Youth Camp Is Cited for Rights Violations

The state Department of Social Services has issued 13 citations to a private rehabilitation camp in the Sierra foothills for violating youths’ rights.

Officials charge that 80 delinquent boys at the Sierra Ridge athletic camp were forced to run on days when the temperature exceeded 100 degrees, were subjected to waits as long as two hours for a three-minute shower and required to sit motionless for 15 minutes as punishment.

Lawrence Howell, executive director of Nevada-based Rite of Passage, which runs the camp, said such citations are to be expected in any program handling delinquent teenagers.