Although Boy Scout guidelines specify that an individual cannot be a Boy Scout after the age of 18, there is a special provision in the bylaws that permits handicapped persons to become active scouts regardless of age. Special-needs inmates come under this bylaw. They are those inmates whose behavior, functional ability, or institutional adjustment calls for a high level of supervision and housing separate from the institution's general population. Many are mentally retarded or have a history of psychiatric disturbance. The scouting program provides the inmates with incentives for good personal hygiene, healthy interpersonal relationships, and appropriate behavior and individual growth. It also helps to reintegrate them into the facility's general population. Since the troop's formation, the improvement in personal hygiene and interpersonal relationships among the inmates involved has exceeded even the most optimistic expectations of the staff. Inmates who previously were repeatedly placed in segregation for misconduct have now broken this cycle. Inmates with many prior rule violations have functioned for months without any misconduct.