Boot Camp - Shock Incarceration Programs are Useful

2293 Words5 Pages

Boot Camp - Shock Incarceration Programs are Useful

In the military, boot camp represents an abrupt, often shocking transition to a new way of life. Discipline is strict and there is an emphasis on hard work, physical training, and unquestioning obedience to authority. The new private is told when to sleep, when to get up and when to eat. He marches with his platoon everywhere he goes such as to meals and to training. Orders must be obeyed instantly and personal liberty is almost nonexistent. By the end of boot camp the new private has become a different person. Such was the hope for boot camp, or shock incarceration, programs in American prisons: that young, nonviolent offenders could be diverted from a life outside the law using the same tactics successfully employed by the military to turn civilians into soldiers. This reliance on a military atmosphere still provokes controversy over boot camp programs, with proponents arguing that the rigid discipline promotes positive behavior. (Clear, 1997; Cowels, 1995)

Since their beginning in 1983 in Georgia, boot camps have spread to half the States and have gained wide popular appeal for their "get tough" policies. Proponents of boot camps cite their potential for rehabilitating offenders and curbing future criminal behavior. Opponents caution that more information is needed on a variety of issues including costs and the potential for abuse of power. Research into boot camps began with a 1988 study of Louisiana's boot camp program and continued with a multi-site evaluation in 1989 (Cowels, 1995). Fueled primarily by growth in the number of offenders incarcerated during the past decade and changing views of the role of punishment and treatment in the correctional system. Shock incarceration programs, or "boot camps" as they have been more recently called, have emerged as an increasingly popular alternative sanction for nonviolent crimes.

Boot camp programs operate under a military-like routine wherein young offenders convicted of less serious, nonviolent crimes are confined for a short period of time, typically from 3 to 6 months (Parent, 1989). They are given close supervision while being exposed to a demanding regimen of strict discipline, physical training, drill, inspections, and physical labor. All the programs also incorporate some degree of military structure and discipline. They follow new strict rules that they are not use to which include the following: (1) Basic training program inmates shall not enter the rooms of other inmates.

Show More
Related

  • Analysis of Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing

    1210 Words  | 3 Pages

    Unable to get official permission to interview and write about correctional officers, Ted Conover, author of the book Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing, “got in" by applying for a correctional officer position. After training, he and his fellow rookies, known as "newjacks," were randomly assigned to Sing Sing, one of the country's most famous -- and infamous -- prisons. Sing Sing, a maximum-security male prison, was built in 1828 by prisoners themselves, kept at their task by frequent use of the whip. Today, the chaos, the backbiting, the rundown building and equipment, the disrespect and the relentless stress that Conover experienced in his year at Sing Sing show, quite well, how the increase of prisons in the U.S. brutalizes more than just the prisoners. Some of the individuals in Conover's entering "class" of corrections trainees had always wanted to work in law enforcement. Others were ex-military, looking for a civilian job that they thought would reward structure and discipline. But most came looking for a steady job with good benefits. To get it, they were desperate enough to commute hours each way, or even to live apart from their families during the work week. Their job consists of long days locking and unlocking cells, moving prisoners to and from various locations while the prisoners beg, hassle and abuse them. Sometimes, the prisoners' requests are simple, but against the rules: an extra shower, some contraband cigarettes. Other times, they are appropriate, but unbelievably complicated: it can take months to get information about property lost in the transfer from one prison to another. Meanwhile, the orders officers give are ignored. Discipline -- even among the officers themselves -- is non-existent. And with the money and benefits of this "good" job come nightmares and family stress, daily uncertainty about one's job and duties, and pent-up frustration that, every so often, explodes in violence -- instigated by staff as well as by prisoners.

    Read More

  • Equality, S Self Journey In Ayn Rand's Anthem

    975 Words  | 2 Pages

    Many people seem to get entangled into society's customs. In the novel Anthem, the protagonist, Equality 7-2521, lives a period of his life as a follower. However, Equality eventually, tries to distant himself from his society. He is shaped to be a follower, but eventually emerges in to an individual and a leader. On his journey, he discovers the past remains of his community. Ayn Rand uses Equality's discoveries of self to represent the importance of individuality in a functional society.

    Read More

  • Ayn Rand´s Anthem: Failure in the Implementation of Marxist Ideals

    701 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ayn Rand, in Anthem, illustrates a futuristic, socialist society. In the novel, Rand destroys any sense of individuality and describes the social setbacks endured after living ‘only for the brotherhood’. The individual person fails to exist and is but a ‘we’ and recognized by a word and a series of numbers rather than a name. Additionally, she describes the horrors encountered within this different system of life: from reproduction methods to punishments. Through the life of Equality 7-2521, Rand demonstrates a person’s journey from obedience to exile in this socialist society. Throughout the entire novel, Rand criticizes Marxist theory as she demonstrates socialism’s failure to suppress revolution, thwart material dialectic, and its detriment to humanity.

    Read More

  • Equality's Motivation In Anthem, By Ayn Rand

    793 Words  | 2 Pages

    “For the coming of that day shall I fight, I and my sons and my chosen friends. For the freedom of Man. For his rights. For his life. For his honor.”(page 104). In the novella Anthem by, Ayn Rand, the main character Equality, fought for a way to be himself and help mankind. Rand clearly made Equality’s primary motivation joining The Council of Scholars as a creator, and through the course of two years, due to Equality conducting experiments in all of his spare time until he discovers a method of harnessing the power of electricity to use it to light the community. Equality confirms the right to his motivation. What was Equality’s primary motivation, is he right to be motivated in this way, and what would the world be like if everyone was

    Read More

  • The Rise of America’s Prison Empire

    1930 Words  | 4 Pages

    Throughout his novel, Texas Tough: The Rise of America’s Prison Empire, author and professor Robert Perkinson outlines the three current dominant purposes of prison. The first, punishment, is the act of disciplining offenders in an effort to prevent them from recommitting a particular crime. Harsh punishment encourages prisoners to behave because many will not want to face the consequences of further incarceration. While the purpose of punishment is often denounced, many do agree that prison should continue to be used as a means of protecting law-abiding citizens from violent offenders. The isolation of inmates, prison’s second purpose, exists to protect the public. Rehabilitation is currently the third purpose of prison. Rehabilitation is considered successful when a prisoner does n...

    Read More

  • Case Study: No Longer Practices That Work

    1180 Words  | 3 Pages

    Shrum, H. (2004, September). No Longer Theory: Correctional Practices That Work. The Journal of Correctional Education, 55(3), pp. 225-235.

    Read More

  • Analysis of Ayn Rand´s Novel: Anthem

    757 Words  | 2 Pages

    Anthem is a book about a society that is ruled by few and has very limited individualism and freedom of self-expression. The society is split into ‘jobs’ that designate what each person will do the whole rest of their life. According to the group you are designated to be in that will be the only people you will communicate with for the rest of your life. This means the community lacks in social skills and communication throughout groups. This shows that the leaders of the communities have supreme control over the community and organize everything in the order that supports their interests and themselves best. Speaking to other people out of a persons work force was not allowed so equality had to stand out to try new things. First, he discovers electricity and what it can do because he wanted to change the community and how it worked so he ventured out to find something new. Next, he shows the scholars of the community because he wanted to change the community into a new community with his discovery of electricity. The community in the book does not know of any modern technology and they should not unless they want to.

    Read More

  • Attica Prison Riot and Prison Reform

    1355 Words  | 3 Pages

    The 1970s in the United States was a time of incredible change, doubt, as well as reform. The many issues happening throughout the country helped to lead to the discomfort in many prisoners that eventually lead to their e...

    Read More

  • Quest for Identity: Equality's Journey in Dystopia

    794 Words  | 2 Pages

    Every story has a quest and every quest has a hero from which one of them included the unconquered, Equality, who starts his journey from birth in the dystopian society of Anthem. Equality faces many challenges throughout the novel to prove and gain his true identity in the society but it does not come without difficulty. He was born different and better than others but in the end this difference became his most dangerous enemy.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Buriosity In Ayn Rand's Anthem

    1339 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout the novel, Equality allows his active curiosity to encourage him experiment, venture, and learn. Reactions to impulses of curiosity can lead to the discovery of one’s potential, purpose, and self-reliance. Therefore, in Anthem, Ayn Rand demonstrates the outcomes of curiosity through Equality’s behavior in the tunnel from the Unmentionable Times, in the Uncharted Forest upon finding his home, and in the house when he begins to read.

    Read More

  • Correctional Theory

    2514 Words  | 6 Pages

    Rehabilitation is firmly entrenched in the history of corrections in the United States. Penitentiaries, for example were formed in 1820 with the belief that offenders could be morally reformed (Cullen, & Jonson, 2012, pp. 27-28). In 1870). The National Congress on Penitentiary and Reformatory Discipline documented the merits of rehabilitation (Wines, 1871, p. 457). However, by the end of the 1960s, the United States had experienced several years of discontent within its prison systems which resulted in a national call for prison reform and the development of a disillusionment with rehabilitation (Martinson, 1974, p. 22). In 1966, Robert Martinson was hired to evaluate the effectiveness of rehabilitation, the result of which was his infamous “What Works?” paper, in which he posits that empirical evidence does not support rehabilitation (p. 23). By the mid-1970s, correctional policy shifted from one emphasizing rehabilitation to one emphasizing just desserts/retribution, deterrence and incapacitation (Cullen, & Jonson, 2012, p. 22). The result of these “get-tough” policies, which sought to control crime through strict laws and lengthy sentences, was unprecedented growth in our custodial population, which we can no longer support, either financially or spatially (p. 1).

    Read More

  • Individualism in "Anthem" by Ayn Rand

    814 Words  | 2 Pages

    Anthem, by Ayn Rand, is a very unique novel. It encircles individualism and makes the reader think of how people can conform to society and do as they are told without knowing the consequences and results of their decisions. Also, it teaches the importance of self expression and the freedom that comes along with being your own person and having the power to choose what path to take in life. Figurative language is used often in this book and in a variety of quotes that have great importance to the theme, plot, and conflict of the novel.

    Read More

  • Models of Corrections

    1627 Words  | 4 Pages

    “The history of correctional thought and practice has been marked by enthusiasm for new approaches, disillusionment with these approaches, and then substitution of yet other tactics”(Clear 59). During the mid 1900s, many changes came about for the system of corrections in America. Once a new idea goes sour, a new one replaces it. Prisons shifted their focus from the punishment of offenders to the rehabilitation of offenders, then to the reentry into society, and back to incarceration. As times and the needs of the criminal justice system changed, new prison models were organized in hopes of lowering the crime rates in America. The three major models of prisons that were developed were the medical, model, the community model, and the crime control model.

    Read More

  • Preference In Ayn Rand's Anthem

    1386 Words  | 3 Pages

    He is enthralled by the philosophy of science. He does not care about other subjects of his life, he spends every extra second he has to experiment with the electricity. Electricity represents education and happiness. In this society, the most advanced technology they have is the candle. Since Equality discovered electricity and has continued to pursue its domestication, it signifies that he enjoys creating and experimenting more than simply memorizing facts.Equality even said himself that he has “followed it [electricity] in preference to all of our [his] studies” (53). This shows that instead of the other studies of his life, he prefers to explore the uncharted information and experiment. Clearly he is committing the Transgression of Preference, because he is spending more time on creating more electricity, than his other studies. Liberty also a certain preference over an idea. She enjoys discovering herself. She likes to stand in front of the mirror that she discovered in the house from the Unmentionable Times. This signifies that by looking at her reflection constantly it shows she wants to learn about herself. She wants to learn who she is. She is so enthralled in learning about her body that it even stated in the book that

    Read More

  • The Importance of Educating Jail and Prison Inmates

    1886 Words  | 4 Pages

    Esperian, J. H. (2010). The effect of prison education programs on recidivism. Journal of Correctional Education, 61(4), 316-334. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/871418247?accountid=38223

    Read More

More about Boot Camp - Shock Incarceration Programs are Useful

Open Document