Corrections_Today_Winter_2025-2026_Vol.87_No.4

COMMITTEES

never used and the last execution in the Army was by hanging in 1961. Social changes fuel new solutions In the 1960s, the Army Correc tions System (ACS) continued to make major strides in restoring prisoners to duty and professional izing the correctional staff. A new vocational training building was built in partnership with the Federal Prison Industries at the USDB. It provided training areas for wood working, graphic arts, and furniture repair. Prisoners earned certificates from the Bureau of Apprenticeship, U.S. Department of Labor. In the mid-1960s, the Army Corrections Program consisted of two types of facilities. There were installation stockades where the short-term offenders were confined and the USDB where long-term offenders were confined. From 1965 to 1968 the prisoner popula tion increased from 4,300 to 8,300 with nearly one-half of the total population in stockades in pre-trial confinement status. The 1960s in American was a decade of civil, social, and political unrest involving the protesting of the Vietnam War, the movement for Civil Rights, the increased use of illegal drugs, and lawbreakers. The Army, being a microcosm of Ameri can society, was having its share of soldiers violating rules and regula tions, resulting in confinement in Army stockades worldwide. Guard duty at Army stockades was temporary duty for 30-day periods for junior enlisted soldiers. These soldiers, selected by their

the 95C MOS “Correctional Special ist,” with permanent duty in Army stockades. The 1968 Military Correctional Facilities (MCF) Act amended public law and Title 10 United States Code to require Service Secretaries to provide for the education, training, rehabilitation, and welfare of offend ers confined in military correctional facilities. This eliminated the dispar ity among the military department’s provisions on correctional facilities and treatment of persons convicted by courts-martial. The Department of Defense (DoD) implemented the 1968 MCF Act by issuing DoD Instruction 1235.4, Treatment of Mili tary Prisoners and Administration of Military Correction Facilities. In 1969, the U.S. Army Correc tional Training Facility (CTF) was established at Camp Funston in Fort Riley, Kansas. The CTF’s ten week training cycle was designed to return the maximum number of Army prisoners to duty and reduce to a minimum the loss of man power resulting from confinement of soldiers. From 1969 to its closure in 1992, it qualified approximately 30,000 soldiers for return to duty. Reform and professionalization In 1970, a group of expert civilian penologists conducted a comprehen sive analysis and evaluation of the Army Confinement System (ACS). The ACS was a three-tier system. The first tier was stockades, later renamed Installation Detention Facilities (IDFs) housing pretrial and short-term post-trial prison ers. The second tier was the United

company leadership were not the “cream of the crop” and looked upon the stockade duty as demean ing. Some leaders selected problem soldiers to illustrate to them what it was like to be confined. The lack of training or professionalism by guards sparked massive riots in many stateside stockades and at the Long Binh Jail (LBJ) in Vietnam. Several future USDB Commandants gained valuable experience at LBJ. In 1967, The United States Army Military Police School (USAMPS) identified this shortcoming and established a correctional course designed for the MP Soldiers in the 95B Military Occupational Skill (MOS) in the junior enlisted ranks of privates, second and third class, and with an age restriction of at least 20 years old. This course complimented the already established corrections courses for MP Commissioned Offi cers and Non-commissioned Officers (NCOs). In 1969, the MP Corps refined the standard and established

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