Maryland board approves settlement with teens abused in boot ca

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- State officials gave final approval to a $4.6 million settlement of a lawsuit on behalf of young people abused at three western Maryland boot camps.

The three members of the Board of Public Works -- Gov. Parris Glendening, Comptroller William Donald Schaefer and Treasurer Nancy Kopp -- approved the payments without discussion on Wednesday.

The court-approved agreement includes a $2 million fund to pay for college and trade-school education for more than 300 former boot camp inmates.

Glendening ordered the camps closed in 1999 after The (Baltimore) Sun reported that guards had routinely assaulted teenagers at the camps for young offenders.

Two judges, state police investigators and a task force appointed by the governor concluded that the assaults dated to 1996, when the first camp opened.

Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend was in charge of criminal justice matters when the abuse occurred, and her Republican gubernatorial opponent, Robert Ehrlich, said Wednesday the settlement is "just another sad chapter" in what he called Townsend's mismanagement of the juvenile justice system.