Corrections

FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin,The, Sept, 2004

The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) presents Correctional Boot Camps: Lessons from a Decade of Research, which contains findings from 10 years of data used to analyze whether boot camps help reduce recidivism, prison populations, and operating costs. The report found that although boot camps generally had positive effects on the attitudes and behaviors of inmates during confinement, these changes did not translate into reduced recidivism.

Programs often were too brief to exert a lasting effect on inmates released to the community, and they lacked a strong treatment model or sufficient preparation of inmates for reentry. Boot camps' efforts to achieve multiple goals contributed to conflicting results. This report is available electronically at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/pubs-sum/197018.htm or by contacting the National Criminal Justice Reference Service at 800-851-3420.