These programs claim to rehabilitate and teach troubled teenagers through various practices. Troubled teen facilities are privately run, and the troubled teen industry constitutes a multi-billion dollar industry.[3] They accept young people who are considered to have struggles with learning disabilities, emotional regulation, mental illness, and substance abuse. Young people may be labeled as "troubled teens", delinquents, or other language on their websites and other advertising materials. Sometimes, these therapies are used as a punishment for contravening family expectations.,[4] for example, one person was placed in a troubled teen program because her mother found her choice in boyfriends unacceptable.[5]
The troubled teen industry has encountered many scandals due to child abuse, institutional corruption, and deaths, and is highly controversial.[6][7] Many critics of these facilities point to a lack of local, state, and federal laws in the United States and elsewhere governing them.[8] However, some countries, such as Bermuda, have been known to send teenagers to programs located in the United States.[9] In addition to their controversial therapeutic practices, many former residents report being forcibly transported to troubled teen facilities by teen escort companies, a practice dubbed "gooning".[10]
The troubled teen industry has a precursor in the drug rehabilitation program called Synanon, founded in 1958 by Charles Dederich.[11] By the late 1970s, Synanon had developed into a cult and adopted a resolution proclaiming the Synanon Religion, with Dederich as the highest spiritual authority, allowing the organization to qualify as tax-exempt under US law. Synanon rejected the use of medication for drug rehabilitation, and instead relied on the "Synanon Game", group sessions of attack therapy where members were encouraged to criticize and humiliate each other.[12][13] Synanon popularized "tough love" attack therapy as a treatment for addiction, and the idea that confrontation and verbal condemnation could cure adolescent misbehavior. Synanon disbanded in 1991, after its tax-exempt status was revoked by the IRS and it was bankrupted by having to pay US$17 million in back taxes.[14]
The historic Hotel Casa del Mar functioned as the Synanon headquarters beginning in 1967.
Former Synanon member Mel Wasserman founded CEDU Educational Services in 1967, a company which operated within the troubled teens industry. CEDU owned several for-profit therapeutic boarding schools, group homes, and behavior modification programs. The techniques used by CEDU schools were derived from Synanon's; for example, long, confrontational large-group sessions called "Propheets" took cues from the Synanon Game.[15]: 122 [16] CEDU went out of business in 2005, amid lawsuits and state regulatory crackdowns.[16][17]
Joseph "Joe" Ricci, dropout from a direct Synanon-descendent program, founded a therapeutic boarding school called Élan School in 1970.[15]: 122 [18] Élan closed down in 2011 amid persistent allegations of abuse.[19]
Synanon's techniques also inspired the World Wide Association of Specialty Programs (WWASP), an umbrella organization of facilities meant for rehabilitating troubled teenagers.[15]: 132–133 WWASP is no longer in business, due to widespread allegations of physical and psychological abuse.[20] Many WWASP programs were shut down by the Costa Rican,[21] Jamaican, and Mexican governments[22] after investigations into allegations of abuse.
Troubled teen programs have been criticized for failing to offer evidence-based therapies such as cognitive behavioral therapyortrauma- and violence-informed care.[8] Many or most troubled teen programs share a common lineage descending from Synanon, and use some form of "the game," a group attack therapy session. Additionally, some TTI programs use a form of primal therapy, a discredited form of therapy which involves reenacting traumatic and painful moments such as rape.[23]
In 2007, the Government Accountability Office published a study verifying thousands of reports of abuse and death in TTI facilities dating back to 1990.[8][24][25] The National Disability Rights Network published a report in 2021 reporting common issues at troubled teen facilities including the aforementioned forms of abuse as well as chronic staffing shortages, deprivation of education, and unhygienic and unsafe facility conditions.[26]
Many troubled teen institutions offer youth transportation through teen escort companies, in which minors are transported to their facilities against their will. Parents who sign their children up for troubled teen camps will sign over temporary custody to the teen escort company.[27] This transportation is a service offered in the United States and elsewhere, and is a practice that has been criticized on ethical and legal grounds as being akin to kidnapping.[28] Some of the subjects report not realizing they were transported with permission of their parents until days afterward.[29][2][30] Clients have reported being ambushed in their own beds at home, or tricked into believing they are going elsewhere.[31] Those who have been in the troubled teen industry call this process "gooning".[32] There have been incidents where transportation staff have impersonated government officials.[33] Former clients of troubled teen programs have made efforts to pursue legal recourse through civil lawsuits targeting both parents and the companies associated with these programs.[34]
19-year-old Fred Collins Jr. found himself falsely imprisoned by Straight Inc., after initially visiting a family member who was enrolled in the program by his parents.[35] Upon arrival, he was kept in a windowless room for six-and-a-half hours, and the staff refused to let him leave until he agreed to enroll into the program.[36] At one New Mexico program, Tierra Blanca Ranch, the authorities found that the adolescent clients had been shackled and handcuffed.[37]
Numerous troubled teen programs have been reported to engage in the practice of compelled labor, wherein program participants are required to perform physically demanding tasks such as wood chopping and horse manure shoveling.[38][39][40]
Elizabeth Zasso was an emancipated minor living in the state of New York who was illegally kidnapped by a teen escort company hired by her parents and taken to the state Utah where she was enrolled in a wilderness therapy program called the Challenger Foundation.[41] It was ruled that the Challenger Foundation had violated her constitutional rights.[42]
In certain instances, troubled teen programs have employed a torture technique known as "stress positions" as a form of discipline against their clients.[43]
Numerous troubled teen programs, including the well-known Provo Canyon School, have faced allegations of employing solitary confinement as a disciplinary measure. Solitary confinement is a controversial practice that involves isolating individuals from social contact and is the subject of extensive debate regarding its ethical and psychological implications. Additionally, the now-defunct program known as Tranquility Bay, located in Jamaica, has also been reported to have utilized solitary confinement as part of its disciplinary methods. This practice has garnered considerable attention and criticism from various quarters.[46]
Numerous reports have surfaced, documenting instances of psychological abuse inflicted upon clients within troubled teen programs. One particularly disturbing example of such abuse involves mock executions, wherein students were coerced into digging their own graves as part of a psychologically distressing exercise. These allegations highlight the gravity of ethical concerns within these programs and have sparked significant scrutiny and criticism from various outlets.[47]
Utah, California, Oregon, Montana, and Missouri have all enacted laws aimed at increasing oversight of troubled teen facilities. Utah's law was proposed in 2021 after noted celebrity Paris Hilton came out with her story about her experience at Provo Canyon School. Hilton's testimony triggered a state investigation into the facility, and she later advocated for the law when it was in the process of being passed.[48]
On June 27, 1990, Kirsten Chase died from heatstroke whilst enrolled at the challenger foundation, a Wilderness Therapy program located in Kane County, Utah. The county's district attorney charged the owner of the program Steve Cartisano with nine counts of child abuse and one count of negligent homicide.[49] Lance Jagger was also charged with negligent homicide and child abuse, but the charges were dropped after he agreed to testify against Cartisano.[50] A jury acquitted Steve Cartisano on all charges.[51]
On January 15, 1995, Aaron Bacon died from acute peritonitis while attending the North Star Wilderness Program in Utah.[52] Nine staff members, including company cofounder Lance Jagger, were charged with abuse and neglect.[53] Lace Jagger, William Henry, pleaded guilty to negligent homicide.[54] Craig Fisher was found guilty of third-degree felony abuse or neglect of a disabled child.[55]
On March 2, 1998, Nicholaus Contreraz died from Infection leading up to his death. He had symptoms such as problems with Bladder and Bowel Incontinence, for this he had received punishment for this staff would make sleep in his soiled underwear. Another example is this, they would make eat on the toilet. The autopsy revealed Nicholaus Contreraz had died from empyema with a partial collapse of his left lung.[56] He had also contracted strep and staph infections with pneumonia and chronic bronchitis, and the coroner also 71 cuts and bruises.[57] During the investigation Pinal County Sheriff's Office they found Nicholaus had been cleared for Psychical training activities by staff members. The Federal Bureau of Investigation opened their investigation into the matter of had anyone civil right's been violated.[58] The California Social Services Department investigation found widespread excessive use of physical restraint and hand-on confronatations by staff members.[59]
February 16, 1982: Nancy Reagan visits Straight, Inc. in Florida.[63]
December 27, 1982: Philip Williams Jr. dies in Elan School boxing ring.[64]
May 26, 1983: A federal jury awards a Straight, Inc. patient $220,000 after finding said patient to have been falsely imprisoned by the foundation.[35]
November 11, 1985: Princess Diana and Nancy Reagan visit Straight, Inc.[65]
February 2001: 14-year-old Ryan Lewis commits suicide while enrolled at Alldredge Academy in West Virginia.[70][71]
July 2001: 14-year-old Tony Haynes is forced to eat dirt and dies at a desert boot camp for teenagers.[72][73]
July 15, 2002: Ian August dies from heat exhaustion while attending the Skyline Journey Wilderness Program in Utah.[74] The Utah Department of Human Service revoked Skyline Journey's state license on the 25 October 2002.[75]
December 25, 2002: A 17-year-old girl Kiley Jaquays falls to her death while visiting the Bloomington Caves in Utah with her residential treatment center, Integrity House.[76]
2006: Yang Yongxin establishes an "Internet-addiction camp" inside the Fourth Hospital of Linyi in China and begins practicing electroconvulsive therapy.
August 28, 2009: Sergey Blashchishen died from heat exhaustion during a hike whilst attending Sage Walk a wilderness therapy program operated by Aspen Education Group.[80]
February 8, 2013: The hacking collective group Anonymous launches #OpTTIabus, a campaign against the troubled teen industry.[81]
November 2015: Ten teenagers are arrested due to a riot at Copper Hills Youth Center in Utah.[82]
February 2017: 16-year-old Ben Jackson commits suicide at Montana Academy.[83]
July 10, 2019: Red Rock Canyon School in Utah closes after a riot breaks out in April 2019.[84]
April 2020: 16-year-old Cornelius Fredericks dies while being restrained.[85]
The Last Stop, a documentary on the Élan School released in 2017.[93]
This Is Paris, a documentary on Paris Hilton's experience in various troubled-teen programs, released in 2020.[94]
Hell Camp: Teen Nightmare, a documentary released in December 2023. It is about a wilderness therapy program called the Challenger Foundation in Utah, and covers the controversial conditions of the program as well as the death of Kristen Chase.[95]
The Program: Cons, Cults, and Kidnapping is a 2024 American true crime documentary series, directed by Katherine Kubler. It follows Kubler and former classmates of hers from the Academy at Ivy Ridge, a behavior modification facility that was marketed as a boarding school, as they reflect on the abusive conditions they experienced in the program and the lasting trauma.
^ abcReview, The Regulatory (2023-06-27). "The Troubled Teen Industry's Troubling Lack of Oversight | The Regulatory Review". www.theregreview.org. Retrieved 2023-07-13. Once there, RTFs advertise care, promise behavior modification, and seek to "fix" whatever parents may deem wrong with their teenage kids. But RTFs too often punish mental health and behavior, instead of treating it. Actual, evidence-based treatment, such as cognitive behavior therapy or trauma-informed care, is frequently supplanted by cruel, archaic methods of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse.
^Ortiz, Michelle Ray (1999-06-13). "'Escort Service' or Legalized Abduction?". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2023-06-22. For a few hundred dollars, parents pushed to the edge by teens' defiant and destructive behavior can hire "escorts" to rouse their children in the middle of the night and haul them away—in handcuffs if needed.
^"The Troubled Teen Industry's Troubling Lack of Oversight". www.law.upenn.edu. Retrieved 2023-09-23. Teens may be subject to legally and ethically dubious tactics before they ever step foot on the grounds of the RTF, with the advent of an industry practice dubbed "gooning" by which youth are placed into these facilities against their will.
^ abZibart, Eve (May 26, 1983). "Drug Patient's Award $220,000". The Washington Post. Retrieved December 28, 2022. The request for punitive damages was based on what Collins' chief counsel Philip J. Hirschkop described as a "continuing pattern" of false imprisonment by Straight Inc. staffers.
^Israelsen, Brent (1989-08-05). "TROUBLING QUESTIONS FACING PROGRAM FOR 'TROUBLED' YOUTH". Deseret News. Retrieved 2024-02-10. A ruling Friday by 3rd District Judge Dennis Frederick, who said the program violated a New York girl's constitutional rights, has prompted the state to ask Challenger to meet certain conditions.
^Dahlburg, John-Thor (2003-07-13). "Troubled Times for 'Tough Love'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2023-09-24. Amberly Knight, a former director of Dundee Ranch, said in an interview that staff members regularly abused the students, including forcing them to stand, kneel, sit or lie on a concrete floor eight hours a day. She also detailed her claims in a letter to Costa Rican authorities.
^Peake, Eleanor (2023-03-21). "I went to a Troubled Teen Camp just like Paris Hilton, and it still gives me nightmares". inews.co.uk. Retrieved 2024-02-07. Fanlo was strip-searched and banned from speaking for the first few days. The teenagers were only allowed to drink from dirty ponds: Their cups were treated with chlorine dioxide but the taste of pond water remained.
^"SEPARATE TRIALS ORDERED FOR CHALLENGER, CARTISANO". Deseret News. 1991-09-06. Retrieved 2024-02-10. Cartisano also faces nine counts of child abuse, as does the foundation. It originally also was charged with negligent homicide, but a judge ruled a corporation is not capable of committing a homicide.
^ abMorgenstern, Joe (January 15, 1995). "A Death in the Desert". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 28, 2022. In fact, Aaron was dead. After collapsing on the trail, he had died in the back of a North Star pickup truck on Hole in the Rock Road, 15 miles southeast of Escalante.
^"Nine charged after teen's camp death". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved 2024-02-10. The nine people charged Tuesday were released on their own recognizance, pending a court hearing in December. Among those charged was North Star's co-owner and operator, Lance Jagger.
^ ab"Corner North Star Counselor Sentenced to a Year in Jail". Deseret News. December 21, 1996. Retrieved December 28, 2022. A former counselor in the wilderness therapy program, Craig Fisher, was ordered Thursday to spend time in the Garfield County Jail for his role in the 1994 death of Aaron Bacon, 16, of Phoenix
^Cart, Julie (1998-06-14). "A Puzzling Death at Boys Ranch". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2024-06-07. The Pima County Medical Examiner, who handles autopsies for the smaller Pinal County, concluded Nick died of empyema, a buildup of fluid in the lining between his lungs and chest cavity. There were 2 1/2 quarts of pus in the lining of his chest, causing his left lung to partially collapse.
^Times, Julie Cart Julie Cart is a former environmental reporter for the Los Angeles; Sportswriter, Where She’s Also Been a; In 2009, a national correspondent; Cart; in 2015, colleague Bettina Boxall won the Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting She left The Times (1998-10-02). "5 Indicted in Death at Arizona Youth Ranch". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2024-06-07.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^Schafer, Susanne (November 11, 1985). "Princess Diana and Nancy Reagan Visit Drug Abuse Center With AM-Royalty, Bjt". APNews.com. Associated Press. Retrieved December 28, 2022. Nancy Reagan and Princess Diana heard gut-wrenching stories about drug abuse Monday from teen-agers striving to recover at a suburban drug treatment center.
^"Costa Rica Intervenes at Troubled U.S.-Owned Academy". The New York Times. May 23, 2003. Retrieved December 28, 2022. The Costa Rican authorities moved today to seize an American-owned behavior-modification academy for children after hearing allegations of physical and emotional abuse, officials said.
^"10 teens arrested in riot at youth treatment center". Deseret News. 2015-11-02. Retrieved 2023-05-05. Ten teenagers were arrested at a residential treatment center Sunday and booked into juvenile detention after allegedly causing a riot.
Strangeways, Sam. (11 December 2019) "Sending troubled children to US cost $33m"
Leach, Samantha (20 July 2021). The Elissas: Three Girls, One Fate, and the Deadly Secrets of Suburbia. New York: Legacy Lit (published 6 June 2023). ISBN9780306826917. LCCN2022057941. OCLC1381457383.