ABSTRACT

Crafted after a military-style socialization process, boot camps emerged as an alternative to incarceration. The boot camp model was popular due to shorter periods of incarceration as well as a daily structure of a physically rigorous schedule. This chapter describes three studies led by Dr. Doris MacKenzie. The first multisite study examined how boot camps were implemented in eight states regarding program eligibility, intake processes, nature of the boot camp programming, and impact on recidivism. The study outlined the framework for a cost-benefit analysis; the way in the boot camps programs were implemented are unlikely to achieve cost effectiveness or generate benefits greater than the costs. In the second study, Dr. MacKenzie and her colleagues conducted an organizational study of the youth participating in boot camps and residential treatment facilities and the staff working in these facilities. Youth participating in the boot camp programs had a more positive impression of their incarceration experience than did the youth in residential treatment facilities. The final study was a randomized controlled trial examining the impact of participation in a correctional boot camp and a treatment-based prison. Participants in the boot camp felt that the environment was procedurally just and supported their behavior change. Across these studies, the boot camp model did not reduce recidivism rates, even though there were short-term changes in the attitudes of participants. Future research is needed to better understand how incarceration experience can have an impact on reducing recidivism and how to transform proximal changes in attitudes to long-term impact on criminal conduct behavior.