Juvenile Boot Camps

Juvenile boot camps are modeled on the training techniques used by the military to discipline recruits. These programs typically require participants to wear uniforms, march in step, and respond quickly and respectfully when spoken to. Juvenile boot camps use a paramilitary model, which includes a highly regimented schedule, structured activities, physical exercise, and other characteristics of military training. The participant’s day is typically long, sometimes up to 16 hours, and is highly structured. This type of programs may also be referred to as teenage boot camps, military boot camps, or correctional boot camps.

Beyond this basic description, a given boot camp can be significantly different from others. For example, the amount of therapeutic treatment given at juvenile boot camps can vary widely, as can the amount of regular, remedial, or vocational training provided. Length of stay can range from 30 days to more than a year. Some boot camps are state run and are designed for children who could best be addressed by boot camps instead of prison or other incarceration.

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) in the United States Justice Department has identified six aspects that contribute to an effective juvenile boot camp program: (1) education and job training and placement; (2) community service; (3) substance abuse counseling and treatment; (4) health and mental health care; (5) continuous, individualized case management; and (6) intensive aftercare services that are fully integrated with the boot camp program (Boot Camps for Juvenile Offenders (1997)).

The confrontational atmosphere of juvenile boot camps and emphasis on group activities do not adequately prepare troubled teens to face the real world when they leave the program. Teens must learn to foster positive, non-confrontational relationships with others and learn to solve problems individually in order to properly develop into a law-abiding adult in the real world. Because juvenile boot camps do not teach these principles, they can actually make it more difficult for a student to readjust once he leaves the structure and discipline of the paramilitary environment. These deficiencies contribute to the high rate of recidivism (the tendency to relapse into an earlier form of behavior) in participants in juvenile boot camps.

Most parents who choose to send their child to a boot camp are looking for a short-term solution that will result in permanent teen behavior modification. Their basic premise is that the severity of the program will serve as a wake-up call to their child and shock the child into making better decisions. They intend to teach their child a lesson, specifically that he or she is not the center of the universe. For most children, the structure and disciplined environment of a juvenile boot camp can seem far-removed once they return to their home environment. For this reason, the effectiveness of the juvenile boot camp are often short-lived. A longer-term program, such as Accendo Academy, that emphasizes spiritual and emotional growth in addition to behavior modification will provide a better solution than the short-term results produced by a juvenile boot camp.

For more information on juvenile boot camps, click here to read our article Juvenile Boot Camps: Are They Effective?