Juvenile Boot Camps

Correctional programs for juvenile offenders modeled after boot camps for adult offenders that serve as alternatives to traditional confinement or probation and emphasize military-style discipline, physical conditioning, work, drill and ceremony characteristic of military basic training. Juvenile boot camps are highly-structured, short-term (usually three-month) residential programs for adjudicated nonviolent offenders younger than age 18. Services may include regular, remedial, special and vocational education; and counseling and treatment for substance use and other health and mental health conditions. The residential program is generally followed by six to nine months of community-based aftercare in which youth are expected to pursue academic and vocational training or employment while under intensive, but progressively diminishing, supervision.