How the 'Boot Camp' Industry Tortures and Kills Kids

"[The] military-style 'boot camp' came into vogue in the early '90s as an alternative to juvenile prison. The media spread fears of a new generation of violent teenaged 'super-predators,' and this solution gained political appeal across the spectrum. Liberals liked that it wasn't prison and usually meant a shorter sentence than conventional detention; conservatives liked the lower costs, military style, and tough discipline. Soon 'hoods in the woods' programs, which took kids into the wilderness and used the harsh environment, isolation, and spare rations to similar ends, also rose in popularity, as did 'emotional growth' schools, which used isolation and Synanon-style confrontational groups." Horror stories about this new 'service? offered by the police-prison industrial complex.