In the last few years boot camps have been including a number of rehabilitation-type programs such as education, counseling, vocational training or special programs to address the needs of drug offenders. More and more and with the same methods, boot camps also offer programs as "quick-fix solutions" for kids of parents who hope to regain lost control of their teens or who desire behavior modification. In advertisements they claim to "scare kids straight", "help defiant adolescents improve their behavior" and guarantee "97% parent satisfaction". In these cases it is not a judge but the parents who decide the fate of a teen and they cover the quite considerable costs. The consent of the teen is not required.
Other countries have been closely watching the boot camp system in the US but so far have been slow to copy it, if at all. In Canada and Europe many see US society as highly militarised for which the military style boot camps are just another example. After having shed a very militaristic past, Europeans tend to be quite wary of military influence in civil society. As well, the tactics employed in most boot camps are considered to infringe on the human rights of the affected and to be rather totalitarian. Therefore in Canada participation in boot camp programs are voluntary, so as to avoid any challenges under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms under which treatment at boot camps could be seen as an infringement on a youth's right to not be subject to cruel and unusual punishment and to ensure security of person. Canada started a boot camp project for non-violent juveniles with subtle but distinct differences from the American models. The first one was opened in 1997 in Ontario. Unlike in the US system it is not possible to trade or shorten a jail sentence with a significantly shorter boot camp program. Canadian boot camps do not have the time frame of 90 to 180 days and they are restricted to juveniles up to the age of 17 and not yet open for female offenders. The judges do not directly possess the authority to send a youth to a boot camp. They may impose a sentence of secure or open custody. The latter is defined as, "a community residential center, group home, child care institution or forest or wilderness camp . . .". Once an open custody sentence is granted, a correctional official decides whether a sentence is served in a boot camp program. But the ultimate decision rests with the young person and the decision is made purely on the merits of the program because the time served remains the same. The Canadian system is too young to show any comparable results but research has been done among US boot camps with different emphases, e. g. more on drug treatment or education than solely on military drill. According to the findings treatment has a slightly positive impact on the reduction of recidivism over strict discipline.
However, altogether there are no research findings in favor of boot camps in light of any of the initial intentions. Recidivism rates in the US among former prison inmates and boot camp participants are roughly the same. Yet, the effects of boot camps are controversially disputed, some surveys claiming lower re-offence rates, others showing no change as compared to persons serving normal time. Surveys also show different results concerning the reduction of costs. Critics add, that the emphasis on authority can only result in frustration, resentment, anger, short temper, a low self-esteem and aggression rather than respect. According to a report in the New York Times there have been 30 known deaths of youths in US boot camps since 1980.
Boot camps remove children "from environments filled with negative influences and triggering events that produce self-defeating, reckless or self-destructive behavior" (Conner 2005). Other types of programs (outdoor education, adventure therapy, and wilderness therapy) use this method while avoiding all or some of the controversial methods of boot camps, and they claim lower recidivism.
Germany considers boot camps for thugs
Telegraph 04/01/2008
A surge in violent assaults in Germany has sparked demands for new "education camps" to be built for young offenders. The idea of such centres has been taboo in the country after its wartime use of concentration camps. But a wave of attacks in recent weeks has led Chancellor Angela Merkel to consider introducing America-style boot camps.
Right-wing politicians have suggested that the majority of inmates would be foreigners or the children of immigrants.In the most notorious recent attack, a 76-year-old man in Munich suffered a fractured skull when he was kicked in the head during a beating by a 20-year-old man of Turkish origin and a 17-year-old immigrant from Greece after he asked them to stop smoking. They spat at him and shouted anti-German abuse.
Roland Koch, the Hesse state premier and a senior member of Mrs Merkel's Christian Democrats, who is seeking re-election later this month, said: "How much are we prepared to take from a small proportion of violent youths, who frequently have a foreign background?"
The Bild newspaper wrote: "At last our politicians are quarrelling about the really important issues - the safety of our citizens!"
Mr Koch's comments have fuelled calls for "foreign" criminals to be expelled.
Volker Kauder, the head of the conservative group in the federal parliament and a close ally of Mrs Merkel, said that crime by "foreigners" had "been a taboo in Germany" for too long.
In an interview with Bild am Sonntag, Mrs Merkel backed the boot camp idea. She said that they could not ignore "the fact that 43 per cent of all violent crimes in Germany are committed by people under 21 years of age and that nearly half of these are from foreign youths".
See also
German police 'routinely ignore racist attacks'
Neo_Nazis in Germany
Readers please email comments
to: editorial AT
martinfrost.ws including full name