I published an essay at HuffPost about being a survivor of the troubled teen treatment industry (TTI).
Unreformed
The Elite Arm of the Youth Control Complex #breakingcodesilence
Recently I found a study called “Troubled Affluent Youth’s Experiences in a Therapeutic Boarding School: The Elite Arm of the Youth Control Complex and Its Implications for Youth Justice,” which explores the mostly unregulated private troubled teen treatment industry (TTI). Highly recommended. Authors Mooney and Leighton describe the TTI as a way for the criminal…
Reading Caste, Watching This Is Paris, and #BreakingCodeSilence
Monday night I watched the Paris Hilton documentary, This Is Paris, which in part deals with Paris Hilton’s time at the troubled teen facility Provo Canyon. I’m still kind of unsettled, which surprised me, mainly because I have spent so long writing about and researching these programs. A large part of my book, Unreformed, traces…
Sugiuchi Interviewed by Straight White American Jesus Podcast
Bradley Onishi interviewed me for the Straight White American Jesus podcast.
All about Escuela Caribe
List of previously published posts that are relevant to my experience with Escuela Caribe. Enjoy!
Hard Time in a Christian Boot Camp
Last week my interview with Mark Torrender of Talk Beliefs was published. We discussed what it was like to spend my teen years in
Religious Boot Camps Explored by the Talk Beliefs Channel
Recently I was contacted for an interview by Mark Torrender, the founder of the Talk Beliefs YouTube channel, which is dedicated to exploring the stories of survivors of religious sects and cults. The goal of Talk Beliefs is altruistic: by sharing one’s story, you can help other survivors and hopefully enact change. Which is basically…
In Revision
I had this dream the other night I was walking in a Delta forest. The sun was shining golden green. The birds were singing. All around me frogs croaked. I walked down to the brake. Trash was floating up against the knees of the cypress. I looked down at my feet. An iPad was…
Suffer the Little Children: Mike Pence’s Disturbing Connections to the Teen Treatment Industry
When I was fifteen, my parents sent me to Escuela Caribe, a fundamentalist Christian reform school in the Dominican Republic. At this school students were forced to exercise for punishment, sometimes until they vomited or collapsed from exhaustion. Students were beaten with a leather strap for minor infractions. Staff members would slam students into…
The Horrifying Reality of Teen Rehab Centers
A few weeks ago Cracked editors Jack O’Brian and Robert Evans interviewed one of my all time heroes, Maia Szalavitz. Szalavitz wrote Help at Any Cost: How the Troubled Teen Industry Cons Parents and Hurts Kids, the most comprehensive exploration of the teen treatment industry out there. They also interviewed Sarah Cummins, a former student of a…