Definition
As the name implies, correctional boot camps are in-prison programs that resemble military basic training. They emphasize vigorous physical activity, drill and ceremony, manual labor, and other activities that ensure that participants have little, if any, free time. Strict rules govern all aspects of conduct and appearance. Correctional officers act as drill instructors, initially using intense verbal tactics designed to break down inmates’ resistance and lead to constructive changes.
Articles
- “boot camp” NRCS Boot Camp: Perspective and Retrospective
- Nuclear Physics Boot Camp Preps Future Scientists
- Females in Boot Camps
- Correctional Boot Camps: Lessons From a Decade of Research
Article Summaries
“boot camp” NRCS Boot Camp: Perspective and RetrospectiveActually the boot camp concept is not new for NRCS. It origins lie in the Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930’s where NRCS conservationists – then called the Soil Conservation Service or SCS – supervised conservation work at 800 camps nationwide. The CCC was abolished in 1942, but the boot camp concept lived on at four SCS regional training centers located in Pennsylvania, Nebraska, Texas, and Oregon. In the mid 1960’s, these regional training centers became technical training centers and the field training abandoned. NRCS hung onto the boot camp idea however, various States established their own training based on the old SCS regional training center concept. More recently however, we realized that emerging needs and trends in the past two farm bills, called for a national, uniform approach to the boot camp concept. Conservation boot camps could provide a unified, nationally-driven training forum to give new employees training in planning, designing, and implementing conservation practices and in agency operations.
Nuclear Physics Boot Camp Preps Future Scientists
The metamorphosis of a student into a full-fledged scientist takes years, but the Exotic Beam Summer School helps accelerate-so to speak-the process. In August 2007, 45 nuclear physics students from eight countries gathered at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL) at Michigan State University for the one-week boot camp to subject themselves to the transformation. There, the students delved into the world of nuclei, the cores of atoms. The journey of nuclei begins at the cyclotron, an accelerator that speeds isotopes to up to half the speed of light. The nuclei flying out of the cyclotron smash into a target made of beryllium, resulting in millions of flying particles per second containing dozens of different isotopes.
Some boot camp programs began accepting eligible female inmates in the early 1990s, but con- cerns soon emerged about whether the boot camp strategy is appropriate for women. Findings from the limited research on female boot camp participants and their high dropout rate clearly indicate that this population faces unique problems. A 1992 study a noted that the programs were designed for males and did not accommodate women’s special needs or problems. Female inmates are more likely to have children and be the sole parent for those children. Boot camps often restricted, or even banned, visitation, creating difficult situations for mothers and their children. Also, the programs did not teach parenting skills. ? Female inmates are more likely to have a history of physical or sexual abuse.
Correctional Boot Camps: Lessons From a Decade of Research
In response to rising rates of serious crime, many correctional systems established boot camps as an alternative sanction that might reduce recidivism, prison populations, and operating costs. Despite a decade of popularity with policymakers and the public, boot camps have had difficulty meeting these objectives. The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) sponsored an analysis of research conducted over a 10-year period beginning in the late 1980s.