Tough-Love Teen Camps A "Nightmare"

The Skinny: Inquiry Into Boot Camps For Trouble Teens Finds Many Abuses, GAO Report Says

(CBS)  The Skinny is Keach Hagey's take on the top news of the day and the best of the Internet.

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For years, people have complained about abuses at so-called boot camps and other wilderness programs where frustrated parents send their troubled teens to get straightened out.

Today, USA Today gets a sneak peak at the findings from the first federal inquiry into the programs, and the results reveal a lot of tough love -- minus the love.

The Government Accountability Office cataloged 1,619 incidents of abuse in 33 states in 2005, according to a study to be released later today. It 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.

"This nightmare has remained an open secret for years," said Rep. George Miller, D-Calif, who has designed a bill to encourage states to enact regulations. "Congress must act, and it must act swiftly."

Investigators counted thousands of cases of abuse, using Web sites and news reports. Five of the 10 programs where teens died are still operating.
The GAO didn't release names, but USA Today pieced together a few of the cases from news reports.

In one particularly haunting case, Anthony Haynes, 14, died in 2001 while at American Buffalo Soldiers boot camp in Arizona. Children there were fed an apple for breakfast, a carrot for lunch and a bowl of beans for dinner.

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.

Verizon, AT&T Can Censor Customers' Speech

Remember all the hubbub last month about Verizon Wireless' decision to block an abortion rights group from sending text messages over the company's network? The company flip-flopped as soon as the news came to light, but today's Los Angeles Times reports that, legally, the incident was just the tip of the iceberg.

Verizon and AT&T both have language buried deep in their high-speed Internet contracts that allows them to pull the plug on customers who say things that might harm their "name and reputation," the paper reports.

The language came to light a few days ago, after AT&T sent notices to thousands of customers revising their service contracts as part of the company's merger last year with BellSouth.

An AT&T spokesman defended the boilerplate, saying it was "common brand language designed to protect the brand," but the LA Times pointed out that other companies, such as Time Warner Cable, don't have it. Just before the paper went to bed last night, the AT&T spokesman called back and pulled a Verizon, promising that the company's contract language would be revised in the future to reflect a more free-speech mind-set.

One has to wonder if the company's terror of bad PR had anything to do with what's going on in Congress today. The New York Times reports that executives for AT&T and Verizon have been vigorously lobbying behind the scenes to get legal immunity for having helped the National Security Agency eavesdrop without warrants. House Democrats promised yesterday to block any deal for immunity unless the White House agreed to turn over internal records showing the utilities role in eavesdropping. Anybody want to wager on the chances of that happening?

IMF Admits Downside Of Globalization

Normally, the International Monetary Fund is at the receiving end of anti-globalization taunts. But yesterday, the IMF released a report that might hand alumna of Seattle and Genoa's rowdy protests a powerful argument to use in their next rally, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Technology and foreign investment are making income inequality worse around the world, the IMF said in its recent economic review. The Journal pointed out that the reports "is an unusual admission by the IMF of the downsides of globalization."

The report found that, overall, wealth increased through globalization. But in the great majority of countries, income of lower-income workers has risen at a slower pace in the past two decades than that of higher-skilled workers.

These facts go against traditional economic theory, which has long held that increased trade and investment should diminish income inequality in developing nations. The theory argued that as more low-skilled jobs moved - from the U.S. to developing nations, for example - demand for lower-income workers would increase in developing nationas, as would their wages in comparison with higher skilled workers there. But that hasn't happened.

Instead, since countries in Latin America, Asia and Eastern Europe began to liberalize their economies, the gap between rich and poor has widened, the Journal reports, and political resentment has increased as a result.

L.A. Mulls A Commuter Lane For Wildlife

Should transportation tax dollars go toward helping animals get around?

That's the question at the heart of brewing controversy in Los Angeles, where transportation officials are planning to spent nearly half a million dollars to build a bridge over a clogged highway to help wildlife cross from one stretch of open space to another.

The Los Angeles Times reports that controversy stems from a plan by the California Department of Transportation to replace an overpass to accommodate the scheduled widening of the 405 Freeway and the addition of a carpool lane through Brentwood, Bel-Air and Sherman Oaks.

Concerned that the wider freeway would make it more difficult for wildlife to cross east and west from habitats above the pass, environmentalists won a tentative commitment from transportation officials to make the new bridge, which also would include lanes for cars, 5 feet wider than originally planned.

Despite California's reputation as the land of designer doggie sweaters, the plan is drawing fire from commuters who say the money should go to help those with four wheels before it helps those with four legs.

"What are they going to do, have Doctor Dolittle standing there directing animals to use the bridge?" scoffed Ernest Frankel, a member of a residents group.

Californians may grumble at the thought of their transportation tax dollars going to wildlife, but here in New York, we're quite used to the idea. For a century, we've been supporting a subway system that houses rats far better than it moves humans.

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[teenagers22]

Summer camp is a good option for troubled teens they can learn various knowledge and education. <a href=http://www.strugglingteen.net/> Troubled teens schools </a> also offer good quality of education programs for their students. They have a good team of professional and teacher to teach them.

http://www.strugglingteen.net/

Sorry if I sounded like I think all parents are equal.
I think some parents are better, and some are worse. Most parents do better at some things, and worse at others. Most parents are underprepared to be parents, as was I. But blaming them is not an answer.

"If these parents could stop drinking, doing drugs and cashing welfare checks long enough to take care of their own children places like this wouldn''''t be necessary."

Yes, if all parents were perfect, few children would have major problems.
Unfortunately, no parents are perfect, many children have problems, and blaming the parents doesn''t solve anything.

One thing that can help is early support for parents.

[jn4ggs]

bullsh1t

the punks need to learn that there are times and places where people dont care about them and they will not be able to walk all over people. i dont care if kids are going hungery, working long hours, or getting bones broken. it is all a small price to pay for a chance to turn them into function citizens.

if anything congress needs to act now to pass laws to exempt these camps for all the child labor laws and safty standards that apply everywhere else.

[candy-apple]

Children having children. When they start having porblems with their children they want someone else to take care of them. I don''t condone what happened at this place. However, if you are grown up enough to have a child you should take responsibility for that child and quit expecting everyone else to solve your problems. More parental control and less interference from the "village" and parents wouldn''t have so much trouble with their children. It''s called "being a parent" and not your child''s best friend!!

[grammawhamma]

What would Dr. Phil say?

[johnstossel]

If these parents could stop drinking, doing drugs and cashing welfare checks long enough to take care of their own children places like this wouldn''t be necessary. They all just want to pass the buck. What was your layers retainer and contingency percentage again???

[oscarez]

"Office cataloged 1,619 incidents of abuse in 33 states in 2005, It also looked at a sample of 10 deaths since 1990"

Hay, So you have few problems, this is a business. Look at Blackwater.

[nolalou]

sblake63 said "Imagine if we were to pull stats on how many children are injured at public schools each year, day care centers & other state run facilities. I bet it would outnumber the injuries and deaths at these " religious boot camps" 1000 to 1."

First of all the report on boot camps mentions abuse, not injuries from accidents! You really think abuse and death is 1000 to 1 higher in public schools & day care centers? What the hell have you been smoking! There is no excuse for this! These juveniles are not sentenced to ''boot camps'' for life, they will one day be released and shouldn''t be worse when they come out then when they went in! There should be some serious time for those to do this, or knowingly allow this to happen.

[myidoncbs]

There is no such thing as "tough love". It''s an oxymo-ron, and the people who believe that you express love by confining, beating, and abusing children are mo-rons!

These boot camps appear to be "successful" in only a few cases, those cases where the victim has been previously tortured long enough to develop the classic authoritarian personality. Such people learn to bow and deflect to authority figures, all the while plotting their demise. When they grow up, they abuse their own children in a similar fashion. Is that REALLY what we should be teaching our children?

I wonder why those people who understand this obvious fact of life are called "bleeding heart libs" by the little nazis who call themselves "conservative".

To "conserve" means to protect, and to save for the future. It DOES NOT mean to "beat into submission". How did all of you "conservatives" get so misled about virtually EVERYTHING of value in life?

"Sick", "twisted", and "evil" are the words that come to mind when I think of the "conservatives" in the US today.

[sevenveils]

The sad thing is:
Troubled students facing extreme punishment (expulsion and possible criminal charges) by their schools are referred to these camps as a get out of serious trouble or get out of jail card. Parents pay handsomely for their child to attend these "camps". These "camps" are often run a full capacity so a waiting list is not too uncommon.

These camps do little to alter the troubled child''s behavior because as mentioned previously, troubled children need professional counsellings and not the intimidation and prison structure found in these "camps".

[tnt1954]

swiss boarding schools are better? they say the best boot camps are the real ones, west point, annapolis,
air force academy, and for the enlisted folk,
the us armed forces. ''troubled'' people need
psychiatrists, not beatings or whippings. that''s
like whipping someone who has cancer, hoping that
will cure them. or like doing a witch doctor
dance around someone with malaria or smallpox.
as ignorance and superstition continue. or but
they have a right to pay 500 dollars an hour
to a ''christian science'' faith healer? maybe
they should take their ''troubled'' teen to
benny hinn? or other quacks. about 10-20% of
any population is neurologically impaired genetically.
get used to the idea. and they''re never gonna
get well, or much better. they were born that
way or acquired it through injury. would
a beating help a person with a broken leg heal?

[sblake63]

These camps are a Godsend. It''''s a place where ignorant parents can have their children beaten and molested and not be blamed for it.

Regards,
Posted by Nancy_Naive at 11:37 AM : Oct 10, 2007
_______________________________________
Liberals are always easy to identify LOL.

Especially when they can pick and poke at any religious based institution. If a state run facility abuses a child, they''ll say its because of a lack of funding or budget cuts from evil republicans that caused a lack of "screening" to weed out potentially abusive teachers etc.

If one out of 1000 boot camps does something wrong - they want blood and it gives them a chance in a feeble attempt to somehow say these things are happening BECAUSE it''s religious based.

Imagine if we were to pull stats on how many children are injured at public schools each year, day care centers & other state run facilities. I bet it would outnumber the injuries and deaths at these " religious boot camps" 1000 to 1.

What exactly are us "religious parents" ignorant of Nancy_Naive? Lets see liberalism has been tried in our schools for over 50 years. We have a 40% drop out rate, school shootings, increased suicides. Your way has been tried and it failed. Taking prayer out of the schools was the 1st blow. Look at the wonderful system we have now Ha Ha.

I say punish the "abusive" boot camps to the letter of the law, but stop trying to associate them when a particular cause.

[hypnotoad72]

Given the abuses some of those kids have done, who''d be surprised?

Still, discipline must be handed with reason, so the outrageous kid can be migrated into a society. Even ours, despite what the nanny-state TV stations love to show...

[antoniof123]

Charles Long, was sentenced in 2005 to six years in prison for manslaughter.

Only 6 years what you kill an animal and you get more time. This is sick, make him do the same as the kid until he throws up dirt.

[oleander8]

"I trust libs and congress about as far as I can toss them because they both have an agenda to ruin this nation." [Posted by Ozark_Sun]

Oops! current administration already beat us to it.

[oleander8]

"This nightmare has remained an open secret for years," said Rep. George Miller, D-Calif.

They can''t be that much of an open secret if parents are still agreeing to send their kids there for help.

[Ozark_Sunshine]

All you bleeding heart libs want to coddle and baby these hardened criminals and tell them they are not responsible for being there. No wonder alot of kids now days don''t want to take responsibility for their actions, their parents refuse to also and taught them to blame others for their predicament. The reports is so bogus because it covers a few select cases without addressing the majority of success achieved by these places. I trust libs and congress about as far as I can toss them because they both have an agenda to ruin this nation.

[mcvett]

Don''t send the teenagers to "boot-camp"

Send them to prison intead.

.