The House Committee on Education and Labor heard emotional testimony about abuses at so-called boot-camp programs for troubled youth, and members vowed to step up regulation of the programs, USA Today reported Oct. 11.

A Florida jury last week acquitted guards and a nurse of manslaughter charges over the death of a 14-year-old boot-camp resident, but Congress heard many other stories about children who died while enrolled in similar programs. "I can't think of any testimony that we have heard in this committee that has caused a greater sense of anger and sorrow," said committee chairman Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.).

The U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) described allegations of abuse at boot camps, wilderness camps, and youth therapeutic boarding schools as "widespread."

"If you walked in partway through my presentation, you might have assumed I was talking about human rights violations in a Third World country," said Gregory Kutz, a GAO investigator. "Examples of abuse include youth being forced to eat their own vomit, denied adequate food, being forced to lie in urine or feces, being kicked, beaten and thrown to the ground."

Due to a lack of medical training for staff, Kutz said, a number of kids "died slowly while program management and staff continued to believe that they were faking it."

Some states don't regulate the private programs at all. The executive director of the National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs, Jan Moss, said the industry wants state regulation. "Among our goals is the complete elimination of the abuses and neglectful practices we have heard about today," Moss told the committee.