FYI: This made the front page of the 10/ 10/ 07 USA today.
GAO study reveals boot camp 'nightmare'
By Ken Dilanian, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — The first federal inquiry into boot camps and wilderness programs for troubled teens cataloged 1,619 incidents of abuse in 33 states in 2005, a congressional investigation out Wednesday reveals.
The study, by the Government Accountability Office, also looked at a sample of 10 deaths since 1990 and found untrained staff, inadequate food or reckless operations were factors. In half of those cases, the teens died of dehydration or heat exhaustion, the GAO says.
NEGLECT: Teens suffered fatal health problems
THE REPORT: Read the GAO report
There are no federal rules governing residential facilities for children, and some states do not license such programs.
The findings were presented at a hearing of the House Committee on Education and Labor, whose chairman, Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., requested the investigation.
Parents "send their children to these programs because of the promise that staff members will be able to help children straighten their lives out," Miller said at the hearing.
"In far too many cases, however, the very people entrusted with the safety, health, and welfare of these children are the ones who violate that trust in some of the most horrific ways imaginable."
Miller has sponsored a bill designed to encourage states to enact regulations.
"I can't think of any testimony that we have heard in this committee that has caused a greater sense of anger and sorrow," he said.
Investigators counted "thousands" of abuse allegations against the facilities using lawsuits and websites. But there is no central clearinghouse. States submit incidents to the federal database on a voluntary basis.
Five of the 10 programs where teenagers died under questionable circumstances are operating — sometimes under a new name or in a different location.
The cases highlighted in the GAO report did not include names, but some were identifiable through news reports:
•Roberto Reyes, 15, died of complications from a spider bite in November 2004 at Thayer Learning Center in Missouri, which describes itself as "a military based, Christian boarding school." A state investigation concluded that the staff "did not provide adequate treatment," the GAO said, but the state does not license such programs, and no criminal charges have been filed.
The staff tied a 20-pound sandbag around his neck when he was too sick to exercise, the GAO said. The family settled a civil lawsuit against Thayer for about $1 million. The facility's owners denied wrongdoing. Messages left at the school and with its lawyer were not returned.
•At the American Buffalo Soldiers boot camp in Arizona where Anthony Haynes, 14, died in 2001, children were fed an apple for breakfast, a carrot for lunch and a bowl of beans for dinner, the GAO said.
Haynes became dehydrated in 113-degree heat and vomited up dirt, according to witnesses. The program closed, and the director, Charles Long, was sentenced in 2005 to six years in prison for manslaughter.
Tim Briceland-Betts of the Child Welfare League of America says abuses "typically occur in places that are not regulated. I'm glad to hear that they are working on this."
Congress should "act to prevent people who do not know how to treat children with dignity — let alone treat mental illness — from selling their fraudulent treatment to other vulnerable parents and children," Paul Lewis of East Longmeadow, Mass., told the panel. His son, 14-year-old Ryan Lewis, hanged himself while in the care of a West Virginia "wilderness treatment center" in 2001.
GAO: Boot camps neglected teens' fatal health problems
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Rep. Gorge Miller
Gannett News Service
By Ken Dilanian, USA TODAY
The mortician told Bob Bacon he needed to see his 16-year-old son's body.
When he looked, Bacon "buckled at the knees," he told Government Accountability Office investigators.
"What he saw was unrecognizable as his son, except for a childhood scar above the eye," says a draft GAO report planned to be released today. The body was "covered with cuts, bruises, abrasions, blisters and a full body rash."
Bacon is scheduled to testify at a House hearing today on the investigation, which was requested by Rep. George Miller, D-Calif. The death of Bacon's son, Aaron, at a Utah wilderness program in 1994 was one of 10 fatalities examined by the GAO.
No government agency is able to say how many children have died at boot camps or wilderness programs. The GAO investigators reviewed records, talked to law enforcement officials and interviewed parents. They visited five facilities that remain in operation.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: House | Utah | Government Accounting Office | Aaron | Bacon
Here's some of what they found:
•A 15-year-old date-rape victim from California enrolled in a 9-week wilderness program in Utah in 1990 to build her self-confidence, her parents said.
Brochures described camp counselors as "highly trained survival experts." The parents would later learn, however, that their daughter would be going on the program's first wilderness trek, a five-day hike on federal land. She collapsed and later died of dehydration.
According to the GAO, the staff ignored her complaints and accused her of faking her illness. Police records say the staff did not call for help because they lacked radios. No criminal charges were filed.
•A month later in Utah, a 16-year-old Florida girl struggling with drug abuse died of heat stroke while hiking during a 9-week wilderness program. The program brochure described "days and nights of physical and mental stress with forced march, night hikes and limited food and water."
The state child protective services agency ruled it was a case of child abuse. The camp was closed and the owner placed on a state list of suspected child abusers — but the owner was able to open other camps in other states and abroad.
•In March 1994, two former employees of that camp opened a new program in Utah. That's where Aaron Bacon died from an acute infection that went untreated for nearly three weeks. He had been sent to the camp because of minor drug use and poor grades.
Court documents say that after 11 days, he fell ill with severe abdominal pain. His condition was ignored for 20 days, until he collapsed. The autopsy showed he died from a perforated ulcer.
Five camp employees pleaded guilty to negligent homicide, and one other was convicted of child abuse. All were sentenced to probation and community service.
•A 15-year-old Oregon boy died at an Oregon wilderness program in September 2000 of a severed neck artery. The boy had refused to return to the camp site after a group hike. Two staffers held him face down for almost 45 minutes in an attempt to bring him under control. The death was ruled a homicide, but a grand jury did not issue an indictment.
