Hell Camp: Teen Nightmare is a shocking Netflix documentary that takes a deep dive into the Utah-based teenage therapy camp The Challenger Foundation. The program was established to help teenagers experiencing behavioral problems in their lives, however, the reality is a horror story involving terrible conditions and controversial methods that turned the camp into a nightmare for those who attended. The founder of the establishment, Steve Cartisano, features heavily in the documentary, which reveals the true nature of the physical and emotional trauma that those who attended were put through.
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Steve Cartisano and the Challenger Foundation Wilderness Therapy Camp
Steve Cartisano with wife Debbie | Image via Netflix
With his background in the military, Steve Cartisano would form The Challenger Foundation in 1988, in response to a 1980s fear that “the youth of America was taking a wrong turn”. The camp that he envisaged would be a kind of retreat that would take the teens from their normal environment and place them in an out-of-bounds location, using what could be argued was a military-type approach to breaking the participants down and rebuilding them into better citizens.
The no-nonsense attitude of the teenagers at the camp would impose strict regulations and rules that had to be followed, and the sixty-three-day program would cost $15,900 per person. Initially, the program did seem to have some success, with the rich parents of so-called “troubled teens” being sent, usually against their will, and it wasn’t long before the camp was attracting a lot of attention, both good and bad.
Wilderness Therapy Camp Horror Stories
The camp itself was slammed for the terrible conditions for many of the attendees, and teens who stepped out of line were punished harshly, even for minor discrepancies. Those who were in attendance were frequently searched and berated for their bad behavior, and forced to have their hair cut to comply with the camp standards.
The documentary focuses on the awful nature of the so-called therapy camp, which alleges that some of the people were physically harmed during their stay. Some testimony states that people were dragged through the forest undergrowth, and tied to trees for daring to break the rules. The culmination of the shocking conditions and treatment saw the death of a young sixteen-year-old girl at the camp, who had been sent to the establishment by her mother in the hope of turning her life around.
What happened to Kristen Chase?
Hell Camp: Teen Nightmare | Image via Netflix
Kristen was sent to the camp by her mother in 1990, but in a terrible turn of events, during a hiking expedition, the girl collapsed and died. Kristen had been complaining of headaches and eventually would pass out. The autopsy conducted on her later would reveal the cause of death to be “exertional heat stroke.” Her mother Sharon Fuqua would not, however, blame the camp and the staff there, and incredibly would even send another of her children to attend.
What happened to the camp?
The death of Kristen would bring a spotlight onto the business, and details of some of the terrible conditions would slowly be revealed. Legal inquiries about the practices applied at the facility eventually saw the place being closed down, and Steve Cartisano would face scrutiny over the way the operation was being run.
Cartisano and the Challenger Foundation found themselves at the center of a host of civil suits. The case would find Cartisano acquitted of criminal charges regarding Kristen’s death and he went on to set up another similar camp in Hawaii but was later banned from running the program in Hawaii as well as in Utah.
What happened to Steve Cartisano?
Cartisano would pass away on May 19th, 2019. The sixty-three-year-old was married with four children but the civil suits had led to the closure of the camp and the business being left bankrupt.
