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 S.C. 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 about incidents – like the death of 16-year-old Del’Quan Seagers ~2 years ago – and provoked the idea to possibly move away from wilderness camps to more community-based approaches.
