8.4 Boot Camps/Shock Incarceration

Boot camps represent another form of “intermediate sanction”, which also follow a model of “shock incarceration.” Developed in the 1980s in Georgia, boot camps were targeted to youths and young adults, and were seen as a way to alter individuals through a brief, intense experience (the shock). At their essence, boot camps are designed to change the offender through physical activity and discipline. Designed on a militaristic ideal, boot camps assume that a regimen of strict physical exercise will inspire lasting discipline through a strict daily structure. Because of a high level of face validity (“this looks like it will work, so it must work”), boot camps flourished in the 1980s and 1990s. The state of Pennsylvania, for example, opened the Quehanna Boot Camp in 1992, which offers a “six-month, military-style program with a drug and alcohol treatment components” (Quehanna, 2022).

Boot Camp Success

While there have been some positive results, boot camps have generally failed to produce the desired reductions in recidivism (Parent, 2003). For prosocial individuals, structure and discipline can be advantageous. However, when individuals of differing levels of antisocial attitudes and social disadvantage are mixed together, reductions in recidivism generally do not appear. As we have discussed in the section on rehabilitation, criminogenic needs are often not addressed within boot camps. Thus, boot camps fail to reduce recidivism for several reasons. First, since boot camps fail to address diverse criminogenic needs, they tend not to be effective. Second, because of the lower admission requirements of boot camps, individuals are generally “lumped” together into a start date within a boot camp. Therefore, high-risk offenders and low-risk offenders are placed together, building a cohesive group. In this way, lower-risk offenders may gain antisocial associates that are higher-risk. Finally, when boot camps emphasize the increase of physicality, rather than behavioral change, it generally does not reduce aggressive behavior (Wilson et al., 2005). For more information on the status of boot camps, please see https://www.crimesolutions.gov/PracticeDetails.aspx?ID=5 .