Juvenile Boot Camp Demonstration Study

Client: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP)
Year: 1996

Supported by the National Institute of Justice, AIR participated as part of a research team to conduct a process evaluation of OJJDP’s juvenile boot camp demonstration study, which examined the feasibility and appropriateness of developing a boot camp model for youth offenders across three geographically diverse sites. The evaluation found that all three programs reported high attrition rates for noncompliance, absenteeism, and new arrests. The initial evaluation results were not conclusive with respect to program costs or impact and drew no conclusions about the long-term impact of the programs. The evaluation team concluded that boot camps could be implemented in the juvenile justice system and developed several recommendations concerning their implementation.