of supervision within the juvenile justice system.

The term juvenile boot camp has been used interchangeably with reference to two different types of facilities: those that are under the supervision of the formal criminal justice system and those that are privately run by organizations such as nonprofits or religious groups. The common thread in both types of boot camps is that the offenders have been involved in some form of antisocial, nonviolent behavior. Usually, they are not repeat offenders at the time of sentencing.

The administrative personnel and the organizational structure of privately run juvenile boot camps determine what the exact structure of those facilities will be, but they are generally fashioned with a military structure focusing on discipline, behavior modification, and some therapeutic format. Private boot camps vary greatly from camp to camp depending on the philosophy of the organization. The juvenile's participation and or involvement in privately run camps is usually at the discretion of the parent or guardian, and in most cases there is a cost associated with participation. Parents and guardians have often chosen private boot camps as a preventative measure to amend behavior that they believe will be problematic if continued. Both the parent and the camp administration see participation as preventive. The major criticism of private boot camps is the issue of oversight. These camps are separate and apart from those that are administered by the criminal justice system.

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