I don't think they're a program troll, just new. Here is another reason why its difficult to trust the authorities. This story will be on Dateline NBC tonight.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10664038/"A different kind of boot camp
In the Sonoran desert, suburban-soft Anthony experienced the particular joys of close order drill, calisthenics, and desert survival skills, always with a drill instructor by his side and a summer sun above.
Anthony and the others were treated like raw recruits? but not for anything like a modern army. Charles Long?s boot camp for wayward teens was not quite the same as others around the country. His was an imagined imitation of something right out of the 19th century ? the Buffalo soldiers.
Long?s idea at the beginning, a dozen years ago, was for men like him to celebrate or ?re-enact,? as he would say, the famed black cavalry of the old west. He even gave himself a rank and got everybody to call him ?colonel.?
And with their prancing horses, campaign hats, and cavalry uniforms, the Buffalo soldiers were a favorite attraction in local parades. They even performed as escorts for visiting dignitaries, like then-governor George Bush and retired general Colin Powell.
At one event in 1994, Powell asked Long to help troubled kids.
Long: When you get a general to ask me to do something like that, I took great pride in it.
To a former Marine like Long, General Powell?s suggestion felt more like an order. So Long expanded his Buffalo soldier program to include at-risk kids.
He wasn?t trained for such a thing, wasn?t a counselor or therapist, but that didn?t seem like an obstacle to Long, who had his own ideas about the value of psycho-therapy.
Long: So, you prescribe a child medication? Oh, it?s okay because it?s legal? He?s still taking a drug. So that?s more acceptable to you than if he?s taking cocaine, crack or smoking marijuana?
Long?s idea of therapy consisted of drill instructions and desert isolation.
Long: Not only do we have rattlesnakes out here, we have mountain lions out here. We have coyotes out here. And because of the problem of us not having a great amount of rainfall the last couple of years, we have bears out here. Going into the desert is an opportunity, in my opinion, to face your demons. Jesus went there. And you want to know why I go there? He went there.
That?s the other thing: Long is very clearly a sincere evangelical Christian who considers himself a ?soldier of the Lord.?
Morrison: What makes you a soldier of the Lord?
Long: In my opinion, I honestly believe, know, and can say, that by my faith in God, I?m here today.
So, Long built his boot camp not solely on military discipline but also on old testament principles.
Long: It?s called "not sparing the rod," is what it?s called.
Morrison: You beat them?
Long: No, sir. I do not beat children. No, sir. I have a paddle. Three strikes? And you?re subject to corporal punishment. But you don?t get corporal punishment by a paddle unless your parents have said, ?Oh yeah, go ahead,? and give them permission for that.
Morrison: Right, but you use a paddle?
Long: Yes, sir. And I?m the only one to do that.
Morrison: Sometimes are they chained together...
Long: We have extreme volatile situations at times, that one of the ways to help get a child to calm down is to restrain him.
Morrison: I?d love to know if there?s any body of evidence, anywhere, that says that the kind of program you?re running actually makes a positive difference in the lives of people.
Long: I have six young people in Iraq right now who literally started out in the Buffalo Soldiers as young people who were disrespectful. We have proved to the families who brought children to the Buffalo soldiers that going to the desert is a miracle worker.
One of Long?s most noted supporters was the local sheriff Joe Arpaio, a man who?d developed his own national reputation for tough love.
Joe Arpaio, local sheriff: I was impressed with his efforts to take care of kids, young kids, especially those that have problems.
In Sheriff Arpaio?s jails, inmates work in chain gangs are made to wear stripes and pink underwear, and some actually sleep in desert tents, much like Long?s Buffalo soldiers.
Arpaio: The kids seemed to really appreciate that program.
Arpaio and Long seemed a perfect match, the self-proclaimed ?toughest sheriff? in the land.
Arpaio would even attend Buffalo soldier graduation ceremonies. In appreciation, Long awarded the sheriff the ?Buffalo soldier humanitarian award.?
Of course there was one big difference between the two: Sheriff Arapio was dealing with convicted criminals, Charles Long with confused youngsters."
