FREE ESSAY ON JUVENILE CRIME & BOOT CAMPS

JUVENILE CRIME & BOOT CAMPS

Boot Camps: The Right Way
Thirteen dead, over twenty wounded in a suburb of Denver Colorado, from a threat far
greater than any Iranian terrorists. The threat is from within, the threat is our
children. Youth Violence is a more common occurrence than the media would like us to
believe. Similar instances have happened many times before: in Paducah, KY, three
students were killed by a fellow student during a morning prayer circle(Leung). Also in
Pearl MS, two were killed over a simple breakup (CNN), and in Springfield, OR, a
sixteen-year-old killed one youth and critically wounded twenty-three over the alienation
from his schoolmates (Barnard). Not to mention the sad atrocity in New Jersey where a
young teen couple threw their newborn kid into a dumpster on a subfreezing night(Bad
Seeds).
This kind of delinquency is a problem, luckily all problems have solutions. Unfortunately
the proper solutions are simply overlooked for the similar programs that address the
problems cheaper. So the public believes that this type of treatment will do. However, we
need something new, something radical to curb the growing violence among the youth in
America. Society needs boot camps. Not just any type of boot camp. Those have been tried,
and in some places, they worked, but not well enough. For any juvenile treatment to work
research shows that it must address three basic needs of all children (NCCP): 
1. A locus of control.
2. Significant adult role models.
3. Significant accomplishments.
While many of the instituted plans have included some of the above goals they have not
included all due to the cost of implementation.
The problem affects kids of ages as shown in a survey taken in 1992, sixty-five percent
of kids ages seven to ten feared they would die young, while that fear was shared by
forty-two percent of eleven to seventeen year olds. (NCPC Report) With the arrest rate of
juveniles increasing significantly during that time period, I don't blame kids for being
scared. (Canada and the World) I have the solution, and recommendations for the
implementations of what I like to call, "self-sustaining" boot camps. They will be
self-supporting and cost very little maintenance fees save those for the main
initialization process, which can be taken out of the government slush fund.
Crime has increased greatly over the past ten years with an increase of over seventy-five
percent in arrests of juveniles. (Current Events 2a) This increase is unacceptable. It
shows just how little we have done to curve the growing problem of youth crime in
America. Society today seems to have developed a not my child kind of outlook. It is no
longer the Hispanic-American male age fifteen to eighteen that are committing all the
crimes and causing the increase of violent crimes by eighteen percent from '91 to '92.
Nor, were they the ones mainly responsible for the increased arrests for homicides to
14.5 of 100,000 children in 1993. Surprisingly, children under age fifteen are
responsible for thirty six percent of the crimes. With this age group committing
thirty-six percent of the forcible rapes, and forty-five percent of the larcenies. While
the leading race committing the crime is the Caucasians. They committed seventy percent
of the total crimes and fifty-two percent of the forcible rapes. (FBI Uniform Crime
Report) These statistics show how people today have turned a blind eye to the real
problem and ignore the basic needs that a youth tries to fulfill through the crimes.
If we continue to let this type of violence grow unchecked, it will rage from what could
be considered a small ember, to a mighty conflagration of violence and anarchy by the
middle of the twenty-first century. We look around us now and shake our head, telling
ourselves that it's not our problem, or that the kid has bad parents. If we let this
continue we will be condemning ourselves to our fate. Yet, "self-sustaining" boot camps
are the way to get through the darkness, and a way to take back our streets and once
again feel safe. It is cost effective and capable to turn or kids into responsible
adults.
There is one major problem that holds this plan back, and that is money. Whenever a new
program is started more money has to be spent on it then on a program already in effect.
However with the type of boot camp I recommend implementing would be of significant
enough saving to fund the program. 
The price for keeping a single juvenile incarcerated for a year in a detention facility
is approximately $47,400, While a year for a juvenile in a boot camp situation would be
$33,480. That amounts to a yearly saving of over $14,000 per child. (Zaehringer 6) We
would be able to use this money to start up new boot camps or for prevention measures. 
Earlier I wrote of the three things needed to prevent juvenile crime. The self-sustaining
boot camp does all of things needed to prevent juvenile crime by the NCPC model.
Self-sustaining boot camps will provide locus of control with the kids providing for
themselves and others. They will learn how to farm and do other more applicable skills
such as plumbing and electrical. They will use these skills in the everyday upkeep and
maintenance of the facility. This way they will be able to feel like they have
responsibility and that they are responsible and people depend upon them, giving them the
locus of control. It will give the kids a sense of accomplishment when they see the food
they planted on their plates and the roof that they built over their heads. The prison
will be self-sufficient will self-sustaining for the same reasons. The boot camps will
make the money to pay the guards, teachers, and administration staff by selling the
excess food to a farmer's coop. And selling things like plates and such that the
juveniles make. All of the items that the prisons would sell would be to distributors at
competitive market prices. Later in the boot camps this will add the chance for some of
the kids who have been exceptionally cooperative and show great progress to be
controllers, and accountants, giving the kids an even greater sense of responsibility.
After the kids got out of boot camp, they would be required to return to the boot camp to
give talks on how their lives have changed since going through the program. The graduates
would also be required to give peer tutoring, one hour for every day they were
incarcerated, as a way to give back to the camp. This would give the kids who get out a
reason not to do it again because they would see how their freedoms were actually stilted
and it will help the kids in the camp by giving them a role model, a person who has been
through similar things and came out on top.
To get into such a facility, the juvenile would have to fulfill certain requirements: 1.
The juvenile could have no more than 5 misdemeanors and one felony, 2. The juvenile must
enter a plea of either no contest or guilty, 3. Must not have gone through the boot camp
program more than twice already 4. The juvenile's parent or guardian must sign away their
right to sue incase of injury or other incidents, 5. Considered a juvenile within the
states they reside, and 6. They must be able to cope with the camp's atmosphere both
physically and mentally {a judge will determine this.). (Zaehringer 4) In this Boot camp
there will be a set schedule beginning at 8:00 am and ending at 10:00p.m. During the day,
time will be allocated to working at their jobs, learning new skills, meal times, and
general education. The inmates will have free time in the evening from 7:00pm to 9:30pm
when lockdown will occur with lights out at 10:00. Discipline will be tough with a zero
tolerance policy and punishment similar to those in a military boot camp. During their
stay at the camp, inmates will be pushed to their limits emotionally and physically so
that they can be rebuilt into model citizens. 
Many people today are afraid of the power that is needed to stop the surge in juvenile
crime. They worry that if we give the camps power over kids that they will be beaten and
possibly molested by the older kids in the camp. However this is a fallacy and in fact a
majority of society want a "get tough" policy. (Current Events 2a) Of course the guards
and such would have a lot of power, but it is necessary to discipline the kids properly.
Did we have death by homicide as the second highest killer of juveniles (Reporting on
Violence)? No, the people back then were strict and stern in the way they made and kept
the laws and rules. Today's guards and teachers need similar discipline to curb the
violence. 
Another problem that society has with boot camps is that if it doesn't solve the problem,
all we will do is create smarter more disciplined criminals. Now that is a high
possibility, but with the proper attention from the camp administration those who seem to
be like that shall be pulled aside and given a thorough mental examination. This shall
prove whether or not the are truly criminalistic or just genetically not able to curb the
aggression that they feel. If they were the latter, they would be put into contact with
mercenary guilds across the United States for further training and later employment.
The final argument that some of the population has against boot camps is their
militaristic nature. Beside the above stated problems with turning out a fine tuned
criminal, others believe that the inmates will simply bottle up their anger and
aggression inside during their sentence and release it out in society when they have been
released. This will hopefully stopped by the peer tutoring and mentoring that the inmates
will have during their sentence and will continue to have after prison for the determined
time by being another role model.
The idea of a "self-sustaining" boot camp may seem like an empty dream, but the reality
is that boot camps work, and this type would take it to the next step. Can we do what is
necessary to stop juvenile crime? Or our we going to be drowned in the waves of juvenile
violence.
Bibliography
Works Cited
Zaehringer, Brent. "Juvenile Boot Camps: Cost and Effectiveness vs. Residential
Facilities" Koch Crime Institute White Paper Repot Jul. 1998. Online. Internet: WWW.
Address: www.kci.org/publication/white_paper/boot_camp/ default.htm. Jul. 1998
National Crime Prevention Council. "Fast Crime Facts" National Crime Prevention Council.
Online. Internet: WWW. Address: http://www.ncpc.org/11stat.htm 
CNN and Assoc. Press. "As many as 25 dead in Colorado school attack" CNN.com Apr. 1999.
Online. Internet: WWW. Address: http://cnn.com/US/9904/20/school.shooting.08/ index.html
Apr. 1999.
---. "Outwardly normal, school killer was plagued by anger, voices" CNN.com Nov. 1999.
Online. Internet: WWW. Address: http://cnn.com/US/9911/13/schoolshooting.ap/
Nov. 1999.
Barnard, Jeff. "Suspended student kills one in high school cafeteria; two dead at his
home" The Oregonian May. 1998. Online. Internet: WWW. Address:
http://www.oregonlive.com/todaysnews/9805/st052112.html May. 1998.
United States. FBI. FBI Uniform Crime Reports Data Online 
Internet. WWW. Address: http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius_97/96crime/96crime2.pdf
Lueng, Rebecca. "Paducah Remembers" ABCNEWS.com Dec. 1998. Online Internet: WWW. Address:
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/paducah_community981211.html Dec. 1998
Barr, Stephan. "Bad Seeds" NJ Monthly Dec. 1997. Online.
Internet: WWW. Address http://www.njmothly.com/issues/dec97/articles/seeds.html Dec.
1997
United States. National Institute of Justice. Office of justice Programs. U.S. Department
of Justice. Boot Camps for Juvenile Offenders: an Implementation Evaluation of Three
Demonstration Programs. By Blair b. Bourque, Roberta C. Cronin, Frank R. Pearson, Daniel
B. Felker, Mei Han, and Sarah M. Hill. Washington: OJJDP Jan 1996
United States. National Institute of Justice. Office of justice Programs. U.S. Department
of Justice. Desktop Guide to Good Juvenile Detention Practice. By David W Roush, Ph.D.
Washington: OJJDP Oct. 1996