Juvenile Boot Camps: Are We Killing Our Children?

There has recently begun a debate about the effectiveness of so-called “boot camps” for juvenile offenders in this country. The debate has arisen due to the many deaths that are occurring in these supposedly good alternatives to incarceration for our youths. Apparently, these “boot camps” have developed an “anything goes” approach to correcting our young people’s behavior. “Tough love” and “character-building” are terms often used to mask what has obviously become some very brutal treatment. What most people would consider basic human rights are being denied to our youth in frighteningly increasing numbers. Denial of food and water (particularly after extreme exercise or running for literally miles) has become common practice with the result of many deaths due to heat stroke, dehydration, and cardiac arrest. Does this sound character-building to you?

This year, Florida shut down its juvenile boot camp system due to the harsh brutality that resulted in many recent deaths. In Arizona, at a privately-run Boys Ranch, sixteen year-old Nicholaus Contraraz suffered bouts of 103 degree fever, muscle spasms, severe chest pains, and impaired breathing. He was forced to participate in calisthenics, running, and the harsh military-style regimen of the ranch. As he got sicker, it got to the point where he was defecating in his bed and he complained of pain all over his body. On the last day of his life, he was forced to do push-ups, was thrown to the ground, and was bounced off a wall on several occasions. An autopsy later showed that his abdomen was flooded with more than two and a half quarts of pus from a horrid staph infection. The immediate cause of death was cardiac arrest. This boy was murdered, as are more and more each day in these “incarceration alternatives."

The fact is that juvenile boot camps lack substantial research as well as regulation. Recidivism rates are no better than for incarcerated youths and many young people are actually beginning to choose lengthy incarceration over the harsh realities of boot camp life.

The main goal of boot camps is to rehabilitate chronic delinquents before they move into the adult world and offend. Most attendees are male, non-violent, repeat offenders between the ages of fourteen and eighteen years. It is difficult to see how brutality and the denial of basic human rights are going to rehabilitate our youth.