Thanks to Amara for sending me the below article about troubled kids from Reason Magazine . The whole notion of "tough love" is problematic; it leaves so much room for abuse. Really deliinquent kids are often sent to so-called boot camps where they're ostensibly taught discipline. The issue with such places is that for every kid who thrives in that environment, there are probably two or more who are traumatized. Kids die from abuse in such programs—abuse disguised as discipline. The problems have been serious enough for Jeb Bush, no soft touch, to shut down Florida's state-run youth boot camps and forbid like programs that still exist from employing physical and psychological punishment. But as this article makes clear, such prohibitions can only be enforced to a certain degree. Private programs are exempt.

The Trouble with Troubled Teen Programs: How the "boot camp" industry tortures and kills kids

[Photo by Rochie via Flickr.]