Military Boot Camp for Juveniles: A Big Experiment that Failed

On the surface, boot camps look like a great way to "knock some sense" into a teenager with a bad attitude. We have all watched movies where the tough but ultimately wise and loving drill sergeant, usually played by Clint Eastwood or Jack Webb, turns a boy into a hero by making him carry equipment through the mud and do push-ups in the rain. It is comforting to think that military training can teach a boy some manners, make him respect his elders, knock the rebellion out of him, and turn him into a disciplined officer and gentleman.

Some state governments have actually tried it.

Government experiments with boot camps
In the 1980s, boot camps as alternatives to juvenile prisons came in style. New Orleans parish opened the first one in 1984; within a few years, there were several hundred in thirty-three states. Typically, those eligible were young non-violent offenders who were facing long prison terms. They could exchange a three-to-ten year term for thirty to 180 days in boot camp. The public liked the idea of boot camps as a wholesome, effective alternative to prison. State legislatures liked the millions of dollars that the camps saved in prison spending. Some camps offered job training and high school classes along with substance abuse treatment. The states called the camps "modern shock incarceration." The teens called them "hoods in the woods."

Almost immediately, thousands of stories of abuse and maltreatment began to circulate in the press. Over three dozen inmates died. One horrific case occurred in Florida on January 5, 2006. A boy named Martin Anderson died within the first three hours of admission to the Florida Bay County Sheriff's Boot Camp. After Martin collapsed after failing to run a 1.5-mile lap, seven guards kicked and punched him as a nurse checked his vitals and approved the beatings. The guards forced him to inhale ammonia, causing his vocal cords to spasm and shutting down his air supply. After Martin's death, Governor Jeb Bush closed this camp and five others. The state paid the Martin family $5 million, even as the guards and nurse were charged with aggravated manslaughter.

Not only were some boot camps staffed with abusive and out-of-control managers, government investigators were finding out that they were an ineffective waste of money.

In a 1998 Report to Congress on Boot Camps, researchers concluded that they are "an intervention that does not work." Between 1987 and 1994, over 17,000 young offenders enrolled but 6,424 dropped out. Of the 10,927 graduates, the majority (58%) got in trouble within five years of the program. Recidivism rates for boot camps were as high as having no treatment at all. The authors told Congress that boot camps were programs that did not change behavior and that "fear and tough treatment is ineffective." Experts like Doris Mackenzie and Dale Parent wrote that real military service can and does change many young people for the better, but only because it extends over a long period of time. Basic training lasts a few months, but then a soldier has a job with promotions and pay increases, opportunities for education and training. The military provides housing, food, medical care and opportunities over a three to four year period. By the way, today's basic training involves no harsh treatment and matches the expectations of the military services' more educated, motivated recruits.

Today's boot camps for teens
Despite overwhelming scientific evidence that military boot camps cannot help troubled teenagers, many private boot camps still make that claim. They advertise "tough love." However, their regimes cannot help children with substance abuse problems and mental disorders like Attention Deficit Disorder or bi-polar disorder. In many cases, such a child experiences the program as abuse and abandonment, and leaves boot camp with a worse outlook than when he began. Some children have reported being sexually molested and physically assaulted at night, when they are unsupervised.

There are reputable residential programs that can and do help troubled teenagers. Teens with problems that have a biological basis such as Attention Deficit Disorder or learning disabilities can learn to cope with them. Others can learn to deal with the anxieties and cravings that come along with drug and alcohol abuse. Trained, licensed counselors can help teens reach understanding and acceptance of not only their problems but also the work they need to do to overcome them. Teens can come to appreciate their worth as individuals and learn to use their strengths and talents in specialized classrooms with teachers who can help them reach their potentials. A good program will involve parents in counseling and classes as their teens works their way through it.

Such programs take a lot of work on the part of the teen and his family. They don't provide a "quick fix" the way military boot camp does. A wise man once wrote that love is patient, kind, long-suffering and does not condemn anyone. Perhaps that is why it is so genuinely "tough" to do.