Netflix recently released a documentary titled Hell Camp: Teen Nightmare, which takes a closer look at an infamous teen therapy camp. Founded by Steve Cartisano in the year 1988, the Challenger Foundation’s goal was to help troubled teens turn their lives around. The 80s was an era of change. This made many Americans concerned about the negative effects on the youth. The goal of the Challenger Foundation was to tire the youth with hard labor and discipline until they were good again.
Steve Cartisano implemented a boot camp-style approach that involved exhausting physical and mental training. Furthermore, this was taking place in the wilderness of Utah. However, the methods of the Challenger Foundation were way too harsh. According to Dexerto, they were abusing the system and even manipulating the teenagers. They were accused of dragging the children and even tying them to trees.
In Hell Camp: Teen Nightmare, a man who witnessed this horror said, “They were emaciated, they were dirty. You couldn’t even tell that they were kids.”
The program started by the Challenger Foundation cost $15,900. Furthermore, children had to spend 63 days to complete the entire ordeal. Celebrities too jumped on this bandwagon which included two of Winthrop Rockefeller’s children. However, things began to change after the death of a 16-year-old participant named Kristen Chase.
Kristen Chase’s autopsy report revealed that she suffered an exertional heat stroke. Soon, an investigation took place, and the reality of the Challenger Foundation came under the public limelight. This led the organization to shut down. Furthermore, its founder, Steve Cartisano, faced legal consequences.
According to IMDb, the synopsis of Hell Camp: Teen Nightmare reads, “Out-of-control teens across America were sent to a therapy camp in the harsh Utah desert. The conditions were brutal, but the staff were even worse.”
The director of Hell Camp: Teen Nightmare is Liza Williams.
Hell Camp: Teen Nightmare: What happened to Challenger Foundation’s founder Steve Cartisano?
The court charged Steve Cartisano and the Challenger Foundation with negligent homicide and nine misdemeanor counts of child abuse.
After Kristen Chase’s death, her mother Sharon spoke to Desert News where she did not speak negatively about the Challenger Foundation. She furthermore said that she was open to sending more of her children.
Sharon said, “We’re not condemning Challenger. I’ve never met any more dedicated, loving people striving to help children. “What we did for our daughter was the best thing we could have ever done. We felt this was the answer. I truly feel it would have been if she’d been able to complete it.”
High Country News reported, “Cartisano applied what he liked to call ‘street smarts’ to problem kids: strip searches and military haircuts. He adopted a drill-sergeant style of speech which required ‘Yes sir!’ answers. Rules were strict and heavily enforced – a girl caught saying ‘I’m sorry’ instead of ‘I apologize’ would be punished by carrying a football-sized chunk of cow manure all day in her backpack. A boy caught eating raw oatmeal instead of cooking it would have his oatmeal ration taken away”
The report further states, “While Cartisano was acquitted of all criminal charges in Chase’s death in 1992, the national publicity spawned a slew of civil suits against his company”.
All of this resulted in the Challenger Foundation going bankrupt. Cartisano went on to set up another program like this in the state of Hawaii. However, the state soon banned them from running facilities.
Steve Cartisano died in the year 2019. At the time of his passing, he was 63 years old.
