Gina Score - 1999

Gina Score committed minor crimes. She stole food and had a weight problem. Here in 2013 we are so enlightened that we know that she should have got some counseling. Maybe an in-patient treatment program would be the best but still counseling because it was not the actions of an evil criminal mastermind.

It was a girl basically reaching out for help.

But in 1999 the governor of South Dakota was William John "Bill" Janklow. He had his mind set to be tough on crime among youth hoping to scare them straight.

Gina Score was sent to the State Training School in Plankinton. It was a boot camp where the teenagers were forced to run in a very hot weather every day. July 21st, 1999 - only five days after she had arrived, Gina Score collapsed during the run. They believed that she was faking her situation, but it was for real.

She died there. Basically she was murdered there.

The boot camp shut down when everyone realized that the path promoted by the governor was no real answer to juvenile crime.

But it was too late for Gina Score.

She was only allowed 14 years on this planet.

May she find peace where she is now.


Sources:

• Former Plankinton Inmate Looks Back At Death (KELOLAND TV)
• Barnett on Gina Score: 'We killed her' (Madison Daily Leader)