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Boot Camps Don't Work (Continued)

A 1996 study of three all-male boot camps in Colorado, Ohio and Alabama showed academic benefits to the system ( Ref 6 ). Boys attending camp received more individual academic attention and gained an average one grade to a year's improvement in reading, spelling and math. The bad news was once they returned to their families and neighborhoods, most fell back into their old ways. Over 70% were arrested within a year of attending boot camp.

Professor Margaret Beyer writes that teens in particular do not respond to authority they cannot respect. Because their brains are not fully developed, teens view the world as black and white.

"They are fairness fanatics," she writes. Teens hate group punishment and rebel against unfair punitive authority. Most studies of boot camps report that teens actively dislike their guards. Instead of respecting camp rules, they viewed rules as unfair and something to get around (Ref 1). Thus boot camps actually teach more hostility to rules and authority.

Read the first article about Why Boot Camps Don't Work >>

If bullying offenders with military style discipline and other scare tactics does not turn around a young person's life, what methods do work?

Psychologists agree that for permanent behavior change, there must be an internal change in thinking. This three-step process is called "self-revelation." In Step 1, a person realizes his or her current behavior is self-destructive. In Step 2, he or she seeks ways to become more positive. In Step 3, the person changes his behavior. Self-revelation is more likely to come about when a teen can honestly and openly discuss his situation within a supportive and mutually respectful adult relationship.

"Positive behavior support" also works, which means instead of punishing bad behavior, a system rewards good behavior ( Ref 4 ). Keep in mind that the boot camp model is all about punishing bad behavior.

Finally, the teen's family must be involved in the process. The NIH study concluded programs with the best results included family counseling ( Ref 7 ). The teenager and his family needed to openly resolve their disappointments and anger with each other, and then go on to appreciate what was good and lovable about one another.

In conclusion, a good program includes excellent academics in which a teen can succeed, positive discipline methods within a structure of caring not punishing adults, and family counseling to maintain the positive changes that occurred during the program.

References

  • Beyer, Margaret. "Juvenile Boot Camps Don't Make Sense," Criminal Justice, Fall 1995
  • Guarino-Ghezzi Susan and Edward Loughran. Balancing Juvenile Justice (London: Transaction Publications), 2004.
  • Kilgore, Deborah and Susan Meade. "Look What Boot Camp's Done for Me," Journal of Correctional Education, Vol. 55, No. 2, June 2004.
  • McKenzie, Doris and Gaylene Armstrong (editors). Correctional Boot Camps. (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications) 2004.
  • Polsky, Howard. "Boot Camps, Juvenile Offenders and Culture Shock." Child and Youth Care Forum, Volume 22, Issue 6, 1993, p. 403-414.
  • Peterson, Eric. "Juvenile Boot Camps, Lessons Learned," reprinted at www.ncjrs.org/txtfiles/ fs-9636.txt
  • "Preventing Violence and Related Health-Risking Social Behaviors in Adolescents: A National Institute of Health State-of-the-Science Conference," October 13-15, 2004 at the Natcher Conference Center, Bethesda, Maryland. Complete transcripts posted at http://consensus.nih.gov/ta/023/preventviolenceintro.html.
  • Steward, Mark and Amanda Andrade. "Juvenile Boot Camps," Corrections Today, August 2004, Vol. 66, Issue 5, p. 100.