The statute that created the Boot Camp not only established eligibility criteria that an offender must meet in order to be considered for the Boot Camp Program - it also required that the judge recommend the offender for the Boot Camp Program and that the Department of Corrections make the final determination concerning which offenders are accepted into the program.  The remaining portion of this section of the report will focus on the characteristics of offenders as they move through these three stages of the process.  The characteristics examined are: county origin, current conviction offense, prior record, race/ethnicity, gender, and age.

County Origin of Boot Camp Offenders

Table 4 shows the number of offenders who were: 1) eligible by statute, 2) recommended by the judge, and 3) admitted into Boot Camp for the 67 counties in Pennsylvania.  These numbers reflect the statewide total of offenders who fall within these three categories for the time period of July 1992 through December 1997.    Table 5 provides the percentage of offenders represented in these three categories by county.     These tables show that, statewide, there were 13,130 offenders who met the statutory eligibility criteria for Boot Camp and that 2,308 of these offenders [17.6%] were recommended by the judge.  Of those recommended, 1296 offenders [56.2%] were accepted by the Department of Corrections for participation in the Boot Camp Program.

Table 4. Number of Statewide Offenders Statutorily Eligible for Boot Camp, Recommended by the Judge, and Admitted to Boot Camp by DOC by County [1992-1997]

COUNTY	Number Eligible by Statute	Number Recommended by Judge	Number Admitted by DOC	COUNTY	Number Eligible by Statute	Number Recommended by Judge	Number Admitted by DOC
Adams	70	11	8	Lackawanna	234	14	14
Allegheny	1284	134	127	Lancaster	247	23	31
Armstrong	45	4	1	Lawrence	129	2	-
Beaver	156	26	16	Lebanon	92	4	4
Bedford	12	1	1	Lehigh	406	120	54
Berks	722	129	52	Luzerne	74	4	8
Blair	65	3	2	Lycoming	382	116	59
Bradford	136	5	7	McKean	43	5	6
Bucks	191	1	2	Mercer	204	31	15
Butler	71	10	5	Mifflin	17	-	2
Cambria	119	28	6	Monroe	82	1	3
Cameron	4	-	2	Montgomery	483	62	36
Carbon	49	13	3	Montour	29	-	-
Centre	84	13	10	Northampton	81	28	11
Chester	207	50	35	Northumberland	137	21	9
Clarion	28	8	7	Perry	42	10	9
Clearfield	93	11	4	Philadelphia	2592	651	272
Clinton	26	6	2	Pike	31	2	1
Columbia	20	-	-	Potter	28	9	2
Crawford	93	25	10	Schuylkill	47	4	1
Cumberland	173	29	6	Snyder	52	10	1
Dauphin	930	106	80	Somerset	124	25	4
Delaware	564	103	91	Sullivan	16	1	1
Elk	26	3	1	Susquehanna	27	3	-
Erie	711	176	81	Tioga	41	13	13
Fayette	295	38	19	Union	36	6	2
Forest	6	-	-	Venango	113	34	20
Franklin	192	23	19	Warren	61	23	8
Fulton	21	6	4	Washington	79	1	5
Greene	98	9	8	Wayne	38	7	5
Huntingdon	5	-	3	Westmoreland	157	6	10
Indiana	51	13	7	Wyoming	27	3	3
Jefferson	25	4	5	York	398	78	63
Juniata	9	3	-	TOTAL	13130	2308	1296

Note: There are five cases in the eligibility category and three in the recommendation category that are missing county information.

Table 5. Percent of Offenders Statewide Statutorily Eligible for Boot Camp, Recommended by the Judge, and Admitted to Boot Camp by DOC by County [1992-1997]
 

COUNTY	Percent Eligible by Statute	Percent Recommended by Judge	Percent Admitted by DOC	COUNTY	Percent Eligible by Statute	Percent Recommended by Judge	Percent Admitted by DOC
Adams	0.5%	0.5%	0.6%	Lackawanna	1.8%	0.6%	1.1%
Allegheny	9.8%	5.8%	9.8%	Lancaster	1.9%	1.0%	2.4%
Armstrong	0.3%	0.2%	0.1%	Lawrence	1.0%	0.1%	0.0%
Beaver	1.2%	1.1%	1.2%	Lebanon	0.7%	0.2%	0.3%
Bedford	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%	Lehigh	3.1%	5.2%	4.2%
Berks	5.5%	5.6%	4.0%	Luzerne	0.6%	0.2%	0.6%
Blair	0.5%	0.1%	0.2%	Lycoming	2.9%	5.0%	4.6%
Bradford	1.0%	0.2%	0.5%	McKean	0.3%	0.2%	0.5%
Bucks	1.5%	0.0%	0.2%	Mercer	1.6%	1.3%	1.2%
Butler	0.5%	0.4%	0.4%	Mifflin	0.1%	0.0%	0.2%
Cambria	0.9%	1.2%	0.5%	Monroe	0.6%	0.0%	0.2%
Cameron	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%	Montgomery	3.7%	2.7%	2.8%
Carbon	0.4%	0.6%	0.2%	Montour	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
Centre	0.6%	0.6%	0.8%	Northampton	0.6%	1.2%	0.8%
Chester	1.6%	2.2%	2.7%	Northumberland	1.0%	0.9%	0.7%
Clarion	0.2%	0.3%	0.5%	Perry	0.3%	0.4%	0.7%
Clearfield	0.7%	0.5%	0.3%	Philadelphia	19.7%	28.2%	21.0%
Clinton	0.2%	0.3%	0.2%	Pike	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%
Columbia	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	Potter	0.2%	0.4%	0.2%
Crawford	0.7%	1.1%	0.8%	Schuylkill	0.4%	0.2%	0.1%
Cumberland	1.3%	1.3%	0.5%	Snyder	0.4%	0.4%	0.1%
Dauphin	7.1%	4.6%	6.2%	Somerset	0.9%	1.1%	0.3%
Delaware	4.3%	4.5%	7.0%	Sullivan	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%
Elk	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%	Susquehanna	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%
Erie	5.4%	7.6%	6.3%	Tioga	0.3%	0.6%	1.0%
Fayette	2.2%	1.6%	1.5%	Union	0.3%	0.3%	0.2%
Forest	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	Venango	0.9%	1.5%	1.5%
Franklin	1.5%	1.0%	1.5%	Warren	0.5%	1.0%	0.6%
Fulton	0.2%	0.3%	0.3%	Washington	0.6%	0.0%	0.4%
Greene	0.7%	0.4%	0.6%	Wayne	0.3%	0.3%	0.4%
Huntingdon	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%	Westmoreland	1.2%	0.3%	0.8%
Indiana	0.4%	0.6%	0.5%	Wyoming	0.2%	0.1%	0.2%
Jefferson	0.2%	0.2%	0.4%	York	3.0%	3.4%	4.9%
Juniata	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	TOTAL	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%

Table 6 presents the ten counties with the greatest percentage of offenders who are eligible, recommended, and accepted into Boot Camp.  Since the percentage reflects the county portion of the statewide total, one would expect the larger counties to have a higher percentage of offenders eligible for Boot Camp.  The following ten counties comprise 65% of the offenders statutorily eligible for Boot Camp, 73% of the offenders recommended for Boot Camp, and 72% of offenders admitted into the  Boot Camp: Philadelphia, Allegheny, Dauphin, Berks, Erie, Delaware, Montgomery, Lehigh, Lycoming, and York.   Philadelphia alone represents 19.7% of those offenders eligible statewide, 28.2% of those recommended statewide, and 21.0% of those accepted statewide into the Boot Camp.

 

Table 6. Top Ten Counties with Highest Percentage of Statewide Offenders Eligible, Recommended and Accepted into Boot Camp

County-Specific Judicial Recommendations.  As indicated previously, statute requires that the judge recommend an offender for the Boot Camp Program before the offender is considered by the Department of Corrections for admission into the program. As indicated above, the larger counties tend to have the higher percentage of judicial recommendations.  However, in order to ascertain better which counties have a higher referral rate for Boot Camp, it is necessary to look at the percentage of offenders who are eligible for Boot Camp and recommended by the judge within each county [Table 7].

Statewide, 17.6% of those statutorily eligible receive judicial recommendations. Table 7 shows that 25 counties have a higher percentage of eligible offenders recommended by their judges.   Many of the counties that have a smaller number of offenders eligible for Boot Camp have a higher percentage of judicial recommendations. The ten counties that have the highest percentage of offenders recommended by judges in relation to the number eligible in their respective counties are:  Warren [37.7%], Northampton [34.6%], Juniata [33.3%], Potter [32.1%], Tioga [31.7%], Lycoming [30.4%], Venango [30.1%], Lehigh [29.6%], Clarion and Fulton [28.6%].

In the previous section, Table 6 presented the ten counties that had the highest percentage statewide of statutorily eligible offenders. Table 7 shows that six of those counties are more likely than the statewide average to have judges recommend the offenders for Boot Camp:  Lycoming [30.4%], Lehigh [29.6%], Philadelphia [25.1%], Erie [24.8%], York [19.6%],  Delaware [18.3%] and Berks [17.9%]. The other three counties have judges who are less likely to recommend offenders to the Boot Camp: Montgomery [12.8%], Dauphin [11.4%], and Allegheny [10.4%].  The following six counties have had no judicial referrals to Boot Camp: Cameron, Columbia, Forest, Huntingdon, Mifflin, and Montour.

County-Specific Admissions into Boot Camp. Statute also requires that once the judge identifies eligible candidates for Boot Camp that the offender apply for admission into the program and that the DOC make the final determination as to whom is accepted into the program.  Again, as was indicated in Table 6, the larger counties tend to have the highest percentage statewide of offenders accepted into the Boot Camp.  Thus, to obtain a better idea of which counties recommending offenders for Boot Camp have the highest offender acceptance rate, it is necessary to look at the percentage of offenders with judicial referrals who are accepted by the DOC within in each county [Table 8].

Statewide,  56.29% of those recommended by the judge are accepted into the Boot Camp.   Table 8 shows that 25 counties have a higher percentage of recommended offenders who are actually accepted.   The ten counties with the highest percentage of offenders accepted into the Boot Camp in relation to the number recommended by judges are: Bedford, Luzerne, and Westmoreland [all with 100%], Lancaster [90.9%], McKean [80.0%], Greene [77.8%], Tioga [76.9%], Clarion [75.0%], Delaware and Allegheny [both with 74.0%].  However, with the exception of Allegheny and Delaware, which had 123 and 77 offenders respectively, the number of offenders admitted to Boot Camp for each of these counties is under 25.     It is interesting to note the contrast in the county-specific data for the two counties with the largest pool of eligible candidates, Allegheny and Philadelphia.  Judges in Philadelphia County are more likely than judges in Allegheny County to recommend offenders for Boot Camp (27.0% vs. 10.7%), but less likely to have the offenders admitted into the Boot Camp Program (33.6% vs. 74.0%).

Note: There are five cases in the eligibility category and three in the recommendation category that are missing county information.

Table 8. Percent of Offenders Recommended by the Judge and Admitted by DOC within County [1992-1997]
 

COUNTY	Number Recommended by Judge	Number Admitted by DOC	% of Offenders Recommended By Judge and Accepted by DOC	COUNTY	Number Recommended by Judge	Number Admitted by DOC	% of Offenders Recommended By Judge and Accepted by DOC
Adams	11	8	72.7%	Lackawanna	14	14	100.0%
Allegheny	134	127	94.8%	Lancaster	23	31	*
Armstrong	4	1	25.0%	Lawrence	2	0	0.0%
Beaver	26	16	61.5%	Lebanon	4	4	100.0%
Bedford	1	1	100.0%	Lehigh	120	54	45.0%
Berks	129	52	40.3%	Luzerne	4	8	*
Blair	3	2	66.7%	Lycoming	116	59	50.9%
Bradford	5	7	*	McKean	5	6	*
Bucks	1	2	*	Mercer	31	15	48.4%
Butler	10	5	50.0%	Mifflin	0	2	*
Cambria	28	6	21.4%	Monroe	1	3	*
Cameron	0	2	0.0%	Montgomery	62	36	58.1%
Carbon	13	3	23.1%	Montour	0	-	0.0%
Centre	13	10	76.9%	Northampton	28	11	39.3%
Chester	50	35	70.0%	Northumberland	21	9	42.9%
Clarion	8	7	87.5%	Perry	10	9	90.0%
Clearfield	11	4	36.4%	Philadelphia	651	272	41.8%
Clinton	6	2	33.3%	Pike	2	1	50.0%
Columbia	0	0	0.0%	Potter	9	2	22.2%
Crawford	25	10	40.0%	Schuylkill	4	1	25.0%
Cumberland	29	6	20.7%	Snyder	10	1	10.0%
Dauphin	106	80	75.5%	Somerset	25	4	16.0%
Delaware	103	91	88.3%	Sullivan	1	1	0.0%
Elk	3	1	33.3%	Susquehanna	3	0	0.0%
Erie	176	81	46.0%	Tioga	13	13	100.0%
Fayette	38	19	50.0%	Union	6	2	33.3%
Forest	0	0	0.0%	Venango	34	20	58.8%
Franklin	23	19	82.6%	Warren	23	8	34.8%
Fulton	6	4	66.7%	Washington	1	5	*
Greene	9	8	88.9%	Wayne	7	5	71.4%
Huntingdon	0	3	*	Westmoreland	6	10	*
Indiana	13	7	53.8%	Wyoming	3	3	*
Jefferson	4	5	*	York	78	63	80.8%
Juniata	3	0	0.0%	TOTAL	2308	1296	56.2%

Note: There are three cases in the recommendation category that are missing county information.
* These counties had more Boot Camp admissions than judicial referrals.

There are seven counties that have more admissions into Boot Camp than judicial recommendations: Bradford, Cameron, Huntingdon, Mifflin, Monroe, Washington, and Wyoming.  The most likely explanation for this is that the DOC sometimes receives inmates who appear to be good candidates for the Boot Camp, though they have not been recommended by the judge.  In those cases, the DOC will contact the judge to see if the judge would be willing to modify the sentencing order to provide such a recommendation.  This modification in sentence is not captured on the Guideline Sentence Form, which has already been sent to the Sentencing Commission and is the source of the information concerning judicial recommendations for Boot Camp.

Current Offense and Prior Record Characteristics of Boot Camp Offenders

Offenders’ Current Offense. Statute prohibits offenders convicted of certain offenses from being eligible for Boot Camp. In 1990, the initial statute creating the Boot Camp provided that offenders convicted of the following offenses be ineligible for Boot Camp participation: Homicide, Rape, Involuntary Deviate Sexual Intercourse, Kidnapping, and Robbery [F1].  In 1996 the legislature revised the statute to also exclude persons convicted of the following offenses: Sexual Assault, Aggravated Indecent Assault, Arson [places person in danger of death or serious bodily injury], Burglary [of a home with a person present], Robbery of a Motor Vehicle, and select Drug Trafficking Offenses prosecuted under the mandatory drug statute.  An offender convicted of an offense involving the use of a deadly weapon as defined by the Sentencing Commission is also ineligible.

Table 9 shows that felony drug offenders represent the largest group of those eligible [37%], recommended [48%] and accepted [59%] into Boot Camp.   The other two major offenses represented are felony theft and burglary.  Felony theft offenders comprise 13% of those eligible, 15% of those recommended, and 9% of  those accepted  while offenders convicted of burglary comprise 11% of those eligible, 15% of those recommended, and 12% of those accepted into Boot Camp.

As indicated earlier in Table 5, about 18% of the offenders eligible for Boot Camp receive judicial recommendations.  In order to get an idea of the type of offenses committed by the offenders who receive judicial recommendations for Boot Camp, it is necessary to examine how often judges recommend offenders within each offense category.  Table 10 shows that among eligible offenders, judges are most likely to refer those convicted of burglary [23%], felony drug offenses [23%], felony theft offenses [20%], and aggravated assault [18%]. It is interesting to note that while offenders convicted of aggravated assault represent a small percentage of those eligible for Boot Camp [4%], one-fifth of those who are eligible do receive a recommendation from the judge for the Boot Camp Program.

Table 10 also shows the percentage of offenders who are recommended and then admitted into Boot Camp.  Drug offenders have the highest acceptance rate [64%] followed by offenders who commit burglary [43%], and aggravated assault [42%].

Offenders’ Prior Record.  While statute excludes offenders from Boot Camp if they are convicted of certain offenses, statute does not prohibit offenders from participating in Boot Camp based upon their prior record.  Table 11 provides the distribution of offenders who are eligible and recommended into Boot Camp by the offender’s Prior Record Score.  The Prior Record Score is obtained from the Sentencing Commission data files, which only contain information on offenders who are statutorily eligible and recommended for Boot Camp. This information is not available in the Boot Camp or DOC data files for offenders admitted into Boot Camp.  The Prior Record Score [PRS] is used in the sentencing guidelines as a major factor determining appropriate sentencing recommendations and is based upon the number and severity of prior convictions, with a 6 representing the most serious prior record.  While about one-third of the Boot Camp candidates have no prior record, Table 11 shows that the majority of people who are eligible [68%] and recommended for Boot Camp [69%] do have some type of prior record.

Table 11. Number Of Statewide Offenders Statutorily Eligible for Boot Camp and Recommended by the Judge by Prior Record Score *

Table 12 shows the percentage of eligible offenders recommended by the judge within each of the prior record score categories.  These findings indicate that prior record does not appear to deter judges from recommending an offender for Boot Camp as the percent of judicial recommendations within each PRS category is fairly similar, ranging from 15.2% for offenders with a PRS of 5 to 22.6% for offenders with a PRS of 4.  Further, judges are as likely to recommend an offender with no prior record as one with a PRS of 6 [16.9% versus 16.6%, respectively].  The percentage of offenders who are recommended and then admitted into Boot Camp is not provided for PRS category since this information is not captured in the Boot Camp data set.

Table 12.   Percentage of Statutorily Eligible Offenders Recommended by Judges within Prior Record Score Category. [PRS]

PRS	Percent of Eligible Offenders who are Recommended by the Judge
0	16.9%
1	18.5%
2	17.2%
3	18.7%
4	22.6%
5	15.2%
6	16.6%
Statewide %	17.6%

Race/Ethnicity. Table 13 shows the distribution of offenders who are eligible by statute, recommended by the judge and admitted by the DOC by race/ethnicity.    The data indicate that Blacks represent the largest number of offenders who are eligible [49%], recommended [52%] and accepted into Boot Camp [52%], while Hispanics represent the smallest number of those who are eligible [10%], recommended [13%], and admitted [10%].

Table 13.  Number of Statewide Offenders Statutorily Eligible for Boot Camp, Recommended by the Judge and Admitted into Boot Camp by DOC by Race/Ethnicity.*
 

Table 14 provides: 1) the percentage of offenders who are statutorily eligible and receive a judicial recommendation for Boot Camp and 2) the percentage of offenders who receive a judicial referral and get accepted into the Boot Camp within each of the racial categories.   This table shows that
Hispanic offenders who meet the statutory criteria are most likely to get a judicial referral [22%] while whites are the least likely [15%].  However, Hispanic offenders who receive a judicial referral are least likely to be admitted into the Boot Camp [47%] while the admission rate  is similar for Whites [58%] and Blacks [62%].

Gender.   Table 15 shows the distribution of offenders who are eligible, recommended, and accepted into Boot Camp by gender.    Table 16 shows 1) the percent of eligible male and female offenders who are recommended by judges and 2) the percent of recommended male and female offenders who are accepted into the Boot Camp.  As would be expected, Table 13 shows that males comprise the vast majority of offenders who are eligible [93%], recommended [96%], and admitted into Boot Camp [96%]. However, Table 16 shows that the males and females have similar referral rates 18% vs. 10%] and admission rates [56% vs. 53%].

Table 15.  Number of Statewide Offenders Statutorily Eligible for Boot Camp,
Recommended by the Judge and Admitted into Boot Camp by DOC by Gender. *
 

Age. By statute, offenders who are 35 years of age or older are not allowed into the Boot Camp Program.  Table 17 shows the distribution of offenders who are eligible, recommended, and admitted into Boot Camp by age group.   The age distribution of eligible offenders is similar across groupings though a slightly higher percentage of offenders [27%] fall into the 22-25 age group category.  As the 16-17 age group consists of juveniles who are transferred to adult court, it is not surprising that those offenders are least represented [1%].   While offenders in the 18-21 age group represent the age group most likely to be recommended [33%], offenders in the 22-25 age group represent the age group most likely to be accepted [33%].

Table 17.  Number of Statewide Offenders Statutorily Eligible for Boot Camp,
Recommended by the Judge and  Admitted into Boot  Camp by DOC by Age *

Table 18 shows the percentage of eligible offenders who are recommended by judges and the percentage of judicial referrals admitted into the Boot Camp Program within each of the age group categories.    Among eligible offenders, the likelihood of being recommended by a judge decreases with age. The 16-17 year old offenders are most likely to be recommended while the 30-34 year olds are least likely to be recommended [32% vs. 12%, respectively].   Among those offenders referred to Boot Camp, the youngest [ages 16-17] and oldest [ages 30-34] are least likely to be accepted [27% and 44%, respectively].

Boot Camp Candidates under the Sentencing Guidelines. 

This section discusses offenders who are eligible and recommended for the Boot Camp in relation to the sentencing guidelines. The Boot Camp enabling legislation charged the Sentencing Commission with the responsibility of identifying eligible candidates for the Boot Camp.  As historically the pool of candidates for the Boot Camp has been small, the Sentencing Commission has not made recommendations beyond that provided in statute.  Further, with the 1994 sentencing guideline revisions, the Commission recommended that the less serious drug and theft offenders receive county jail rather than state prison.  This worked to reduce even further the pool of eligible candidates for Boot Camp.   The Commission, however, has always encouraged judges to consider offenders for the Boot Camp Program if they meet the statutory eligibility criteria.

All offenses are ranked by the Sentencing Commission on a scale of seriousness and receive an Offense Gravity Score ranging from 1 [least serious] to 13 [most serious]. The Prior Record Score is based upon the number and seriousness of the offender’s prior adult convictions and juvenile adjudications. The Sentencing Commission uses both the Offense Gravity Score [OGS] and Prior Record Score [PRS] in the development of minimum sentence recommendations.

Table 19 shows the number of offenders eligible for Boot Camp within the sentencing guideline matrix [i.e. by OGS and PRS] for 1996 and 1997 and Table 20 shows the number of offenders recommended during those two years .  The gray shaded areas of the tables show where the largest number of boot candidates are eligible and recommended.   As discussed previously, about 70% of offenders who are eligible and recommended have some type of prior record, with the remaining 30% having a PRS of 0.  Table 19, however, indicates that this does vary with respect to the seriousness of offense.  A greater proportion of eligible offenders convicted of the more serious offenses [i.e. OGS above 7] have a PRS of 0.   For example, about 43% of the eligible offenders with an OGS of 8 [n=265] and 50% of offenders with an OGS of 9 [n=198] have a PRS of 0.    On the other hand, a greater proportion of eligible offenders convicted of less serious offenses [i.e. OGS below 7] have a prior record score above 3. For example, among offenders convicted of offenses with an OGS of 5, about 46% had a Prior Record Score of either 5 [n=175] or 6 [n=128].  These offenders are also those for whom the guidelines recommend only state incarceration as represented by the dark black line on the matrix.

A similar pattern holds for offenders who are recommended for Boot Camp by the judges as shown in Table 20.  That is, a higher proportion of offenders with more serious convictions have no prior record while a higher proportion of the less serious offenders have prior record of 4, 5, and 6.  As most offenders who are eligible, recommended, and go to Boot Camp are drug offenders, these Boot Camp candidates with higher Prior Record Scores most likely represent the drug offender convicted of trafficking a small amount of drugs [<2.5 grams].

The Motivational Boot Camp Program, which is located in Quehanna, Pennsylvania [Clearfield County] opened in July, 1992.  The Boot Camp is a six-month program that provides a strong rehabilitative environment with a particular emphasis on discipline, education and substance abuse treatment.  Between July 1992 and December 1997 there have been 1296 offenders admitted into the program and about 77% have successfully completed the program.

Statewide, judges recommend about 18% of eligible offenders to the Boot Camp Program and the Department of Corrections admits about 56% of those recommended into the Boot Camp.  The major reasons that offenders are rejected from the program are due to medical problems or outstanding detainers.  As would be expected, offenders from the larger counties comprise the largest percentage of Boot Camp admissions, with Philadelphia and Allegheny counties accounting for 21% and 10% of the admissions, respectively. However, it should be noted that many of the smaller counties have a higher rate of eligible offenders who receive judicial referrals to Boot Camp and a higher rate of those referrals admitted into the Boot Camp Program.

Drug offenders comprise the majority of those admitted into the Boot Camp [59%] followed by those convicted of burglary [12%] and felony theft offenses [9%].  While the offender’s prior record information was unavailable for the admission stage, the prior record of those offenders recommended by judges indicated that an offender having a prior record was not an obstacle to receiving a recommendation from the judge.   As most of the offenders have a current conviction for a drug offense, it is possible that the prior record of those individuals could constitute prior drug offenses as well.  As the Boot Camp heavily targets substance abuse, judges may feel that repeat drug offenders are as likely to benefit from the Boot Camp as are first time offenders.

With respect to the demographic characteristics of Boot Camp offenders, the profile of the offender who is eligible, recommended, and admitted into Boot Camp is a young, black, male.  Interestingly, while females represent a minority of Boot Camp admissions [4%], the acceptance rate is similar for males and females recommended to the Boot Camp [56% vs. 53%, respectively].

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