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They instill displine to listen to the gangleader, teamwork to work with the gang, and the self-confidence to try anything they want.

LOL! You'll excuse me if I disagree?

It is unfortunately true that these experiences which are intended to help young jerks see the light, often have the effect of making stupid young criminals into more savvy professional criminals.

Whenever government and government-paid program people get together with a large budget, the principle of the "Unintended Consequence" is sure to come into play. Cops see this every day with newly strong criminals, who are back in action after a short stretch in the slammer. The recidivists are bulked up from regular meals, intensive body building, and of course their drug and alcohol intake will have been somewhat curtailed. They become too strong for the cops to subdue.

Ditto anti-drug commercials, which have the unintended effect of glamorizing the forbidden.

Check out follow up studies. Not the ones you see on 20-20 three months after they get out and only follow the good kids, but the one-year studies. There's a much higher rate of recidivism than for those in other juvenile justice programs.

By the time the kids are sent to the boot camps, they've already been in and out of juvi hall several times, gaining more and more criminal knowledge each time. Also, most (50-60%) people arrested (wether juveniles or adults) are never arrested again, and the number of times arrested continue to half with each arrest, so by the third time someone is arrested, they are among the top 10-15% of all offenders.