All-Male Jail Boot Camp Ruled Unconstitutional

Virginia’s military-style boot camp for young felons is unconstitutional because women are not allowed to participate, a federal magistrate ruled Tuesday.

Glen E. Conrad ruled in favor of Jennifer West, 23, who challenged the program after spending 357 days in prison for possessing cocaine with intent to sell.

If West had been sent to the boot camp, she would have been released on probation in three months.

“We’re happy with the ruling,” said West’s attorney, Deborah Wyatt. “We hope this will create a different mind-set in Virginia.”

“We’re seeking to change the system so women coming down the line won’t be treated more severely than men who can go to the boot camp,” she said.

A spokesman for the attorney general’s office said lawyers were reviewing the ruling.

Twenty-eight states have or are starting similar prison boot camps, and all but eight exclude women, Assistant Atty. Gen. Pamela Sargent said.

Virginia’s boot camps are part of a five-year pilot program that began in 1991. They are for nonviolent felons ages 18 to 24 with no prior incarceration as an adult.

The boot camp program, which includes physical, academic and job-training and drug-abuse education, is seen as a way to reduce prison crowding and repeated criminal behavior.

After 90 days in the camp, participants are released and placed on probation for at least a year.