
Reddit thread on what it's like in correctional facilities for troubled children - rahuldottech
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/c7ldpc/seriousformer_teens_who_went_to_wilderness_camps/
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rahuldottech
> I also worked at a treatment center in Utah, and I ended up quitting because
> of the horrors I witnessed. I’m actually very sorry to say that it was just
> like the Stanford prison experiment. The staff turned into the guards and
> the children into prisoners. I am ashamed at the things we would do to the
> kids to get them to comply. Like many of the survivors here, there were
> times when we would have to follow one child around to make sure they did
> not speak to another person and if they did, they would be isolated even
> further, not allowed to go to the school on site, etc. If a child got upset,
> we would put them in an isolation room which was akin to solitary
> confinement. we took books, makeup privileges, phone calls home, small
> things that would grant some normalcy in a child’s life that also served as
> coping mechanisms for the tiniest infractions. We made them point out flaws
> in other children to their faces. We forced children with eating disorders
> to eat their food or they would get in trouble with their therapist.
> Management once told me that if they have any issues or are upset with these
> methods of punishment, we were doing our jobs.

> Everything the kids did during the day was reported to the therapist and
> then twisted to keep them in “treatment” longer. The only way to get out was
> to comply and become robotic basically doing everything they’re told in the
> way that staff prefers them do it. And there is different staff all the
> time. Oh wait, if insurance stops paying, then they kick you the very next
> hour. All the facility cared about was money.

> I couldn’t believe how many children were there who did not need to be. I
> have a master’s in psychology and I spent way more time with the kids than
> any of the therapists, so I can say that some kids were just placed there by
> parents who were likely too busy or didn’t care enough to pay attention to
> their kids. Yes, some were drug addicts that needed treatment, and some had
> oppositional defiant disorder, conduct disorder, PTSD, and bipolar disorder.
> But many were lost. It broke my heart. The only good thing I can say about
> the facility is they accepted transgender children.

I don't understand how any of these were (and still are) allowed to operate.
It's very evident from the Reddit thread that this stuff has very long lasting
effects, and has been the cause of many, many suicides.

