BOOT CAMP GRADUATES START OVER WITH A NEW SENSE OF DISCIPLINE

NEAR SPRING RIDGE - Last December, Robert Hocker was facing serving 2 1/2
years in prison for a drug sentence.

But Monday he walked out of prison after only six months. By voluntarily
participating in a prison boot camp new to North Louisiana, Hocker endured
a rigid, militaristic environment in order to trim his sentence - and the
experience changed him for the better, he said.

"I learned how to work (with others) to accomplish goals," said the
32-year-old Shreveporter, who is to begin a new job as a painter. "It
teaches you discipline."

Hocker and 16 other state inmates are the third class to graduate from the
boot camp program at Forcht Wade Correctional Center in southern Caddo
Parish. Called Intensive Motivational Program of Alternative Correctional
Treatment - IMPACT - the program has been in effect at Forcht Wade since
October.

These are nonviolent first-or second-felony offenders, and most were headed
to prison for drug offenses with sentences up to seven years. By
voluntarily participating in IMPACT (many being recommended by their
sentencing judge), they can get out in about six months. Some then go to
work-release programs, but all undergo six months of intensive parole
supervision after release from custody.

The boot camp program began at Elayn Hunt Correctional Center at St.
Gabriel in 1987. The Legislature expanded the program to Forcht Wade, a
division of David Wade Correctional Center in Claiborne Parish.

So far, 54 have graduated from the Forcht Wade program, and no one has been
returned to custody, said Maj. Walter Tolliver, IMPACT commander at Forcht
Wade.

Monday's ceremony on the grounds of Forcht Wade had all the trappings of a
graduation: special speakers offering congratulations, including Caddo
District Judge Charles Scott; graduates receiving certificates and shaking
Tolliver's hand; and proud family members snapping photographs.

Opal Krout of Many was there to see son Shannon Krout, 24, graduate from
IMPACT; he had a drug distribution conviction. She said her son changed
profoundly during the course of the program; Shannon's wife, Tonkwa Krout,
agreed.

Opal said her son's bad temper is gone: "He's more respectful."

She said Krout would enter trade school. Tonkwa Krout said she hoped the
program would keep her husband out of trouble. "You pray every night."

Seven of Monday's graduates went home with family; the others were
transferred to a work-release program in Monroe for six months. The state
parole board decides who is ready to leave prison and who needs more time
getting ready for home and work responsibilities.

Antoine Harrell, 22, of Alexandria was among those headed to Monroe. He had
gone to prison on a drug conviction too and admitted that when he began
IMPACT he had a "bad attitude ... I lacked discipline, respect for authority."

But that changed. The program not only puts its trainees through rigorous
physical requirements and adherence to rules but also forces a strong
degree of self-examination and peer examination.

"It made me look at myself the way other people look at me," Harrell said,
admitting that in the beginning, Charlie Platoon had its share of
conflicts. But by undergoing parenting and anger management classes, "I
know how to get along."

Tolliver said that since IMPACT began at Forcht Wade, two trainees were
removed for disciplinary reasons and one for medical reasons, but no one
dropped out. Seventy inmates are currently in the program.

Judge Scott told the graduates and their supporters that judges believe in
the IMPACT concept because "it teaches discipline and it encourages
achievement in a group fashion so when a person gets out he can achieve
individually."

Deputy Warden Alton Braddock, who oversees Forcht Wade, told graduates:
"Today you take part in a ceremony that is not the end of something but the
beginning of something."

Braddock is retiring in August after 45 years in the corrections industry
and Monday was officially succeeded at Forcht Wade by Deputy Warden T.W.
Thompson, who has been at the Department of Corrections' Work Training
Facility-North at Pineville.