The Government Accountability Office presented the study to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and Labor based on 2005 data, USA Today reported.

The audit said there had been 1,619 incidents of abuse and recounted 10 deaths at boot camps and wilderness programs since 1990.

Committee Chairman U.S. Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., requested the investigation and said in a statement that Congress had to move swiftly to require states to enact regulations for the industry.

Among the fatalities cited was one of a 14-year-old boy in 2001 at the American Buffalo Soldiers boot camp in Arizona where children were fed an apple for breakfast, a carrot for lunch and a bowl of beans for dinner, the GAO reported.