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Death, Abuse at S. Dakota
Boot Camp Prompt Scrutiny
Author: Jennifer Gerrietts
December 4, 1999
DEATH, ABUSE AT S.DAKOTA BOOT CAMP PROMPT
SCRUTINY
PLANKINTON, S.D. ( Reuters ) -- A 14-year-old
girl's death at a South Dakota boot camp for juvenile offenders has
sparked an FBI probe and fueled a national debate over whether
harsh, military-style camps are the right way to rehabilitate
troubled teens.
The FBI said on Wednesday it had launched an
investigation into the treatment of juvenile inmates assigned to the
state-run South Dakota State Training School, which operates a
girls' boot camp. Gina Score died at the boot camp in Plankinton on
July 21 during a forced long-distance run just two days after
entering the program as a convicted shoplifter.
Since Score's death, state investigators and
parents of inmates at the boot camp have alleged that other girls
were injured by being shackled, handcuffed and dragged on endurance
runs until blood soaked their shoes.
FBI supervisory special agent David Heller said
the agency, in conjunction with the U.S. Justice Department's civil
rights division, was looking into possible violations of U.S. civil
rights laws committed by law enforcement employees.
Across the United States, there are more than
50 juvenile boot camps housing about 4,500 juveniles as part of
state correctional programs, according to the Center for Juvenile
and Criminal Justice, a San Francisco-based think tank. The
programs are aimed at reforming youthful offenders by means of
rigorous physical training and strict discipline.
``When you create a system where you bully
kids, there's a risk of it turning into abuse,'' said Larry Brendtro,
president of Reclaiming Youth International, a group that questions
the boot-camp concept.
Critics argue that the harsh treatment meted
out at boot camps can cause injuries to inmates and subjects
children with budding criminal tendencies to physical and emotional
abuse that can push them toward rather than away from violent acts.
``The danger in this is that you create notions
that if you subject kids to brutalizing physical exercise, you
change them,'' said Dan Macallair, assistant director of the Center
for Juvenile and Criminal Justice. ``You create the notion in the
staff's head that all you have to do is make the conditions
miserable and anything goes.''
Ridding Children Of Booze And Drugs
But South Dakota Gov. Bill Janklow, a former
U.S. Marine and a backer of the state's four-year-old juvenile boot
camp system, said the camps help liberate problem teens from
substance addictions and improve their physical and emotional
well-being. He blamed ``rogue'' staff members for any problems at
the South Dakota State Training School's boot camp.
``We're getting the booze and the drugs out of
their minds, getting their body into decent physical shape. Nobody
disputes that we're making these kids feel good about themselves,''
said Janklow, a Republican.
``This approach works better than other
approaches because it gives people what they need,'' Janklow added.
Jeff Bloomberg, South Dakota's secretary of
corrections, said a boot camp requires teens to make an effort
toward their own rehabilitation, adding that ``it's not intended to
be a pleasant experience.''
South Dakota operates two boot camps for
juveniles aged 14 to 21, one with about 120 boys and one with about
a dozen girls, state officials said. Juveniles who enter the camps
either have been convicted of crimes or their parents have asked the
state to take charge of them.
A state agency assigns a small number of youths
who have been sent into the correctional system by judges to boot
camps rather than traditional facilities.
Authorities said Score died of heat stroke
after she collapsed during a forced 2.7-mile ( 4.3 km ) run. The
226-pound ( 102 kg ) girl lay in the sun for three hours without
treatment because staff members at the boot camp believed she was
faking, even though the girl had wet herself, was drooling, and her
eyes had rolled back in her head, state investigators said.
Staff Members Charged
State prosecutors charged two of the boot
camp's female staff members last month with one count each of
manslaughter and four counts each of child abuse. Both entered
pleas of not guilty. In addition, the superintendent of the South
Dakota State Training School resigned.
Incidents have been reported in other U.S.
boot camps. Nicholaus Contreraz, a 16-year-old boy with an
undiagnosed lung infection, collapsed and died at the Arizona Boys
Ranch in 1998. Investigators said workers at the boot camp forced
him to exercise, ridiculing him for supposedly pretending to be
sick.
Not only are there problems with abuse in the
facilities, but also with recidivism, critics say. The Justice
Department's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
found that many juvenile boot camp graduates committed new offenses
more quickly after release than other young offenders.
``In the juvenile justice community, boot camps
are really on the decrease,'' said Darrell Wehmeier of the Topeka,
Kansas-based Koch Crime Institute, a research group. ``A state can
please the community and look like they are tough on crime, but
there are better alternatives out there.''
URL:
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n1319/a02.html
Newshawk: M & M Family
Copyright: 1999 Reuters Limited
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