The Growing Use Of Jail Boot Camps

Includes: historical perspective; an overview of boot camp goals, components, and results; state correctional programs in N.Y. State, Illinois, and Georgia; the Federal system; boot camps in county jails (Santa Clara County, CA); juvenile boot camps (California and Florida); different program models (discipline in Georgia; substance abuse programming in adult correctional boot camps; boot camps as an alternative for women); program design and planning (multisite studies; boot camps and prison crowding); and the future of boot camps. Charts, tables and photos.

Correctional Boot Camps: Military Basic Training or a Model for Corrections? provides the most up-to-date assessment of the major perspectives and issues related to the current state of boot camps. The book goes beyond cursory examinations of the effectiveness of boot camps, presenting an in-depth view of a greater variety of issues. Correctional Boot Camps examines empirical evidence on boot camps drawn from diverse sources including male, female, juvenile, and adult programs from across the nation.

The research examines the operation of boot camps, or shock incarceration programs, examining whether they (a) work as an intermediate sanction, (b) generate more harm than good, (c) prevent offenders from re-entering the criminal justice system, and (d) are cost effective. The authors conclude that shock incarceration reduces the strain on prison budgets, reserves prison bed space for hardened criminals, and offers boot camp participants a chance for rehabilitation. Criticisms of boot camp approaches are also noted.

In response to recognition in the late 1960s and early 1970s that traditional incarceration was not working, alternatives to standard prison settings were sought and developed. One of those alternatives -- community-based corrections -- had been conceived in the 1950s as a system that might prove more progressive, humane, and effective, particularly with people who had committed less serious criminal offenses and for whom incarceration, with constant exposure to serious offenders and career criminals, might prove more damaging than rehabilitative. The alternative of community corrections has evolved to become a substantial part of the criminal justice and correctional system, spurred in recent years not so much by a progressive, humane philosophy as by dramatically increasing prison populations, court orders to "fix" overextended prison settings, and an economic search for cost savings. Encyclopedia of Community Corrections explores all aspects of community corrections, from its philosophical foundation to its current inception. Features & benefits: 150 signed entries (each with cross references and further readings) are organized in A-to-Z fashion to give students easy access to the full range of topics in community corrections; a thematic reader's guide in the front matter groups entries by broad topical or thematic areas to make it easy for users to find related entries at a glance; a chronology in the back matter helps students put individual events into broader historical context; a glossary provides students with concise definitions to key terms in the field; a resource guide to classic books, journals, and web sites (along with the further readings accompanying each entry) guides students to further resources in their research journeys; and appendix offers statistics from the Bureau of Justice.