8 Staffers Acquitted in Death at Boot Camp

"Eventually, the science kicked in," Cullen said.

By 2000, nearly one-third of state prison boot camps had closed and the average daily population in state boot camps dropped more than 30 percent, according to figures cited in federally sponsored studies. Florida closed its juvenile boot camps after Martin Anderson's death.

Even those camps that have remained open appear to have changed their emphasis, shifting in part to addressing the offenders' psychological, education and health needs. Texas, for example, still maintains a 128-bed boot camp for juveniles -- but officials there distinguish it from the "in your face" style of drill instruction that once seemed so popular. Rather than simply relying on the drills to reshape character, the camp has learned that addressing the offenders' other issues is critical.

"Kids are successful in a structured boot-camp environment -- the trouble is when they go home and they don't have a drill instructor standing next to them," said Tim Savoy, communications director for the Texas Youth Commission. "What makes the therapy work is having a treatment program along with the structure."

Similarly, Oklahoma has kept its program for adults but altered it along the way.

"One of the things that we found is that there has to be a lot more to it than marching them around in formation," said Jerry Massie, a state Department of Corrections spokesman.

He added that physical punishment for not completing exercises was not allowed at the camp -- as apparently happened the day Martin died.

Indeed, it has been the use of physical punishment that has left several of the boot-camp efforts open to criticism for being inhumane.

The central issue at trial was not whether Martin had been manhandled -- the guards' takedown of the boy that morning had been captured on video.

Instead, the defense argued that Martin died because of a blood disorder, as one earlier contested autopsy showed. A second autopsy, however, indicated that he had suffocated as guards had held their hands over his mouth and held ammonia to his nose.

"What was supposed to happen is that Martin was supposed to go in there and come out and be a better man," his father, Robert Anderson, said this week. "Well, he was a 14-year-old child and he never came out. There's no other proof I need that boot camps don't work."

Staff researcher Madonna Lebling contributed to this report.