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Monday, February 2, 1998

North Texas boot camp tries to turn young offenders around

By JOHANNA M. BREWER / Herald Democrat

DENISON, Texas - On a Saturday, four young men, each of them with pasts filled with crime, courts and alienation, filed past a door that locks magnetically and entered a different world than they had ever seen before.

The young offenders are from 15 to 17 years old.

One of these teen-aged youths, a gang member, burglarized a house, and tried to kill a police officer. Another was selling drugs to fifth-graders. A third was a two-time burglar who also stole a car. A fourth made the drugs he delivered, and sold marijuana in a school.

The four are the first recruits to be sent to the Juvenile Services boot camp in Grayson County. They come, each court-ordered, from Cooke, Fannin and Montague counties.

This is not a pleasant day for the four. They are being "shocked," a method of training that is, in boot camp jargon, called "incarceration shock." It includes being screamed at, made to run with drill instructors (DI), and drop to the ground in pushups upon command.

Today each of the four is surrounded by three boot camp officers: two DIs and a "safety" officer, a monitor who ensures the offender is "shocked" but physically safe.

As his DI screams, "Drop to the floor - drop now," one teen quickly complies. As he lies on the floor, she orders him to lift his legs.

"More. More. Lift those legs," Drill Instructor Patti Berry, screams over and over. "I can't," he cries out. She yells, again, that the camp does not accept the word "can't." Tears fill his eyes.

"Get up," Berry yells. "Get up now." He starts to get up, but not fast enough. She yells again for him to hit the floor. Then back up again. He looks tired. It's 10 a.m. The youths have been in the facility for two hours.

Another juvenile is running down the sidewalk inside the security fence with his team of three. There is a sparkle in his eye. His team yells at him - they force him to run again. They are DI Charles Ward, DI Shane Jeter and safety officer, DI Leonard Baxter, who is an ex-Marine.

"Which is your left foot, your left foot?" he's asked in loud terms. He lifts his right foot and answers, "This is my left foot."

Boot camps are controversial. They look brutal to the outsider. A review commissioned by the Office of Juvenile Justice says past boot camps have not shown to have improved the recidivism rate - the numbers of repeated crimes by the same juveniles. Others ask if they really save the state money in incarceration dollars.

"What I've learned from other programs is what's working," said Grayson County Juvenile Services Director Bill Bristow. "If all they (the drill instructors) do is 'shock' and keep them off guard, it's not going to work.

"What makes it work is when a trust is established with the drill instructors and case managers and counselors," he said.

The 75th Legislature authorized $37.5 million in general revenue bonds to provide assistance to counties to construct and equip secure juvenile facilities. The Board of the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission (TJPC) approved 18 proposals to construct these projects across the state. Cooke, Fannin and Grayson County commissioners combined efforts with their juvenile boards and two area foundations to open a regional juvenile boot camp in Denison.

"These new juvenile facilities are designed to break the cycle of gangs, drugs and delinquency," Texas Gov. George Bush has said. "They will teach juvenile offenders there are bad consequences for bad behavior, but they will keep kids within or close to their own communities so their families can visit and maintain ties. These facilities will fill a gap in our juvenile justice system, providing places of strict discipline and punishment that offer hope of turning around young lives."

The boot camp, a 20,000 square foot facility located near Grayson County Airport, will house 40 inmates. The four tenets of its training are education, community, family and discipline. Instruction will include training in sensitivity to victims rights and feelings, substance abuse education, how to set goals and meet them, and understanding community expectations.

In 1992, three demonstration project boot camps funded by the U.S. Justice Department were opened. They were located in Cleveland, Denver and Mobile, Ala. The three were subsequently reviewed by Caliber Associates under a contract with the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP).

"All experienced significant problems in establishing the programs, including high rates of staff turnover and difficulties in implementing after-care elements," the report says.

Said Tony Fabelo, spokesman for the Criminal Justice Policy Council, a state think tank dealing with justice issues, "The National Institute of Justice funded an evaluation including Texas. They (boot camps) did not have an impact on reducing recidivism. They are popular because sentencing people liked them, but in terms of reducing crime, it did not. They were neutral in impact (on recidivism)."

Boot camp supporters can call on other issues to recommend them, according to the Caliber report. The juvenile boot camps did have lower total costs per offender than traditional state or county juvenile correctional institutions because offenders spend much shorter periods of time in them. Offenders spend approximately 90 days in one compared to more than 220 days for youths in traditional correctional facilities.

Another plus is the better education young offenders get in a boot camp, the report says.

In Juvenile Services' new boot camp, the inmates will attend classes at the Alternative Learning Center (ALA), adjacent to the boot camp living quarters. It is affiliated with the Sherman school district, which is providing the ALA with teachers and educational materials. The goal is a high school diploma or a GED certificate.

"Although the residential phases were successfully implemented, none of the experimental programs was able to implement and sustain stable, well-developed after-care services," said Caliber's report.

In Juvenile Services' boot camp program, special attention is being given to after-care.

As he describes the after-care part of the program, Bristow watches one young offender run, just ahead of his two DIs and his "safety" officer.

This young man hasn't had a father for a long time. He might not have a home to go to when he gets out - except for after-care. Boot camp caseworkers will be preparing for his future while he is learning to make better life choices, the camp's director said.

"The state is looking to us to be a pilot program for an after-care system that can be copied," Bristow said. " We have after-care groups that are taking place all the time. We have them going on now for the (traditional) probationers. They (boot camp graduates) will join them."

"All case managers will work with the probation officers in the offender's home location to find support groups. It may be an alcohol or narcotics' (cessation) program or a behavioral support group," he said. "We will prepare them to go back to school or to work."

A key component of the program requires the parents or guardians and family to actively participant in the "Positive Steps" part of it.

"Positive Steps" teaches parenting skills and helps the youth bond appropriately with his family.

As Bristow watches, the boy stops running and walk in lock-step with his DIs. Left, right, left, right, they call out.

"This is our hardest day," Bristow said. "We have to make these four the nucleus of a community."

Despite disappointments in other boot camps, the Caliber report concluded juvenile boot camps "offer certain practical advantages and future promise that warrant continued testing and examination. They are a useful alternative for offenders for whom probation would be insufficiently punitive, yet for whom long incarceration would be excessive."

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Distributed by The Associated Press