Cook County Sheriff's Boot Camp
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The Cook County Sheriff’s Boot Camp is located in an urban setting adjacent to the Cook County Department of Corrections complex. It is designed to provide non–violent offenders a strict detention program based on military discipline, fundamental vocational skills, education and alcohol/substance abuse treatment. In addition, the Boot Camp features an 8–month long post-release supervision program where participants must return to the Boot Camp on a daily basis to continue educational programming.
In order to be eligible for the boot camp, participants must be between the ages of 17 and 35, must have never committed a violent or sex–related crime, and must not have served more than one term in state prison. All offenders chosen for the Boot Camp must plead guilty to their charges and agree to placement in the program. Participants undergo a medical and psychological assessment before they are admitted.
Public Safety Impact
The Boot Camp program is succeeding in its mission to rehabilitate young adult offenders. A curriculum of military discipline, education, anger management, substance abuse counseling, and job readiness skills shapes an individual who returns to his community with the tools to succeed. Over 4,000 inmates have completed the one-year program. The five-year recidivism rate is 30%. That means that five-years after completing the Boot Camp program, 7 out of every 10 graduates do not return to state prison.
History
Sheriff Michael F. Sheahan began developmental discussions for the Boot Camp in 1992. A change in state legislation allowed the county to begin an impact incarceration program for persons who would otherwise be sentenced to prison. The Boot Camp opened in 1997 and when he took office in 2007,
Sheriff Thomas J. Dart pledged to continue the Boot Camp’s mission of comprehensive rehabilitation. Under Sheriff Dart’s guidance, the Boot Camp’s mission is expanding to include a carpentry program and being named an official G.E.D. testing site.
Facts and Figures
- The Cook County Boot Camp is located on a 10.2 acre complex at 2801 South Rockwell Avenue in Chicago Illinois.
- The one-year program consists of 18 weeks of intensive military training and an eight–month supervised post–release program.
- The inmates live in platoon style dormitories with 48 inmates in each platoon.
- There are a total of 10 buildings on the compound, including two educational buildings, four dormitories, a mess hall, an intake dormitory containing medical and counseling offices, an administration building, a gatehouse, and a gymnasium. The gymnasium is utilized for graduation ceremonies and as a physical training area in inclement weather only. There is no recreational free time for the inmates.
- The Boot Camp offers an educational curriculum that covers learning disabled students up to pre-G.E.D. coursework. The Boot Camp is an official G.E.D. testing site and the G.E.D. is offered on-site monthly to both in-camp and post release inmates. Over a thousand G.E.D.’s have been earned by Boot Camp inmates.
- Computer recycling classes are offered through a partnership with West Side Technical Institute. Chicagoland Prison Outreach has partnered with the Boot Camp to offer a class that prepares inmates to take the written carpenter’s apprentice examination.
- Substance abuse programming involves both individual and group counseling. Inmates in the post-release phase are subject to random drug testing and are referred to either inpatient or outpatient treatment upon a positive result.
Boot Camp Components
The program overview and a typical day at Boot Camp
If you are looking for information on Juvenile Boot Camp programs for an individual, please contact the Lincoln Challenge program by clicking here: http://www.ngycp.org/state/il/ or calling (800) 851-2166.
If you would like more information on the Boot Camp, please contact us at (773) 869-7955 or e-mail us at bootcamp@cookcountygov.com.
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