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…
Unreformed
The Teen Treatment Con Continues…
The craziest thing for me about the teen treatment industry is how long this con has gone on. I mean, I became a statistic 26 years ago. In 2004 (that’s 12 years ago for you English majors), the National Institute of Health released a statement recommending residential care as a treatment of last resort. And in 2007, the…
To Hell and Back: the Rise and Fall of New Horizons Youth Ministries
Last week NUVO, Indianapolis’ alternative weekly, published the first in a series of articles exposing the rise and fall of the fundamentalist boot camp I attended, New Horizons Youth Ministries. Alumni Theresa Rosado writes that NHYM had its license revoked in 2009 for failing to comply with state policies. They did not provide background checks for sex offenders. They…
Stop Child Abuse in Residential Treatment Programs for Teens
One of the most maddening things about being a product of the dysfunctional family with means complex is knowing that the abuse is still happening. That despite the Congressional reports, despite books like Julia Scheeres’ Jesus Land, or Maia Szalavitz’s Help at Any Cost: How the Troubled Teen Industry Cons Parents and Hurts Kids, or Kate Logan’s documentary…
Won’t Get Fooled Again # Crosswinds
I began this blog in 2008 because I wanted people to understand that teens sent to treatment facilities are often traumatized in the name of therapy. I know, because I was traumatized. It took me 10 years before I could discuss the abuse. I began this blog after I traveled to my teen treatment facility, Escuela Caribe. I traveled…
Where American Teens Were Abused in the Name of God
This past week, Zoe Schlanger of Newsweek interviewed me about Escuela Caribe. The article, Where American Teens Were Abused in the Name of God, is here. This week, Kidnapped for Christ, an expose about Escuela Caribe, premiered on Showtime. I was interviewed for the documentary, though my interview did not make the final cut. An outtake of…
The Art of Losing
I walked out of my old life and started over after reform school. This is something I only realized about six months ago. I mean I understood that I left Mississippi after I graduated from Escuela Caribe, but I didn’t realize I’d severed all ties when I walked. I cut all ties and told half…
Kids For Cash
There’s lots of money to be made abusing kids, not just by operators of the teen “treatment” industries, but by those who funnel kids into the system. New documentary Kids for Cash tells the story of how two Pennsylvania judges earned millions of dollars for referring their charges into a privately operated teen treatment facility….
Kidnapped for Christ Premiered
Last Friday Kidnapped for Christ, a documentary exposing Escuela Caribe, premiered at Slamdance. I like this review by Film Threat.
35 Years Ago Kenneth Wooden Warned Congress about Escuela Caribe
On January 4, 1979, Congress held a hearing on the abuse and neglect of youth in institutions. The U.S. government was spending millions of dollars to house teens in for-profit institutions where they were often beaten, drugged or sexually abused. The goal of the hearings was to authorize the Justice Department to intervene for young people…