Evaluation of the First Incarceration Shock Treatment (FIST) Program for Youthful Offenders in Kentucky, 1993-1994 (ICPSR 2698)
Version Date: Nov 4, 2005 View help for published
Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s)
Blair B. Bourque, Washington Research Center. American Institutes for Research;
Daniel B. Felker, Washington Research Center. American Institutes for Research;
Mei Han, Washington Research Center. American Institutes for Research;
Richard N. White, Washington Research Center. American Institutes for Research
https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR02698.v1
Version V1
Summary View help for Summary
Boot camps, a popular alternative to incarceration, are characterized by a strong emphasis on military structure, drill, and discipline and by an abbreviated period of incarceration. Originally designed for young, adult, male offenders convicted of nonviolent crimes, boot camps have been expanded to encompass juveniles and women as well. In 1992 the Bureau of Justice Assistance funded three agencies to develop correctional boot camps for young offenders, and simultaneously, the National Institute of Justice supported an evaluation of these camps. By October 1993 the only operational boot camp of the three selected sites was the Kentucky Department of Corrections' First Incarceration Shock Treatment (FIST) program. This data collection is an evaluation of the first 18 months of operation of FIST from July 1993 through December 1994. The primary goal of this evaluation was to document the development of the Kentucky boot camp, the characteristics and experiences of the youthful offenders participating in it, and any changes in participants' attitudes and behaviors as a result of it. The evaluation consisted of an extensive case study, supplemented by pre- and post-test comparisons of boot camp offenders' attitudes, physical fitness, and literacy skills, descriptive information about their engagement in legitimate activities during aftercare, and an assessment of the rates, timing, and sources of program attrition. Variables in this collection include entrance and exit dates, sentence, crime type and class, pre- and post-program test scores in math, reading, and language skills, and demographic variables such as age, race, sex, and marital status.
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Funding View help for Funding
Subject Terms View help for Subject Terms
Geographic Coverage View help for Geographic Coverage
Distributor(s) View help for Distributor(s)
Time Period(s) View help for Time Period(s)
Date of Collection View help for Date of Collection
Data Collection Notes View help for Data Collection Notes
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Due to a data collection error, most of the data collected for this study were not preserved in electronic format. The variables present in this collection were hand-calculated by the principal investigators.
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The same principal investigators conducted other boot camp evaluations under the same grant from the National Institute of Justice. The scope and methods of the other evaluations differed significantly from this Kentucky study, and therefore they are archived under a different study number. Users should consult EVALUATION OF BOOT CAMPS FOR JUVENILE OFFENDERS IN CLEVELAND, DENVER, AND MOBILE, 1992-1993 (ICPSR 6922) for further information about these evaluations.
Study Purpose View help for Study Purpose
Boot camps, a popular alternative to incarceration, are characterized by a strong emphasis on military structure, drill, and discipline and by an abbreviated period of incarceration. Originally designed for young, adult, male offenders convicted of nonviolent crimes, boot camps have been expanded to encompass juveniles and women as well. In 1992 the Bureau of Justice Assistance funded three agencies to develop correctional boot camps for young offenders, and simultaneously, the National Institute of Justice supported an evaluation of these camps. By October 1993 the only operational boot camp of the three selected sites was the Kentucky Department of Corrections' First Incarceration Shock Treatment (FIST) program. This data collection is an evaluation of the first 18 months of operation of FIST from July 1993 through December 1994. The primary goal of this evaluation was to document the development of the Kentucky boot camp, the characteristics and experiences of the youthful offenders participating in it, and the changes in participants' attitudes and behaviors.
Study Design View help for Study Design
FIST is located on the grounds of the Roederer Correctional Complex in LaGrange, Kentucky. It is a 127-day program offered to male and female inmates who have at least four months remaining to parole eligibility and who have a maximum sentence of ten years. The rigorous daily schedule includes physical training and conditioning, individualized academic programs, a substance abuse program, a living skills program, work details, community meetings, and military drills and ceremonies. The evaluation consisted of an extensive case study, supplemented by pre- and post-programs comparisons of boot camp offenders' attitudes, physical fitness, and literacy skills, descriptive information about their engagement in legitimate activities during aftercare, and an assessment of the rates, timing, and sources of program attrition. Data were collected using five instruments: (1) FIST Program Questionnaire, which gathered demographic and family background data at the point of entry to FIST, (2) Test of Adult Basic Education (TABE), administered upon entry and exit to measure reading, writing, and math skills, (3) FM20-21 Army Physical Fitness Test, which gathered information on muscle endurance and cardiorespiratory fitness monthly for four months, (4) Exit Questionnaire, which collected data on disciplinary history, awards, fitness scores, and opinions of the program and was administered upon completion of the program, and (5) Parole Questionnaire for Participants, which measured jobs, education, and opinions about the program six months into aftercare. In addition to these instruments, information was coded from the Department of Corrections computerized database, including committing offense, sentence, parole eligibility dates, and conditional release dates.
Sample View help for Sample
Eight cohorts of participants entering FIST in 1993 and 1994.
Universe View help for Universe
Youthful nonviolent offenders in Kentucky.
Unit(s) of Observation View help for Unit(s) of Observation
Data Source View help for Data Source
personal interviews, self-enumerated questionnaires, and administrative records from FIST and the Kentucky Department of Corrections
Data Type(s) View help for Data Type(s)
Description of Variables View help for Description of Variables
Variables include FIST entry and exit dates, pre- and post-program scores on reading, math, and language skills, committing offense type and class, sentence length, and reason for program termination. Demographic variables include age, sex, race, and marital status.
Response Rates View help for Response Rates
Not applicable
Presence of Common Scales View help for Presence of Common Scales
None
HideOriginal Release Date View help for Original Release Date
1999-06-02
Version History View help for Version History
- Bourque, Blair B., Daniel B. Felker, Mei Han, and Richard N. White. Evaluation of the First Incarceration Shock Treatment (FIST) Program for Youthful Offenders in Kentucky, 1993-1994 . ICPSR02698-v1. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 1999. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR02698.v1
2005-11-04 On 2005-03-14 new files were added to one or more datasets. These files included additional setup files as well as one or more of the following: SAS program, SAS transport, SPSS portable, and Stata system files. The metadata record was revised 2005-11-04 to reflect these additions.
1999-06-02 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:
- Standardized missing values.
- Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.
Notes
The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.
This dataset is maintained and distributed by the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD), the criminal justice archive within ICPSR. NACJD is primarily sponsored by three agencies within the U.S. Department of Justice: the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.