What’s the deal with the Department of Juvenile Justice’s secret S.C. camps

wilderness camp

Photo by: Michael Pronzato, Post and Courier

There is a little-known network of wilderness camps paid for by S.C.’s Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) as an alternative to traditional prisons for young, non-violent offenders.

1,726 children from South Carolina have been sent to these camps over the past three years.

A Post and Courier investigation found DJJ doesn’t have a reliable system for documenting problems like escapes + assaults at its camps. This has brought up a lot of questions and provoked the idea to possibly move to more community-based approaches.

Read more from The Post and Courier.

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