Correctional Boot Camps : Military Basic Training or a Model for Corrections?

Boot camps have developed over the past two decades into a program that incorporates a military regimen to create a structured environment. While some critics of this method of corrections suggest that the confrontational nature of the program is antithetical to treatment, authors Doris Layton MacKenzie and Gaylene Styve Armstrong present research knowledge and personal discussions with community leaders that offer insight into both the strengths and weaknesses of this controversial form of corrections.

Correctional Boot Camps: Military Basic Training or a Model for Corrections? provides the most up-to-date assessment of the major perspectives and issues related to the current state of boot camps. The book goes beyond cursory examinations of the effectiveness of boot camps, presenting an in-depth view of a greater variety of issues. Correctional Boot Camps examines empirical evidence on boot camps drawn from diverse sources including male, female, juvenile, and adult programs from across the nation.

The book explores empirical research on both the punitive and rehabilitative components of the boot camp model and the effectiveness of the "tough on crime" aspects of the programs that are often thought of as punishment or retribution, in lieu of a longer sentence in a traditional facility. Thus, offenders earn their way back to the general public more quickly because they have paid their debt to society by being punished in a short-term, but strict, boot camp.

Correctional Boot Camps is a comprehensive textbook for undergraduate and graduate students studying corrections and juvenile justice. The book is also a valuable resource for correctional professionals interacting with offenders.

Doris Layton MacKenzie, Ph.D., is Professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Maryland and Director of the Evaluation Research Group. Prior to this position, she earned her doctorate from Pennsylvania State University, was on the faculty of the Louisiana State University where she was honored as a "Researcher of Distinction," and was awarded a Visiting Scientist position at the National Institute of Justice. As Visiting Scientist, she provided expertise to Federal, State and Local jurisdictions on correctional boot camps, correctional policy, intermediate sanctions, research methodology, experimental design, statistical analyses, and evaluation techniques. As an expert in criminal justice, Dr. MacKenzie has consulted with State and Local jurisdictions, and has testified before U.S. Senate and House Committees. She has an extensive publication record on such topics as examining what works to reduce crime in the community, inmate adjustment to prison, the impact of intermediate sanctions on recidivism, long-term offenders, methods of predicting prison populations, self-report criminal activities of probationers and boot camp prisons. She directed funded research projects on the topics of: "Multi-Site Study of Correctional Boot Camps," "Descriptive Study of Female Boot Camps," "Probationer Compliance with Conditions of Supervision" and "The National Study of Juvenile Correctional Institutions" and What Works in Corrections. Dr. MacKenzie is Past-Chair of the American Society of Criminology′s Division on Corrections and Sentencing.

is Professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Maryland and Director of the Evaluation Research Group. Prior to this position, she earned her doctorate from Pennsylvania State University, was on the faculty of the Louisiana State University where she was honored as a "Researcher of Distinction," and was awarded a Visiting Scientist position at the National Institute of Justice. As Visiting Scientist, she provided expertise to Federal, State and Local jurisdictions on correctional boot camps, correctional policy, intermediate sanctions, research methodology, experimental design, statistical analyses, and evaluation techniques. As an expert in criminal justice, Dr. MacKenzie has consulted with State and Local jurisdictions, and has testified before U.S. Senate and House Committees. She has an extensive publication record on such topics as examining what works to reduce crime in the community, inmate adjustment to prison, the impact of intermediate sanctions on recidivism, long-term offenders, methods of predicting prison populations, self-report criminal activities of probationers and boot camp prisons. She directed funded research projects on the topics of: "Multi-Site Study of Correctional Boot Camps," "Descriptive Study of Female Boot Camps," "Probationer Compliance with Conditions of Supervision" and "The National Study of Juvenile Correctional Institutions" and What Works in Corrections. Dr. MacKenzie is Past-Chair of the American Society of Criminology′s Division on Corrections and Sentencing.

Gaylene Styve Armstrong, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Arizona State University West. She obtained her doctorate in criminology and criminal justice from the University of Maryland. Her research has focused on corrections, juvenile delinquency, and applied statistical modeling. She was principal investigator on grant funded by the National Institute of Justice that examined the effects of privatization on environmental quality in juvenile correctional facilities. This research on privatization resulted in a book titled Private vs. Public Operation of Juvenile Correctional Facilities. Some of her other recent research can also be found in Crime and Delinquency, Justice Quarterly and Journal of Research on Crime and Delinquency. Recently, Armstrong was nominated for the Carnegie Foundation’s U.S. Professor of the Year Award for her excellence in teaching.