BOOT CAMP SHOWS HOW PROGRAM WORKS

After a somewhat shaky start, a hard-hitting boot camp program for young men otherwise headed for prison is marking up some fairly impressive statistics, including a low repeat rate and savings that total millions of dollars.

Formally known as the Regimented Discipline Program, the boot camp at the Farmington Correctional Center is finally up to maximum participation for men 17 to 25 years old who have been sentenced to jail but have no pending felony charges and no history of violence. The program was given legislative approval way back in 1989, but it didn't get off the ground until 1994. One of the biggest obstacles to early success was the fact that the program was limited to cases brought before St. Louis city and county courts.

Since that inauspicious beginning, judges, prosecutors and young miscreants have learned that the boot camp works. There have been 324 graduates of the program since 1994, and only 14 have been returned to prison with new convictions. That's just 4 percent, well below the recidivism rate for the convict population in general.

One of the attractive features of the boot camp is its low cost. The program has operated on an annual budget of just over $700,000 a year since it started. A quick-and-dirty estimate of the cost of imprisoning those young offenders reaches an astonishing $17.2 million, based on the current daily prison costs and the lengths of the sentences that were handed out. Total savings so far: more than $14 million.

Instead of serving those sentences, young men picked for the boot camp experience go through an intensive 120-day program. If successful, they are usually eligible for parole. The boot camp is no cake walk. Its aim is to change a man's life, turning away from crime and toward taking responsibility within society. Education, work skills, personal development -- all things a young man should know by the time he is 17 years old -- are stressed throughout the long days of boot camp, and well into the night for that matter.

Not every state that has tried boot camps has succeeded. Some 36 states have started boot camps in one form or another. Only a few have registered much success. Several states have closed down their failing programs.

The Missouri model, however, deserves to be copied elsewhere in this state and by other states. Given its track record, boot camps have the potential of truly making a difference in the ever-increasing prison population.