SCOUTING YESTERDAY: Teen's death at state facility led to changes in juvenile justice system
This week in South Dakota history: April 11-17
The death of 14-year-old Gina Score at South Dakota’s State Training School in 1999 sent shockwaves through the state’s juvenile justice system — and changed it. In the nine months that followed her collapse during a forced run at the Plankinton boot camp, judges sent half as many youth offenders into state custody, a dramatic drop that came not with a decline in crime, but with a rise in caution.
Score’s death, and the abuse allegations that surfaced in its wake, exposed deep flaws in the state’s approach to juvenile corrections and sparked calls for reform that would reshape the system for years to come.
