WEC study will determine worth of the program

Is the Work Ethic Camp in McCook making a difference? Is the program of work, education and discipline helping young offenders change their lives, leaving lives of crime behind to become productive, law-abiding citizens?

From the start, that has been the hope for the camp which opened in early 2000 on the northwestern edge of McCook However, despite many encouraging signs, there has been no validated proof to date that the camp is an effective method of changing the behavior of criminal offenders.

Very soon, that will change. With the aid of a $20,000 grant from the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services, three college instructors from Kearney will conduct a year-long study to determine if the Work Ethic Camp is accomplishing its goals, which are: (1) Helping turn criminal offenders into productive, taxpaying citizens; and (2) Helping reduce the number of offenders going into the state's traditional prison system.

"The study will begin Jan. 1, 2003, and cover the year's period ending Jan. 1, 2004," said the lead researcher, Dr. Beth Wiersma. It will take several months to put the results together and prepare the final report, which Dr. Wiersma estimates will be ready by October of 2004.

Dr. Wiersma will work with two other members of the Criminal Justice faculty at the University of Nebraska-Kearney. They are Dr. Scott Sasse and Kurt Siedschlaw.

In their research project, the criminal justice study team will do surveys to track the status of offenders. "We will do surveys when the offenders enter the Work Ethic Camp, and another survey six months later. We will also be interviewing the Work Ethic Camp staff, and we will do follow-up surveys with the employers of offenders following their release from the program," Dr. Wiersma said.

Troy Hoppes, the program manager at the Work Ethic Camp, said the researchers will have the full cooperation of the staff. "We initiated the idea ... we asked the criminal justice department at Kearney to get involved," he said.

All along, those involved with the Work Ethic Camp have believed the program has great potential to change the behaviors of criminal offenders.

"If offenders are trying, we can give them the tools they need to change," Hoppes said.

Yes, from all outward indications, it appears the Work Ethic Camp is doing a good job. Even so, research is important to determine the strengths and weaknesses of the pioneering program.

What is the Work Ethic Camp doing right? What can it do better?

Thanks to a $20,000 grant from the state and the research efforts of UNK faculty members, valid results will be published to show us how effective the program is.

And, as a result, we will have documented evidence to determine how the Work Ethic Camp program is working, and what we can do to make it better.