In the ’80s, Nancy Reagan launched her anti-drug Just Say No campaign geared toward children, and many parents were at their wits’ end dealing with “out-of-control” kids. Feeling like they had nowhere to turn, thousands of parents sought out reformatory therapies that would teach their kids to shape up or ship out. The Challenger Foundation — a two-month wilderness therapy camp that would scare kids straight — seemed like the answer.
Without toilets, beds, or any comforts of home, teens at Challenger camp were forced to hike hundreds of miles in the Utah desert alongside militant counselors who employed violent tactics. From director Liza Williams (The Yorkshire Ripper), the documentary film Hell Camp: Teen Nightmare explores the often blurry line between discipline and abuse, sharing the stories of those who endured the brutal retreats — and those who ran them.
Watch it at the top of this article.
The Challenger Foundation, started in 1988 by Steve Cartisano, ran a camp for troubled teens. The program would, with parents’ consent, surprise misbehaving teens at their homes in the dead of night and take them to a wilderness camp in Southern Utah. When teens arrived at Challenger camp, they would endure 63 days (or more, if they were noncompliant) in the desert on a 500-mile hike in order to improve their bad behavior. They slept on the ground, pulled handcarts through rocky terrain, and skinned and cooked animals. The kids had no privacy or bathrooms and were punished if they complained. These punishments included packing rocks in campers’ backpacks to weigh them down and tying campers up by their hands and feet. Soon, abuse allegations began to plague the foundation and its founder.
Steve Cartisano, the founder of the Challenger Foundation
A former Air Force sergeant, Cartisano was the founder and president of the Challenger Foundation. He had a tough love approach that promised to teach kids values like responsibility, discipline, and an appreciation for their families, and he said that the program saved the lives of countless troubled youths. But former campers alleged that the camp’s punitive tactics quickly turned into abuse. After a 16-year-old camper, Kristen Chase, died of heatstroke on one of the Challenger expeditions, Cartisano faced child abuse and negligent homicide charges. He was found not guilty and settled with Chase’s parents out of court. Cartisano died in 2019.
Lance ‘Horsehair’ Jaggar, the Challenger Foundation’s field director
Lance “Horsehair” Jaggar was the field director at Challenger. Like Cartisano, he had also been in the Air Force. Horsehair employed Cartisano’s strict approach, acting like a drill sergeant to the wayward teens. This would, in his words, “break [them] down” to become “better” and “more positive” once they were ready to return home.
No, Hilton went to Provo Canyon School — where she alleges abuse similar to what occurred at Challenger camp.
Challenger camp was held in Escalante, Utah, in and around Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.
