GAO: Poor Staffing Cited in Youths' Deaths at 'Boot Camp'
By Howard Schneider
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 10, 2007; 10:50 AM
Ineffective management and poorly trained staff contributed to the deaths of as many as 10 youths at "boot camp" and other private residential treatment centers between 1990 and 2004, federal investigators have concluded.
Although meant to help troubled teens through "wilderness therapy," intense military-style discipline and other methods, the largely unregulated cottage industry of facilities has generated thousands of instances of alleged abuse, the Government Accountability Office found in a study released today.
Information on the facilities is not centralized and remains spotty, the report concluded. Some states closely regulate the private facilities, while others oversee them only loosely.
But by scouring court records and Web sites and interviewing lawyers, family and others familiar with the facilities, the GAO found more than 1,600 cases of alleged abuse in 33 states in 2005 alone.
The study did not include publicly run foster care or juvenile justice programs, only the private facilities that often serve as a last resort for the parents and family of behaviorally troubled or substance-abusing teens.
The issue of abuse at such facilities has been a recurrent one at the local level. Seven boot camp guards and a nurse are on trial in Florida for manslaughter in the January 2006 death of 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson, who died after being repeatedly struck in an altercation with them.
Even some programs sponsored by states have come into question at times. In Maryland, allegations of abuse at state-run boot camps led to the shake-up of the state's juvenile justice agency in 1999 and the suspension of the program.
The findings of the GAO's study, the subject of hearings this morning before a House committee, will cast a national spotlight on a network of private businesses and boarding schools that promise to turn around the lives of troubled kids by teaching them survival skills or bringing more discipline to their lives. There are about 71 such programs operating around the nation, the GAO said. The study did not include enrollment statistics.
Neither did the agency's report examine the effectiveness of the methods involved, noting only that "many cite positive outcomes." But, in examining the cases of 10 youths who died, the agency concluded that facility managers and staff were often ill-equipped to teach the very skills they promised -- or ready to handle an emergency when it arose.
One 15-year-old, for example, whose parents had paid $20,000 for a nine-week program in Utah to help her overcome the psychological effects of a date-rape, died during a wilderness hike in 1990 despite showing symptoms of dehydration for two days. The five-day hike was the first such trip conducted by the fledgling program, and hike leaders "were not familiar with the area, relied upon maps and a compass to navigate the difficult terrain, and became lost."
The girl stopped eating and began vomiting on the third day, but was ignored by staff who "thought she was faking," the GAO wrote, noting that brochures advertised the staff as "highly trained survival experts." The girl collapsed two days later -- staff did have radios to summon help -- and died despite efforts to perform CPR.
In another case, a 14-year-old boy, was sent by his parents to another program in Utah, apparently to address behavioral problems associated with his bipolar and attention deficit disorders. During a hike, he displayed signs of elevated body temperature -- hyperthermia. Two staff members moved him into the shade, but then left him unaided for 10 minutes while one hid behind a tree and watched to determine if he was feigning illness. When the staff member returned, the boy had no pulse and was unresponsive to CPR.
A program manager was found not guilty of a felony child abuse charge. Although the program was shut down, the owner subsequently opened another facility.
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