PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- On a muggy July morning, 14-year-old Gina
Score collapsed during a forced run at South Dakota's boot camp
for girls.
She lay on the ground for three hours before dying of
heatstroke.
In the 16 months since Score's death raised questions about
juvenile boot camps across the country, the girls' boot camp at
Plankinton has been dismantled. The legislature has set up an
office to monitor juvenile corrections, and lawmakers have given
a legislative panel authority to periodically review juvenile
programs.
But some say state boot camps remain deeply flawed. On
Monday, a federal judge was scheduled to hold a hearing on a
proposed settlement of a lawsuit between the State Training
School where Score collapsed and the Washington, D.C.-based
Youth Law Center, which seeks to monitor the boys' boot camp in
Plankinton, an eastern South Dakota farm town.
``I think in the long run kids in these facilities will be
protected, they'll be safer and hopefully will come out better
in the sense of not being abused while there,'' said Youth Law
Center staff attorney Marc Schindler.
Score's parents have also filed a lawsuit, set to go to trial
early next year. Lawsuit documents quote state Attorney General
Mark Barnett as saying the state was responsible for the girl's
death because of the way the boot camp staff treated her.
``We killed her,'' he said.
Gov. Bill Janklow, who credits three years in the U.S.
Marines with turning his life around, called five years ago for
boot camps as a way to teach teen-age offenders the discipline
and other skills needed to set them straight.
The Republican governor has blamed ``rogue employees'' for
Score's death and other problems.
But Democratic House Minority Leader Pat Haley said the
problem is widespread.
``What was put together here was a routinely abusive
system,'' said Haley, a former prison guard. ``It wasn't rogue
employees. It was the system.''
Score was sent to the camp in July 1999 after stealing a
bike, skipping school and shoplifting. Two days into the
program, the 5-foot-4, 226-pound girl joined other girls on a
2.7-mile required run.
She collapsed near the end, and staff members left her on the
ground because they thought she was faking. A nurse at the scene
later said she didn't recognize the girl's symptoms as heat
exhaustion.
Investigators said the temperature had reached 77 degrees in
81 percent humidity by the time an ambulance was called. Score's
temperature reached at least 108 degrees, the maximum a
thermometer could record.
Two staff members were acquitted on child abuse charges in
the death and other problems, including making girls run in
shackles until their ankles bled.
Today, South Dakota judges send fewer juveniles to state
facilities, partly because of what some judges described as
caution after Score's death.
A report this year by the Koch Crime Institute, a nonprofit
research organization in Topeka, Kan., found about 50 boot camps
across the nation, not counting those run by the National Guard.
That's down from 60 several years ago, says Jerry Wells, the
institute's director.
Boot camps' physical exercise requirements and sometimes
untrained staff can be dangerous, says Doris MacKenzie,
professor of criminology at the University of Maryland. On the
other hand, studies indicate both staff and juveniles in boot
camps have more positive attitudes than those in traditional
juvenile corrections programs, she said.
``The attitudes in many of the camps are very supportive,''
she said. ``There seems to be a very caring relationship.''
But she said studies show boot camps are no better than
traditional programs in preventing juveniles from getting into
trouble after release.
Wells said tragedies such as Score's death should be expected
when boot camps are run by untrained staffs.
``The surprise to me was that it was a surprise, because it
was a recipe for disaster,'' he said.
The proposed settlement in the Youth Law Center lawsuit would
limit the use of restraints and isolation cells and require
mental health treatment, education programs and staff training
in addition to monitoring.
Janklow says he continues to get letters from parents who say
their children's lives have been set straight by boot camps. He
won't comment on the lawsuits until they are settled.
Gina Score's parents, David and Viola, have refused to talk
publicly in recent months, but said a year ago that they were
devastated.
``The state should never abuse a child,'' Viola Score said.
See Project No Spank's Forced
Exercise as Punishment
