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.