Alternative sentencing is a common means of criminal sentencing. Depending on the state jurisdiction in which the crime occurs, the classification of crime, the criminal’s history, as well as the nature of the particular offense; a criminal court may order alternative sentencing, to include various means of probation, such as fines, community service, and/or boot camp. While most unfamiliar with the law process may consider probation as a singular service that denotes meeting with a probation officer and refraining from certain activity, there are a wide variety of other obligations that may be ordered to fulfill part or all of a probation sentence, such as boot camp. For the purposes of this discussion on boot camps, we will examine the probation boot camp: what boot camp is, how boot camp compares to a probation boot training camp, as well as what criminal factors may lead to a criminal court order for probation boot camp.
To best understand why probation boot training camps might be used as an alternative sentencing for boot camp criminals, it is necessary to first begin with a basic definition of general boot camps. While private and public entities offer boot camps in a variety of general and specific disciplines and purposes, a boot camp defined in a general fashion is a military-type institution “that uses discipline, military exercises, and rigorous physical training” to stop bad habits and institute good ones. Boot camps are built upon the boot camps featured in any basic military training boot camps for the U.S. government. The U.S. government uses this strenuous boot camp training to build strong and enduring soldiers for the possibility and likelihood of war. Due to the success of military boot camps-past, present, and future-in strengthening persons physically and mentally to achieve a certain goal-many other entities have since adopted this boot camp strategy for their own purposes.
When it comes to criminal law, there are two main types of probation boot training camp-juvenile detention boot camps and probation boot camp centers. The first of these is common to juvenile criminals, not yet old enough to be charged with adult sentencing. So, instead of sending a juvenile criminal to a standard juvenile detention center, the court may decide to send them to be rehabilitated in a boot camp-teaching these youths to “obey authority, follow rules, and improve behavior at home and school”. The second of these is probation boot camp centers, which are used basically for the same purpose and by the same means-but either as a means of probation or for violators of probation.
Probation boot training camps typically serve all kinds of different criminals in boot camps, with the specifics of each criminal’s history a matter for their probation officer to handle, not the boot camp. These boot camps are characterized in much the same way that a military boot camp would be: strict schedules, duties, responsibilities, teambuilding, and a respect/appreciation for authority. As regards who is most likely to be sentenced to boot camp, it is usually those criminals who seem to be lacking in these areas of moral code that may receive a court order to attend boot camp. Boot camp attendees could be repeat offenders of a certain minor crime, or violators of probation terms-in either case, it is evident to the court processing their case, that these boot camp attendees are in need of a life priority revamp through a boot camp. In these boot camps, criminals on probation or violators of said terms are re-taught the significance of non-criminal behavior in relation to the greater good of the community-through a testing of their mental, psychological, and physical limits in a rehabilitative boot camp.