NCJ Number
168997
Journal
Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice Volume: 13 Issue: 2 Dated: (May 1997) Pages: 184-205
Date Published
1997
Length
22 pages
Annotation
Drawing on the work of Michel Foucault, this article explores correctional boot camps as normalizing institutions; in so doing, the meaning of the military model in corrections is critically examined regarding other normalizing institutions and disciplinary technologies.
Abstract
During the past 10 years, correctional boot camps have emerged as one of the most publicized alternatives to incarceration. In addition to representing a symbolic response to society's demand for order, control, and regulation of social conduct, prisons in general, and boot camps in particular, are normalizing institutions. According to Foucault (1979), normalization is a corrective process rather than a strictly punitive one, since conformity, not retribution, is its main objective. Given the many criticisms facing correctional boot camps, why has the military become the normalizing institution of choice in modeling this form of correctional intervention? Foucault notes that the prison is merely one of several institutions that disciplines the wayward; families, churches, and schools also serve as vital socializing institutions; however, when these traditional normalizing institutions fail at their task of instilling discipline, the state, through the criminal justice system assumes a legitimate role in normalization. After reviewing the dominant characteristics of these other normalizing institutions, this paper concludes that boot camps and the military model have been selected over the regimens of other normalizing institutions because they have the image of effective punishment and discipline. The symbolic and political value of boot camps exceeds its substantive value, however. The author advises that if prison officials want correctional boot camps to be more effective, they should emulate other normalizing institutions, particularly the schools and clinic. Indeed, many correctional boot camps have already begun incorporating education and treatment into their programs. 96 references