Boot camp not theanswer for teen offenders

FINE Gael’s proposed boot camp strategy sets the tone for things to come. While the army has been involved in UN peacekeeping missions for nearly 50 years, the disciplining of teenage offenders is not the same as maintaining order in some country embroiled in turmoil.

If, as FG’s defence spokesman Billy Timmins suggested, an army-run disciplinary routine was chosen as an alternative to prison for minor criminal behaviour, then rehabilitation would need to be carried out in the same way. But how could this be done under a regime of physical and mental duress? The aggression associated with boot camps would surely manifest in increased levels of criminality.

Boot camps were banned in Florida in the US last June after the death of a 14-year-old boy who had been sentenced to boot camp after being convicted of joyriding in his grandmother’s car.

Attempts to force the boy, on his second day at camp, to continue exercising despite exhaustion resulted in a beating and a misguided attempt to revive him with ammonia. In Florida, boot camps have been replaced by institutes in which physical punishment is banned.

Can Fine Gael not see the backward step it is proposing if a US state ruled by conservatives has outlawed them?

Surely, Enda Kenny and Mr Timmins could come up with something more sensible and humane.

Brian Strahan

Palmer Road

Rush

Co Dublin