Boot Camps Closed After Abuse Reports

Gov. Parris Glendening ordered the immediate suspension Saturday of Maryland’s military-style boot camp program after reports that juvenile offenders had been assaulted and abused.

Fourteen guards accused of abuse have been placed on administrative duty, said Glendening spokesman Mike Morrill.

“We are outraged by the patterns of abuse that are being alleged at the Department of Juvenile Justice’s boot camps,” Glendening and Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend said in a written statement. “Violence will not be tolerated.”

They said the three camps in western Maryland would be converted into “interim residential centers.”

The three camps will maintain their academic, counseling and drug treatment programs. Independent monitors from the Department of Social Services will be at the centers 24 hours a day.

There will be no new admissions to the centers “until the structure of future programs there is determined,” the statement said. The 79 juveniles still at the centers will stay there until officials can find other places for them.

“Many of these juveniles are violent and repeat offenders, and they present a continuing danger to the safety and security of Maryland citizens and communities,” the statement said.

Eyewitness reports in the Baltimore Sun newspaper that guards in at least one camp routinely assaulted delinquents led the governor to order an investigation.

On Friday, a judge pulled 26 boys from the state-run camps after hearing testimony that camp guards had thrown youngsters through windows, stuck thumbs in their eyes and routinely beaten them.

On Saturday, a panel appointed by the governor to look into the allegations of abuse at the camps met to discuss recommendations to prevent abuse.

Some members suggested the camps’ command structure be more clearly defined.