In the past five years, the crime rate for Georgians under the age of 17 has
more than doubled. To deal with the rising number of young people who break
the law, the state has created a new program, a kind of military-style boot
camp that's meant to scare kids straight. So welcome to Milledgeville's' Camp Stop,
one camp where you don't want to spend your summer vacation.
First call!
Rise and shine men! On your feet!
Let's get the racks made tight! Rack made tight!
5:30 a.m. and the boys of barracks one are getting a
rude wake-up call. The routine at camp stop doesn't change, every minute is
accounted for and the sergeant's never let up.
*Overlapping calls of "Fall out!" and "Move, Move, Move!"
this is a wake-up call in more ways than one.
These young teenagers are all in trouble with the law,
mostly for nonviolent offenses and a judge has ordered them here for up to 90 days.
*Drill Sargent shouting orders and the boys repeating them*
It can be scary if you are only 14 years old never been away from home,
never been locked up. Norton G was sent here for fighting with
another kid for carrying a BB gun. He says hanging out with the wrong crowd
got him in trouble.
You say you don't want to do it but they call you chicken
now you're gonna wanna show your friends that you're not chicken.
*Sergeant calling drills*
Sergeant ajor Richard hurt was in
the Army for ten years and served in three wars. He's a strong believer in the
strict discipline of this boot camp type approach.
Because life is not easy. Now if
I go through life treaten you like it's so easy, you're not gonna grow up. You don't
think lifes gonna be easy. When you get back outside this gate, it's gonna be
tough. You're gonna have confrontations every day and that's all I teach them if
they could deal with the confrontation I'm given them, they could deal with anything
because outside it's even tougher.
All that trash you did when you were outside, you're gonna leave it outside.
Is that clear young man?
You better sound back when I'm talking to you. Is that clear?
Sir yes sir
From day, one the idea is to make it so tough that
kids never want to come back here. Everyone has to look and act the same.
New recruits have their heads shaved, no fashion statements here. Life on the
inside is Spartan. There is no TV or radio. The recruits only contact with the
outside world is a five-minute phone call once a week.
Basically you just want
to wake them up, let them know that this is not a game. We try to bring that
awareness to that everything they did on outside, that's one of the reason they was here.
What's your name again young man?
All of this may seem harsh even cruel but the true purpose is to help
these kids turn their lives around. That wasn't the case 50 years ago. Back
then, prisoners were abused and no one cared.
*Singing "I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang"*
This 1932 movie is based on the book "I am a fugitive from a Georgia chain gang"
written by an inmate who escaped and went into hiding. It shocked the nation
and led to prison reform. It told of the horrible conditions on Georgia chain
gangs, of inmates forced to wear leg irons and shackles, of meals made up of
red beans and worms, of whippings at the hands of cruel guards.
*Singing about hard work*
There are no leg
irons here at Camp Stop, only a mile and a half of chain-link fence and barbed
wire. The boys get three hot meals a day. The
emphasis is on strong bodies and strong minds.
*Teacher explaining a math problem*
Recruits attend school every day,
studying such basics as math, English, and history just like they would at home and
they learn lessons outside of the classroom too, lessons about life.
But I think you was inconsiderate yourself by lieing to the staff because you knew it was
can catch up with you in the long run, eventually.
For example, in this group session the
boy in the hot seat has done something wrong and the rest of the platoon both
criticizes and comforts him. At Camp Stop, if anyone does something wrong everyone
has to pay, usually during exercise period. The kid in the hot seat starts
out tough but soon starts to cry. He realizes that his actions affect the
other kids and if he wants their respect he has to respect them too.
The way I teach them, it's like this. If you got a friend trying to talk to you in to doing wrong
he's not your friend.
*Sargent Yells*
After two months at Camp Stop, Norton G has learned to think about
the consequences of what he chooses to do. He says he'll think twice before
letting friends get him in trouble again.
You can say no and it's alright to say no
because when you read about them in the newspaper, you can say wow that could
have been me right there, and I would have been with them getting 5 or 10
years from now and we've been just five or ten more years of your life gone.
Norton wants to be a lawyer one day. He's already gone from flunking out to making
B's and C's. When he goes home he plans to set a good example for other
neighborhood kids.
It would make me feel bad if saw my younger brother fight. I don't
have a younger brother but if I had a younger brother, and I see him following the same footsteps
as mine, I'd be real mad cuz I'm not doing my job as older brother.
Those are just the kind of results that the Sergeant Major expects from these kids.
And that's why I'm hard. I'm hard but fair and everybody knows that. So like I
tell them, regardless whether they like it or not, my goal is to help and I will.
*Singing "No more bootcamp, we're going home"*
*End Screen Music*