Got bad kids? No problem. Send them into the desert to die. That's right, youth boot camps are hot this week!

First, Congressional investigators sunk some fang into the unregulated industry and investigated reports of abuse and neglect resulting in the death of ten kids in six states. The report took a peep into the notorious Utah outfit that killed a chubby, dope-smoking thug-in-training after forcing him to go days without water and eat scorpions, lizards and vomit. Then today in Panama City, Florida, a jury found several guards and a nurse not guilty in the death of a 14-year old future gang banger.

Personally, we still can't shake from our minds the incident a few years ago at some American-owned youth boot camp in South America where things devolved into a chapter from Lord of the Flies. Apparently, the staff abandoned the compound and left the kids to fend for themselves. A month or something later, concerned parents found them in the jungle marching military-style in tattered clothes and half-crazed with starvation.

At least those brats never talked back ever again.

Anyway, during the congressional hearing this week, one forensic investigator said the Utah kid was beaten head to toe before, you know, dying. The congressional report pretty much says these camps are bad, cited details and promised new regulations. The dead kid's father wept and presented family photos. A director from an association that reps kiddie death camps said it's all bullshit: "It's just noisy complaints from a few individuals!" Then with a clap of thunder, she disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Boot camp guards, nurse found not guilty in teen's death [Court TV]

Report Recounts Horrors of Youth Boot Camps [The New York Times]