Amid falling enrollment—possibly due to reforms that keep low-level drug offenders out of prison— New York made the move to shutter some of its shock facilities starting in , sparking pushback in local communities and from the lawmakers representing them. Despite concerns from outside experts and researchers, the programs still have strong support among state legislators.
Prison officials declined interview requests. Shackled and handcuffed, fresh recruits arrive every week, sometimes shipped from other prisons after years behind bars, other times sent in straight out of intake.
Like many of the former prisoners interviewed by The Appeal, he asked to remain anonymous because he is still on parole and fears retaliation from parole officials. Screaming is part of the daily routine. It starts before dawn. Sometime around a. Then they have three minutes to get dressed before heading outside for group exercise, where they run in degree summer heat or do push-ups in the winter snow. When they come inside for breakfast, they march in a military-style parade line.
Sometimes, in retribution for alleged infractions committed earlier in the day, drill instructors make prisoners kneel on the mess hall seats, stand to eat, or make the whole platoon squat.
The daytime hours include programs like GED or vocational training, or work assignments. In their limited free time, shock attendees can shine their boots, write letters, iron their clothes and make their bunks.
Shock alums said that except when they are in school or drug treatment, prisoners are not allowed to sit down without permission. Until recently, both male and female prisoners had their heads shaved upon arrival, though at Willard that is no longer required for women, a DOCCS spokesperson said.
But in some cases former prisoners recalled more humiliating punishments. Some said they had been made to stand and stare at a flagpole for hours, while others said they had been forced to wear embarrassing signs and sashes around the facility.
In one instance, a woman recounted watching another prisoner run around a bush in circles as drill instructors threw shoes at her, a punishment meted out after she was caught staring at the men across the yard. One former Lakeview employee, who asked not to be named because she still works for the state government, said such punishments were common. Other program graduates and participants offered similar details about routine name-calling and degrading comments ranging from drill instructors insulting their mothers to being called crackheads, as well as inconsistent treatment.
The Manhattan native started selling drugs in the late s as a teen on the Lower East Side, then a neighborhood where illicit narcotics were plentiful and crime was frequent.
At first, he said he hustled outside a corner store, but later he turned to large-scale sales, and pulled in millions. In , he did shock for the first time at the the now-shuttered Monterey boot camp. After completing the program, Marte caught another charge and went back to prison, where he went through the boot camp two more times.
But after his release from Lakeview in , Marte launched ConBody, a Manhattan gym featuring prison-inspired workouts like those he learned in shock. Currently, he manages dozens of clients, with multiple classes a week and a stable of trainers, many of whom are formerly incarcerated, working for him.
And Marte said that although he appreciated the shock regimen as well as the discipline the program instilled in him, it was also highly abusive. On a near-daily basis, Marte said, he watched the guards hit male prisoners. Claims of prison abuse are notoriously hard to corroborate, given the secrecy of prison administrations, the scarcity of releasable video footage and limited outside oversight. But several prisoners told The Appeal that they witnessed similar abuse, as did the former Lakeview staffer who expressed concerns about prisoner treatment.
During an incident in , the ex-employee said she watched a drill instructor punch a prisoner three times because he rolled his eyes. Three other current and former employees who spoke with The Appeal did not recount seeing such treatment, but two said they were not in stationed in an area where they would have been likely to witness it, and the third said she had only heard rumors about abuse.
In some cases, prisoners may file grievances—a legally required first step before filing a lawsuit—but many said they were scared to do so because they feared being kicked out of the program. Samantha said she once complained to officials about mistreatment but later worried for her physical safety after prison staff pulled her into another room and pretended to shoot her.
In , one woman told the Albany Times-Union that a guard raped her at Lakeview. When another prisoner informed authorities about the alleged assault, she was tossed in solitary for four days. Critics say that the premise of boot camp incarceration—using military basic training-style discipline to rehabilitate prisoners—is flawed.
But military boot camp graduates finish basic training with the guarantee of a job, housing, pension, healthcare, and food. And their post-boot camp career prospects are likely to be bright. And even the military has made efforts to curb abusive techniques associated with basic training. Research shows that shock programs do not significantly reduce recidivism. Some prisoners report positive shock experiences just because the programs are less boring than regular prison, Mitchell said.
She also criticized shock programs for refusing to give prisoners medication-assisted treatment, such as methadone or suboxone. Aside from the questionable treatment approaches, multiple experts told The Appeal that shock programs are a breeding ground for abusive treatment. In , Julie Sharp was arrested in Herkimer County, New York, for drunk driving and hoped that shock would give her a chance to go home early. She had children who missed her. But she also had bipolar disorder, anxiety, and dissociative disorder.
Sharp quickly learned that one thing would automatically disqualify her from her earlier chance at freedom: the psychiatric medication she took daily to treat her mental health disorders. When she arrived at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility before going to shock, she was taking an array of medications that seemed to work in managing her mental health. She was then sent back to general population in a regular prison to finish out her sentence.
Other former shock prisoners recounted similar stories; some toughed it out without medication, while others decided their medication was more important than the promise of freedom. Although the Willard Drug Treatment Campus allows prisoners to take psychiatric medication, Lakeview and Moriah do not. Inmates march to their dining facilities, where they typically eat quickly and with minimal conversation before engaging in more military exercises. Boot camps require inmates to adhere to a strict code of conduct at all times.
Deviations from these rules are met with reprimands or punishments involving physical exercises e. Outside of this quasi-military orientation, boot camps vary greatly. Some programs have little to no time allotted for treatment activities, while others devote considerable portions of the day to these activities. Some programs require offenders to volunteer for the programs; others allow judges or corrections officials to mandate boot camp participation.
Another important variation is in the manner and intensity of postrelease community supervision; some programs offer offenders limited community supervision, while other programs offer intensive supervision.
This bibliography lists research describing boot camps and their philosophy and goals. It also details research that evaluates inmate adjustment to the boot camp environment and the effects of boot camp participation on various outcomes. Taken together, the studies listed here describe the rise, fall, and evolution of correctional boot camp programs.
Numerous overviews of boot camps are available. MacKenzie and Hebert , an edited volume, is notable for its chapters examining the various manifestations of boot camp programs in operation across the United States at the time.
Cronin is another overview of the different forms of boot camp programs in operation in the early s. Benda and Pallone provides a comprehensive overview of the issues surrounding boot camps.
MacKenzie and Armstrong is another comprehensive collection of articles researching boot camps. For those looking for a briefer overview of boot camps, several resources are available.
MacKenzie and Parent is unique in that it is a general overview of boot camp programs for juvenile offenders. Armstrong, Gaylene S. Boot camps. In Encyclopedia of juvenile justice. Edited by Marilyn D. McShane and Franklin P.
Williams III, 28— Benda, Brent B. Pallone, eds. Rehabilitation issues, problems, and prospects in boot camps.
New York: Haworth. This volume was simultaneously published as a special issue of the Journal of Offender Rehabilitation Cronin, Roberta C. Boot camps for adult and juvenile offenders: Overview and update. This research report surveyed correctional departments in all fifty states and the District of Columbia in and It provides an overview of boot camp programs at that time, as well as efforts to evaluate these programs.
Jenkins, William, Jr. Prison boot camps: Short-term prison costs reduced, but long-term impact uncertain. This report focuses on describing the number of boot camps; their effectiveness in reducing recidivism, prison costs, and prison crowding; and assessing the potential of boot camps in the federal prison system. MacKenzie, Doris L. Boot camp prisons: Components, evaluations, and empirical issues. Federal Probation — This brief overview of boot camps describes the features of boot camps, their goals, and their effectiveness in achieving these goals.
Armstrong, eds. Correctional boot camps: Military basic training or a model for corrections? This is perhaps the most comprehensive book on the topic of boot camps. All major issues surrounding boot camps are addressed. This volume is also notable because it focuses on the work of Doris L.
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