Journal has changed from it's initial posting. This is now a consolidated message about my experience at U.S. Job Corps which lasted almost a year before being halted by Covid 19. Subsequent journal posts about Job Corps have been deleted.

In the long and short of it, Job Corps is a great idea that is terribly executed. Many staff are good natured and well meaning but their hands are tied by bullshit U.S. Government policies that discriminate the entire Job Corps population of the entire country based on the rash actions of a minority of the individuals, many of whom haven't been to Job Corps in over a decade. Job Corps policies are the epitome of "It takes 1 guy to fuck it up for everyone." As such, Job Corps quality of life on campus is about as horrible as you can get. Boot camp is preferable, because there atleast you're a human-being with basic rights. You forfiet your constitutional rights upon signing up for the program, including your rights of free speech, religion, your right to not bear witness against yourself, obviously the 2nd amendment but that's a given, Even if you're over 21 your right to drink and smoke, about all they leave you with is your right to vote which they can take away by removing your individual right to send mail. You have no privacy, you are now a slave in a propaganda machine used by politicians to make it seem to the masses like they're doing some good, all so they can get re-elected, while they and their underlings get paid a ludicrous amount.

Some of Job Corps worst qualities include having the student body itself make up the disciplinary committee. As in, If you, like me, are 24 years old and mind your own business, do your job and get recognized by the staff as someone of good quality, you're going to make that 17 year old disciplinary officer very upset at you, and they're going to start coming after you. Solitary hair on the ground behind your toilet? You just lost weekend priveledges for the next 2 weekends and have to clean EVERYONE's bathroom on that floor of the building. Stood up for someone being bullied because you're actually a good person? Get turned in for "intimidating other students." and put on "trial" by the student body where they can decide if you get kicked out or stay.

Additionally, Job Corps policy fiercely enforces the "chain of command" policy, so even IF you have a beef with 17 year old Joe, you have to go to 18 year old Bob despite being 25% older than the guy, and Bob has to decide whether or not to tell Bill, another 17 year old, who then has to tell an adult staff member. If you skip Bob and go straight to staff, you will be ignored. The staff will tell you they want to help you, but they can't because it has to go thru chain of command. And what happens when Bob and Joe are friends and Bob does nothing or Bob retaliates? You can't tell Bill because you're supposed to tell Bob.
In short, having the student body be self-governing in an already high tension, high stress, cutthroat environment just spells disaster. The slightest drama cascades out of control. And the reasoning behind this Job Corps policy? "So students can learn to manage individuals in a workforce to be an effective team." Sure that might work in their respective classes and trades, but in their daily out-of work lives when they have every right to sit on the couch in their own home, drink a beer and watch tv? (None of which you are allowed to do while at Job Corps btw) Its just asinine.

Moreover, some of the adult staff are often ex Military, these individuals are sought after by Job Corps, and the U.S. Military offers a lateral promotion program from Military straight to Job Corps staff. (U.S. Military also recruits from Job Corps directly.) The end result is that these individuals will look you in the eye then dismiss all of your concerns about your own safety, peace of mind, and blah, because "you don't know danger until you've been in the shit." With no regard for quality of life, only an interest in results, many of the ex mil staff's policies are instead of "squeaky wheel gets the grease," they have "squeaky wheel gets hit with a hammer until fixed. If it breaks, get a new wheel." Basically many of the military veteran staff show no sympathy or humanity. We're just cogs.

Lastly come the punishments. When the disciplinary committee fails to do anything... Such as failing to stop fight club over in bunkhouse 6 (and there's 12 bunkhouses with 80 people each) EVERY bunkhouse looses every privilege that exists and is forced into "community service" also known as scrubbing every toilet in the building 12 times over, and while you move from one toilet to the next, someone else scrubs the one you just finished. Or say, Jon decided to skip dinner and finish playing Minecraft on his phone, Every last student now has to turn in all electronics, from phone to laptop to game console and back, and they wont get it back for weeks, possibly months. Why? "You're only as strong as your weakest link." Basically, 'Bully Jon in as discreet a way as possible into ensuring he doesn't do it again but don't do it in a way where he can call you a bully because if he does we can kick you out for harassment :D Remember, you all need to conform to the idea of mindless worker zombies with a political leaning of our choosing or you all collectively get punished for the actions of one insurrectionist."

The cherry on top is that Job Corps refuses to yield or meet students in the middle when it comes to accommodations, reconsidering certain policies, or just general humane requests. Operating under a policy of "if you don't like it, leave," and "Isn't 2 years of hell worth the future our training can give you" they're malicious, insidious and completely lacking of any kind of human decency. The program from the Federal level needs to be either scrapped or completely torn apart and remade from the ground up.

At the end of the day, Job Corps residential life is just FUBAR, and I cannot in good conscience recommend the program to anyone except minors who are homeless and unemployed. The educational side of Job Corps is phenomenal, but the residential side is so bad it's not worth it. If you read this and still want to go to a center, I implore you to get non-residential status at all costs. For your own sake.