In the West, the camps tend to be short, adventure-based programs, says Archie Buie, director of the National Association of Therapeutic Wilderness Camps. Buie estimates there are 115 organizations around the country offering outdoor education experiences to troubled youths, either as private ventures, adjuncts to hospitals or as nonprofit foundations. Teens enrolled in these programs are frequently taught basic outdoor survival skills, such as starting a fire without matches or making snares to capture small animals. They are known as non-adjudicated programs, to distinguish them from other private companies that are authorized to accept teen criminal offenders. Most minors in state-run programs are juvenile delinquents, whose care is paid for by taxpayers.
Critics say there is little evidence to show that wilderness therapy works.
They cite one study in the mid-1980s, where the city of San Diego tracked the first 100 delinquent boys it sent through the VisionQuest program. Still, industry leaders like Buie insist that the concept works. Now, an increasing chorus of parents, civil rights attorneys and prosecutors say too many companies are doing it wrong, and that for some, results have proved deadly. The recently formed California activist group, Voices Forever Silenced, contends that more than a dozen youths have died nationwide since 1980 in various outdoor treatment or adventure camps. Three teens, including Aaron Bacon, died at teen camps in Utah between 1990 and 1994.