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Fuck them
Jan 21, 2011

and their bullshit
:yotj:
Funnily enough, they also have as a contributor a person who sent kids to WWASPS programs.

For those who haven't seen my threads on the issue in years past, I'll give a cliff notes version of this, then you can decide of you want to stomach the thread: For some 40 years now, we've had a small but highly profitable industry of "reform schools", "therapeutic boarding schools", and "emotional growth schools", or whatever the gently caress they call it that day, which center around making bad kids disappear and come back dead or brainwashed. Think of it as brat camp meets one flew over the cuckoo's nest sometimes meets Reagan. The Comedian?

Straight Incorporated
Arguably it started earlier with something called, scarily enough, The Seed, but sources are spotty on the matter given it's age, the US Senate sealing records on it, and the fact that it only took off when Straight got off the ground. "Straight Inc" was the brainchild of a career Republican, Mel Sembler. An otherwise successful banker and diplomat and fundraiser, apparently he didn't have the chops to treat kids with drug problems, or somehow proactively prevent drug problems by torturing kids suspected of maybe sometime doing a drug. Being the 1980s, people were flipping out, and being Florida, people were and are still loving idiots, so not only did it take off, but Nancy Reagan even toured some of these places, and you know who thought that Mel and Straight were each one of those thousand points of light.

"Therapy" consisted of complete milieu control and being made to sit on a blue chair - always blue - and wave your arms frantically to be called on during 18 hour group "LGAT" style emotional torture sessions, in which you would then stand up and talk about how you did humiliating things because you wanted or were high on drugs. One quickly ran out of poo poo to talk about and had to keep making poo poo up, else you weren't going with the program, and tended to be held down in sloppy pain compliance holds for hours on end. If you yelled, the rest of the group sang nursery rhymes or as a chorus said "We love you, $name, and we're going to help you!" Kids died in these places, came out hosed up, and of course the whole environment one slept in wasn't great either.

Parents of kids in the program took someone else's kids home with them and basically held them like hostages, except they weren't allowed to read anything, not even billboards or cereal boxes. Conditions in the homes varied but were some level of "lovely." Escapes did happen but kids who were further progressed in the program were made to control the newcomers, so a lot of the more mundane physical violence happened in this part of the program. Straight eventually faded away and the people involved founded DARE - yes, that DARE - so if you felt weirded out by your drug essays in the 5th grade, you had good reason to!

However, captive brainwashey abusive rapey kidnappey poo poo didn't stop there, or we wouldn't have a thread!

WWASPS (World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools; they take WASP kids but Mormons tend to run them, how about that)
WWASPS schools started to pop up in the 90s and marketed themselves to affluent parents, sometimes for drug related things, sometimes for nothing at all. Want your kid to just be gone because you're a moneyed gently caress and want to party? Your kid not religious? Kid not performing in school? Is your adopted kid not lovey dovey enough? Is your kid gay? Did you just happen to be friends with someone in a program who wants to sell it to you as a good private school so they can get one of their $5K monthly tuition fees waived? Sign here and have hired fucks show up to kidnap your kid at 3am, drive or fly them across the loving country to the middle of nowhere, and in a few months when your kid earns a phone call, they'll call you! If they try to say help me or take me home someone will mash the button to hang up on them and throw them in the pokey, though!

WWASPS was and is more re-education-ey than Straight. Most of your typical day is spent doing menial chores and busy work, physical or otherwise - listening to self help tapes and writing about it, or teaching yourself out of a book and taking the same test out of the book until you got an A (to say you did self paced learning) kept you from forming escape plans. Also, looking out a window was forming escape plans, which means pokey time. They did have "seminars" which were more organized versions of the arm-flailing poo poo Straight did, led by David Gilcrease, but it was more refined in terms of making you have emotional breakdowns and become thoroughly exhausted.

I won't go into too much detail - not that you can't google this - but things like making kids who are victims of sexual assault dress up and act "slutty" to "deal with the trauma" are their idea of help. Or make everyone form a big circle, turn down the lights - long after you're beyond exhausted, of course - and pick two or three people out of dozens to save. For the people you do not save, scream DIE in their face as loud as you can! Sure is some emotional growth here!

In such environments physical brutality is par for the course. OP, Observation Placement, was "lie motionless nose down on the floor or assume a stress position. If you fidget or falter, you're not doing as told, so we're going to put you in sloppy joint locks and pain compliance holds and listen to your scream all night." Sexual assault and simple beatings were and are common. Some places even shot kids up full of thorazine and haldol.

The Internet
They did and do advertise themselves to parents, either directly, or through "educational consultants" who will refer you to programs and 'escorts' - the kidnappers - online. Survivors also started meeting eachother online and working from there. Funnily enough, a former edcon for WWASPS who then decided to change her business model to "WWASPS is bad but I know good programs", Sue Scheff, is also on huffpo! Hah! Where things get interesting is where we see things like Sue making ReputationDefender (now reputation.com) a lot of money by paying them to stamp out people speaking up about what she did, or things like anonymous decided to poke their nose into this and make ineffectual hacks and attempts to disseminate knowledge about the matter. Well, that and poo poo like suing a woman for slander who was in a FEMA trailer and thus you won by default because she couldn't make it to court, but I don't care to give Sue-Sue any attention beyond the fact that she's evil and really needs to get taken to task.

Right now
gently caress if I know. A lot of the information compiled about this poo poo was on a website called ISACCorp, which was the "International Survivor's Action Committee" which was threatened into disappearing. There used to be extensive records of the financial bullshit, who did what, court records, and survivor testimony. There's also the fact that our tweeting teens and tumbling twentysomethings have a very different outlook and vocabulary sheet than program kids, who come out very much opposed to groupthink for obvious reasons! I can't wait to see a program kid shouted down for their problematic language and privileges! More fundamentally, though, they tend to distrust any kind of group at all, both for the groupthink, and the individualistic stance one gets after being held captive by what is by all accounts a loving cult. Many are libertarians. They don't trust the government to fix this since they've been in bed with the people running these places, etc.

I'd like to think this might get traction since the current aggregator of poo poo that matters says it matters, and there's an actual lawsuit about it, but time will tell.

I'm at work so I'm surely leaving poo poo out. Ask away! Poke holes in me! If anyone needs sources for this info, I'll dig it up tonight and put it in a post to follow this one.

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Fuck them
Jan 21, 2011

and their bullshit
:yotj:
Reserved for a big fat list of links to proof and whatnot.

Chamale
Jul 11, 2010

I'm helping!



Do you have more information on the government corruption that allows these places to keep running? How much of it is from the places technically not violating child abuse laws, and how much comes from police deliberately overlooking them?

Tempora Mutantur
Feb 22, 2005

Chamale posted:

Do you have more information on the government corruption that allows these places to keep running? How much of it is from the places technically not violating child abuse laws, and how much comes from police deliberately overlooking them?

Here's a charming tale about "Kids for Cash"

http://articles.philly.com/2014-01-12/news/46092811_1_western-pa-child-care-judge-ciavarella-detention

quote:

Years after he took money to send them to privately run juvenile detention centers, a former Luzerne County Court judge must now pay former detainees back for violating their civil rights, a federal judge in Wilkes-Barre has ruled.

e: sorry that quote was not depressing enough:

quote:

Ciavarella was sentenced in 2011 to 28 years in prison for accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from the builder and co-owner of two Northeastern Pennsylvania private prisons.

In exchange, he backed county contracts with the facilities and increased their inmate counts by imposing harsh sentences on children, some as young as 10, who came before his court.

Luigi Thirty
Apr 30, 2006

Emergency confection port.

They're still finding dead bodies from the Florida School for Boys that closed only three years ago due to "budget concerns" that was investigated for over 50 years. And that's just the black cemetery, they don't think they've found the white cemetary.

Fuck them
Jan 21, 2011

and their bullshit
:yotj:

Chamale posted:

Do you have more information on the government corruption that allows these places to keep running? How much of it is from the places technically not violating child abuse laws, and how much comes from police deliberately overlooking them?

ISAC's stuff is either lost or just held out of the public eye, since a lot of moneyed scary people never left them alone. If it ever surfaces again the people who had it will want no connetion to it. For shame wikileaks wasn't around at the time.

In short, they are violating the laws. Tons of them. The problem is kids in programs have no way to speak to an attorney, contact the police or their parents, or anyone - they're basically held with as many rights (or fewer, in many regards) than people in gitmo. It might as well be a "grey site" - it's not a black site with CIA torture and drugging, but you're tortured and drugged, and you still can't reach out to any legal representation, and you don't exist as a person.

The police do turn a blind eye to it, especially since a kid has no way to reach out for help short of deliberately getting injured to the point they need to go to a hospital, or trying to commit the most violent act they can to go to jail, both of which has happened! Nevertheless, in some programs that keep kids a long time, cops do pay a visit around the time kiddo turns 18 and suddenly exists and has rights.

Various websites have fragments ISAC's stuff, even today. There's also a thing I helped write a while ago which has some info and broken links:

http://www.askquestions.org/articles/teens I did like, 99% of the reserach here. I also met 'Grace' in person. At the time she was a RN and quite successful despite the poo poo that provo did. Also jesus christ this was ten years ago :gonk:

Luigi Thirty posted:

They're still finding dead bodies from the Florida School for Boys that closed only three years ago due to "budget concerns" that was investigated for over 50 years. And that's just the black cemetery, they don't think they've found the white cemetary.

I will never miss this state and if that one atlantic island has that land slide and a tsunami wipes it out my only regret is that it will probably not cleanse the poo poo on the gulf coast as equally as the atlantic.

quote:

Ciavarella was sentenced in 2011 to 28 years in prison for accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from the builder and co-owner of two Northeastern Pennsylvania private prisons.

In exchange, he backed county contracts with the facilities and increased their inmate counts by imposing harsh sentences on children, some as young as 10, who came before his court.

Kids in the single digits have died in programs from positional asphyxia. Once for gargling and blowing bubbles in her milk.

Pope Guilty
Nov 6, 2006

The human animal is a beautiful and terrible creature, capable of limitless compassion and unfathomable cruelty.
Didn't we have a thread about this back in like 09 or 2011? I want to say it was made by somebody who'd done some time in one, but I might be thinking of HidingFromGoro.

RPZip
Feb 6, 2009

WORDS IN THE HEART
CANNOT BE TAKEN

quote:

Where things get interesting is where we see things like Sue making ReputationDefender (now reputation.com) a lot of money by paying them to stamp out people speaking up about what she did, or things like anonymous decided to poke their nose into this and make ineffectual hacks and attempts to disseminate knowledge about the matter. Well, that and poo poo like suing a woman for slander who was in a FEMA trailer and thus you won by default because she couldn't make it to court, but I don't care to give Sue-Sue any attention beyond the fact that she's evil and really needs to get taken to task.

Do you have any more information on this, or an article to read? It sounds interesting.

Fuck them
Jan 21, 2011

and their bullshit
:yotj:

Pope Guilty posted:

Didn't we have a thread about this back in like 09 or 2011? I want to say it was made by somebody who'd done some time in one, but I might be thinking of HidingFromGoro.

I had posted about it for a while then got sick of thinking about it. Interest also tends to wane because people don't like to stomach this kind of nasty poo poo, but do like to stomach feel-good activism about themselves and slacktivism that's #trending!

HFG and I collaborated a little but not just on SA.

Fuck them
Jan 21, 2011

and their bullshit
:yotj:

RPZip posted:

Do you have any more information on this, or an article to read? It sounds interesting.

The only thing written about this left is on Encyclopedia Dramatica, since everyone else got scared shitless by . I'd rather not link to that from here but you're welcome to read facts peppered with offensive bullshit ED style if you like. The links to ISAC which were on it are now broken, of course.

OTOH I can paste an awesome bullshit letter!

quote:

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Internet Terrorism - Death threats and more - my 2nd account
From: "-removed-"
Date: Sun, July 29, 2007 6:49 pm
To: abuse@godaddy.com <mailto:abuse@godaddy.com>

To: GoDaddy Abuse Dept.
From: -name removed-
** Re: Abuse on the forum at https://www.fornits.com
<blocked::http://www.fornits.com/> (*Death threats*, defamation,
invasion of privacy and more)
My name is -name removed-. If you go to the above listed
website and do a search on my name or my business - PURE
(Parent's Universal Resource Experts, Inc) - you will be apalled
at the* threats*, defamation, and more.
Last fall, I won in a *jury trial* a judgment of _$11.3M - $5M
of it was for punitive damages_ for *Internet Defamation and
Invasion of Privacy*. The defendants, Ginger Warbis (Fornits)
and Carey Bock were working in conjunction to literally destroy
and ruin me and my business - as well as my children. At one
point, someone had posted my daughter was *dead*. Since the law
is gray on the responsibility of the Host - (Warbis-Fornits), I
decided to dismiss her from the lawsuit early on and only sue
Bock. It was due to financial reasons, the legal cost me over
$150K with just the one defendant. I had to second mortgage my
home and go through my savings to protect my children.
At the end - I was fully vindicated - however it only escalated
the abuse as they now post as anonymous - and want to prove my
verdict means nothing to them. I retained Reputation Defender
to help me keep their horrors off the top of Google - however I
have now learned there are *death threats* on the website
fornits.com (in the forums). Emotionally, I can't go on that
website, it nearly destroyed to the point I closed my office and
never left my house. If you go to the website on the forum and
do a search on my name (-removed-) and PURE (they actually have
PURE Bullshit as a forum) - I am confident you will have no
problem seeing this horrific abuse.
They are also attacking my colleague, Isabelle Zehnder. She has
also contacted GoDaddy - and actually removed her websites since
she recently read her death threats and harm to her family.
*This is serious *- and I do hope GoDaddy takes this seriously.
I have filed a police report with Broward Sherriff's office
(File#W505031987) in Florida, I have filed a report with
Internet Crimes Bureau as well as my local FBI office. I am
hoping criminal charges will be brought against these people.
My lawyer is David Pollack, Miami, FL - 305-372-5900 if you need
to substantiate anything I have written or need more legal
information.
You should also know they created a YouTube video with a threat
to hurt me bad - which YouTube removed swiftly after receiving
notice from me. Again, this is serious.
If you need to learn who I am, you can visit my websites - I
also have other URL's under another account number - Reputation
Defender have been buying them for me - all kinds of ugly ones
to protect me if others attempt to purchase them. This is truly
one of the worst forms of *Internet Terrorism* I have experienced.
I will be on 20/20 i-Caught in August - talking about this
incident - I would love to be able to share with people that
GoDaddy doesn't tolerate this type of terrorism on the Internet.
I look forward to your response and swift attention. I only
hope you will remove this site from your Host Server. If you
have any further questions or comments, please call me or email
me. *Please keep my name and email confidential.*
Thank you in advance for time and prompt attention.
-name removed-

I realize that we now actually take "internet death threats" ""seriously"" but people, yanno, lie about them.

This is one of those times they loving lied.

I also love the loving narcissism here - I won so much money, I'm gonna be on TV, bla bla bla. Also the fake rear end case number is, in fact, fake. I could make a whole megathread on Sue's bullshit and how awful she is to kids, including her own, but I'd rather not give her any more attention.

Rodatose
Jul 8, 2008

corn, corn, corn
I made a long post relating to this a few years back:


Loving Life Partner posted:

I still am in awe of everything I learned in the "Lets post the most evil corporation ever" thread. I probably got a lot of correct opinions about things out there having people read that thread.

Then after the pinnacle, someone trumped the whole thread talking about the acidification of the ocean and the emptying of the Oglalla aquifer and it just turns into a depressing nightmare, but it was great while it lasted.

http://web.archive.org/web/20080915...hreadid=2882549

Oh wow, it still exists. That's awesome. Archive.org is awesome.

Looking through that thread, someone (Xephero) quoted something from this about WWASPS, which was an organization that "reformed troubled students:"

http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=22096 posted:

According to the Amended Complaint, every child named was subjected to multiple forms of child abuse over extended periods of time. While parents believed they had sent their children to programs that would provide them a proper education and, depending on the situation, help for their troubled child or teen, according to the Amended Complaint, some children were:

• Forced to eat their own vomit
• Kicked, beaten, thrown, and slammed to the ground
• Bound and tied by their hands/and or feet
Chained and locked in dog cages
• Forced to stay in isolation for long periods of times
• Locked in small boxes or cages
• Locked in basements
• Forced to lie in or wear urine and feces as a method of punishment
• Forced to clean and scrub toilets and floors with their toothbrush and then use the toothbrush afterwards
• Forced to sleep on cold concrete floors, box springs, or plywood used as beds – some had no bed linens
• Forced to assume distorted and painful physical positions for long periods of time
• Forced to live in unsanitary living conditions
• Denied adequate food
• Denied even a minimally sufficient education
• Denied proper medical and dental treatment and care
• Exposed to extreme hot and cold temperatures for long periods of time
• Forced to exercise beyond their physical capacity
• Forced to carry heavy bags of sand or logs around their neck throughout the day over many days
• Sexually abused, including sexual relations and acts of fondling and masturbation performed on them
• Emotional abuse by subjecting children to near total parental and societal isolation; personal visits, correspondence, and telephone calls were either forbidden or discouraged
• Because of near-total isolation, these children were totally unequipped to enter outside society
• Forced to work many hours a day violating child labor laws
• Confiscated and/or kept students’ US mail
• Deprived from using the toilet, and as a result, urinated or defecated on themselves
• Verbally abused by lying that their parents knew what was happening to them and were supportive of it all
• Subjected to buddy system where older students were allowed to physically, mentally, and sexually abuse younger students and manage them as part of “cleansing” process
• Deprived of sleep
• Forced to wear the same, unwashed clothes for weeks at a time
• In most cases. denied religious affiliation
• Forced to eat raw or rotten food
• Poked and prodded with various objects while being strip-searched
• Forced to write false confession letters to parents to justify being sent to the WWASPS schools
• Threatened severe punishment, including death, if they told anyone about the abuse or poor living conditions --


The Amended Complaint seeks damages for:

• Battery
• Assault
• False imprisonment
• Negligence
• Defendants’ intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress
• Actual and constructive fraud
• Breach of contract/breach of warranty
• Conspiracy and fraudulent concealment
• RICO violations
• Breach of fiduciary duty
• Wrongful and actionable conduct of defendants
• Breach of statutory duty to prevent child abuse
• Breach of duty to act imposed by prior dangerous conduct
• Breach of duty to aid another harmed by defendants’ conduct
• Negligent assumption of risk of intentional or criminal conduct
• Negligent misrepresentation involving risk of physical harm
• Utah deceptive trade practices violations
• Gross negligence and exemplary damages

I bolded that one thing because when you consider the following, it becomes a lot more relevant here in the political cartoons thread, where a singularity of dogs on roofs has been reached.

Guess who founded this wonderful company? A Utah staffer for Mitt Romney's 2008 run for President named Robert Lichfield.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wide_Association_of_Specialty_Programs_and_Schools#Controversy posted:

Numerous former students or their parents have filed lawsuits against WWASPS, its personnel, or individual schools. Most have been settled out of court or dismissed for procedural reasons. For example, a 2005 lawsuit filed in California on behalf of more than 20 plaintiffs was dismissed because the judge found that California lacked jurisdiction. In June 2007, Utah attorney Thomas M. Burton told a reporter that six suits he had filed against WWASPS on behalf of his clients had been dismissed on procedural grounds. WWASPS president Ken Kay told an interviewer that lawsuits against WWASPS are ploys to get money, brought by people who "are never going to be happy." A lawsuit filed in 2007 against WWASPS and its founder, Robert Lichfield, on behalf of 133 plaintiffs alleging physical and sexual abuse and fraudulent concealment of abuse brought negative publicity to Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, because Lichfield was one of six co-chairs of the Utah state fundraising committee for Romney's campaign.

On several occasions, WWASPS and its principals have responded to criticism by suing their critics. Robert Lichfield sued two individuals associated with the International Survivors Action Committee (ISAC) for defamation, invasion of his privacy, and causing "intentional interference with 'prospective economic advantage'." That suit was pending as of April 2005."
Lichfield and the Romney campaign parted ways soon after the 2007 lawsuit brought attention to him.

If that doesn't sound bad enough, kids were sent to these camps for 'crimes' such as being gay, or refusing to attend early-morning LDS services.
I wish I was making up that the mormon guy who is running for president hired someone to his staff that ran a detention service which imprisoned children for not being mormon enough.


But it doesn't end there :toot:
Thanks to one of those articles, I found out that it turns out Lichfield isn't the only guy Romney has ties to that's in the for-profit teen torture industry.

First, there's Mel Sembler, who not only started a troubled-teen detention center in Straight, Incorporated and has links to Romney, but his wikipedia page reads like a Hegemony To-Do list, with spots on bank boards of director, foreign ambassadorships, and national finance chairman positions.


grrr I'm gonna get you

quote:

Sembler has been personally accused of being responsible for the claims of serious physical and psychological abuse that went on in his [Straight, Incorporated] centers. Currently, Sembler serves as chairman of the Scooter Libby Legal Defense Trust, as well as being a co-chair of the Florida Finance Committee for Mitt Romney.

Sembler is a supporter of the presidential candidacy of Mitt Romney and is one of the more prominent Jewish donors to the Republican party. On October 11, 2011, Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney announced that he had appointed Sembler to his Florida Finance Team.
As for what things Straight, Incorporated has done wrong:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straight,_Incorporated posted:

Virginia regulators found that Straight's staff had held young clients against their will, allowed clients to restrain other clients and deprived clients of sleep, food and water as a punishment. Straight responded by denying certain allegations and changing some of its practices. In 1991, Straight decided to move its program from Springfield, Virginia to Columbia, Maryland as a result of what it considered harassment by regulators.

In 1984, Florida officials found that 13 Straight clients were held in the program against their will and that another 15 had been coerced into enrolling. Straight took the matter to the Florida courts, which ruled that parents could force their minor children into drug rehab.

In 1990, a jury awarded Karen Norton, a Florida resident, $721,000 in damages due to mistreatment by Straight. In 1982, while a patient in Straight's Florida facility, Norton alleged that staff members assaulted her, denied her health care and refused to give her permission to visit her dying grandfather. At the time, the St. Petersburg Times described the verdict as the largest award ever against Straight.

http://caica.org/Romney_torture_and_teens.htm posted:

In 1982, 18-year-old Fred Collins, a Virginia Tech student with excellent grades, went to visit his brother, who was in treatment for a drug problem at Straight in Orlando, Florida.

A counselor determined that he was high on marijuana because his eyes were red (this would later turn out to have been due to swimming in a pool with contacts on). He did admit to occasional marijuana use, but insisted he was not high at the time, nor was he an addict. Nonetheless, he was barraged with hours of humiliating questions, strip-searched, and held against his will for months until he managed to escape.

He won $220,000 in a lawsuit he filed against the program for false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress, assault, and battery. Ultimately, Straight would pay out millions in settlements before it finally closed. However, to this day, there are at least eight programs operating that use Straight’s methods, often in former Straight buildings operated by former Straight staff. They include: Alberta Adolescent Recovery Center (Canada), Pathway Family Center (Michigan, Indiana, Ohio), Growing Together (Florida), Possibilities Unlimited (Kentucky), SAFE (Florida), and Phoenix Institute for Adolescents (Georgia).

One of the plaintiffs in the current case against WWASPS, 21-year-old Chelsea Filer, spoke to me when I was researching a TV segment on the industry. She told me that she was forced to walk for miles on a track in scorching desert heat with a 35-pound sandbag on her back. “You were not allowed to scratch your face, move your fingers, lick your lips, move your eyes from the ground,” she said. When she asked for a chapstick, “They put a piece of wood in my mouth and I had to hold it there for two weeks. I was bleeding on my tongue.”

Why was Filer subject to such punishment? “I had less interest in school and more interest in boys and my mom was worried about me,” she says, explaining that her mother believed that the program was nothing more than a strict boarding school.

Because she has attention deficit disorder, Filer was unable to consistently follow the exacting rules, and repeated small violations were seen as ongoing defiance. “It broke my heart that my mom had no belief in me,” she says, describing how, because WWASPS had told her mother to dismiss complaints as “manipulation,” her mother ignored her pleas to come home.

“I’m not a bad kid,” she continued, “I never used drugs, I was never in trouble, I have no criminal record. I know my mom was worried about me—but so many times I told her that this is too much. I would gladly have gone to prison instead.”

And lastly, there's Aspen Education group. Aspen Education group runs another bunch of kid-torturing (and killing, in this case, yippee) centers owned by none other than Bain Capital.

http://wwaspdiaries.com/2012/01/22/the-politics-of-the-troubled-teen-industry/ posted:

In 1997, Aspen Education Group was founded in part by Elliot Sainer. A subsidiary of CRC Health Group, Aspen Education is owned by Bain Capital Group, founded in 1984 by Mitt Romney. Aspen Education Group provides therapeutic programs for youth including wilderness therapy, residential treatment facilities, therapeutic boarding schools, and weight loss facilities. Aspen Education is one of the most profitable teen treatment chains, boasting annual revenue of $150 million plus.

According to an article by Keith Chu of The Bulletin, many of Aspen Education Group’s programs – including now defunct Mount Bachelor Academy – were based directly on the CEDU methods of treatment, [CEDU shut down in 2005 midst accusations against CEDU and the Brown Schools that included physical abuse, rape, failure to properly restrain students from running away, emotional abuse and brainwashing.] Lauding support by celebrity figures such as Dr. Phil and several other TV programs including “Brat Camp,” “I Know What You Ate Last Summer,” and “Intervention,” Aspen Education has become one of the most revered and successful programs of its kind.

Recent lawsuits and scrutiny, however, have led to the closure of multiple facilities and a total restructure announced in March of 2011. Mount Bachelor Academy, once one of Aspen Education’s top programs, closed in 2009 after lawsuits alleging sexual reenactments of past sexual abuse in front of peers, sleep deprivation, forced lap dances as part of therapy, and emotional and physical abuse. Sagewalk, one of Aspen’s top wilderness therapy facilities, was called “reckless” by State authorities following the death of 16-year-old Sergey Blashchishen. At least four other teenagers have died under Aspen’s care. Criticisms of Aspen’s weight loss facilities have also indicated child abuse, noting that children within its care were subjected to diet plans of under 10 grams of fat daily.



The moral of the story is that if you are rich and well-connected you can get away with anything

nigel thornberry
Jul 29, 2013

It's pretty terrifying that someone with as many connections to kid torture as Mitt Romney almost became president. The hosed up bit is that it isn't even really that surprising.

pentyne
Nov 7, 2012

the boston bomber posted:

It's pretty terrifying that someone with as many connections to kid torture as Mitt Romney almost became president. The hosed up bit is that it isn't even really that surprising.

George Bush's grandfather tried to stage a coup to replace the US government with more business friendly allies.


pentyne fucked around with this message at 22:40 on Oct 26, 2014

nigel thornberry
Jul 29, 2013

I tried looking that up, but all I found out was that Prescott Bush, George HW's dad, founded Planned Parenthood. Who'd have thought?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prescott_Bush#Political_life

Rogue0071
Dec 8, 2009

Grey Hunter's next target.

He's referring to an incident known as "the Business Plot".

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot

Herstory Begins Now
Aug 5, 2003
SOME REALLY TEDIOUS DUMB SHIT THAT SUCKS ASS TO READ ->>

gently caress them posted:

Right now
gently caress if I know. A lot of the information compiled about this poo poo was on a website called ISACCorp, which was the "International Survivor's Action Committee" which was threatened into disappearing. There used to be extensive records of the financial bullshit, who did what, court records, and survivor testimony. There's also the fact that our tweeting teens and tumbling twentysomethings have a very different outlook and vocabulary sheet than program kids, who come out very much opposed to groupthink for obvious reasons! I can't wait to see a program kid shouted down for their problematic language and privileges! More fundamentally, though, they tend to distrust any kind of group at all, both for the groupthink, and the individualistic stance one gets after being held captive by what is by all accounts a loving cult. Many are libertarians. They don't trust the government to fix this since they've been in bed with the people running these places, etc.

I spent just under 4 years in programs as a teenager and I'm in full agreement that the system really needs a top to bottom overhaul. Even the relatively good ones are pretty crazy and the really bad programs make prison look like a good time. Seriously, that is not an exaggeration. I saw quite a few people literally choose incarceration over continuing in programs, and I really can't blame them. None of the ones I was at were particularly abusive on an institutional level, but you were entirely at the mercy of the staff. Dangerous, stupid poo poo happens even at comparatively well run programs when you get the shift full of fuckups.

It's interesting that you mentioned the divide between activist oriented younger people and people who went through various programs. [e: your post is actually the first time I've seen that divide recognized/acknowledged by someone who didn't spend time in a program. Speaking from the other side of the fence, it's a pretty common perception that there is a massive experiential and cultural gulf]. I get the impression that many people who feel strongly on the subject of therapeutic programs have never even talked to someone who went through them once. Or if they did, they didn't shutup long enough to actually hear anything that was said to them. Personally, I appreciate their concern and apparent desire to do something about the conditions a lot of young people are living under, it is just weird that so many people seem to have such strong opinions with so little pertinent knowledge. My perspective (and of others with similar backgrounds have shared similar feelings) is that most people who claim to care about the crazy poo poo going on in programs are way more invested in being outraged than actually changing anything.

Similarly, talking to the anti-program activists is some otherworldly poo poo. It's like talking to a virgin about sex or someone who watched Oz (or read a few articles about prison) who thinks they know exactly what prison is like. Then on top of that you're supposed to be grateful that they're outraged by what they assume you went through. It's genuinely bizarre. That and there's quite a tendency for people to get really creepily fixated on the details of some misery or another. Conversely any comment at all positive about any program anywhere will get you accused of being brainwashed or some other ridiculous poo poo by some of the more zealous ones. It's genuinely one of the most offputting 'activist' communities I've ever run across.

There's a lot of poo poo happening that merits outrage, but without a concrete, proactive interest in actually changing the conditions people are living in, you have a pretty useless movement. Getting angry on the internet doesn't change anything. I get that people like feeling outraged by outrageous poo poo: it's nice to feel like you're correct and morally on the right side. Except that feeling is totally useless if no action follows. At that point it just seems counterproductive and self-serving.[e: to put in some perspective, outrage doesn't change the past, and most people who went through programs are honestly just trying to keep whatever lessons were worth learning and trying to put the rest behind them. We all felt outrage at the time, but the realization that aint poo poo you can do and aint poo poo no one else gonna do means you just have to get over it so you can get the gently caress out. Once you're out, you just want to leave it in the past and get on with life. It is painful to peel back the bandage and if no tangible good or change is going to come from it, why bother? Seriously, imagine if people got excited when you describe traumatic experiences and pretty much only want to hear about the worst, most hosed up parts].

Basically, I really want to like the movement (if you can call it that) that has sprung up in opposition to the lovely conditions a lot of young adults are living in. I pay attention to it because I'd love to see them get some direction and make an impact, but every time I check back in, it's all outrage and no action, generally without even any serious discussion about how (and what kinds) of systemic change would be necessary to change the actual day-to-day conditions. If anyone is interested, I can go into what all that would require (beyond, obviously, a lot of time and money), but this post is already long as hell and I'm probably pissing into the wind anyways.

Herstory Begins Now fucked around with this message at 03:41 on Oct 30, 2014

Talmonis
Jun 24, 2012
The fairy of forgiveness has removed your red text.
I'm honestly curious what it would take aside from money and time. It seems politically entrenched, with police and judges looking the other way, if not benefiting directly.

Would mass prison breaks in the middle of the night be helpful? Anonymous intimidation of the guards/staff including outing them to the public? Vandalism and sabotage to the point of constant public scrutiny of their operation? Anonymous surveillance presented to the news stations?

Tempora Mutantur
Feb 22, 2005

Talmonis posted:

I'm honestly curious what it would take aside from money and time. It seems politically entrenched, with police and judges looking the other way, if not benefiting directly.

Would mass prison breaks in the middle of the night be helpful? Anonymous intimidation of the guards/staff including outing them to the public? Vandalism and sabotage to the point of constant public scrutiny of their operation? Anonymous surveillance presented to the news stations?

This is what happens when you have a prison industrial complex. When powers-that-be start to view humans as profitable headcount in their cells, they start to realize that hey, we have a whole untapped market: the juvenile corrections system!

It would take the same thing it takes to undo the massive incentives for the PIC: the tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of families that get income from prisons and other PIC support industries like bail bonds, whole towns dependent on their households getting PIC income to spend in-town, endless marketing campaigns that tell judges "you will be tough on crime or you will not be elected," because enough people buy into attack ads that bend the truth, etc. Enough of those families know that they (or their friends) may lose their mealtickets if even 10% of it went away. All that has analogs in the juvenile system, if not direct overlap in many cases.

What incentive do they have to believe that they should trouble themselves and make their own lives uncertain instead of just saying "bad things happen to bad people, and my family is good, it's too bad this has to happen but I'm just doing what I need to do for my family," or other rationalizations?

You find a way to fix all that, and you're gold! More violence, any violence, will always just help the PIC because the PIC has way more control over messaging.

I don't mean to sound cynical, I'm just saying, that's pretty much what you're dealing with.

Comedy option because even though it isn't a silver bullet, it's such a huge improvement to everything about the PIC: have every LEO and corrections officer require body cams that upload live via the web, ad-supported or pay-for-no ads. All of them, all the time while on duty. If we're willing to pour state funds into private prison budgets, let's start up some cam industries and monetize the coolest loving miniaturized cameras and HUD technologies possible while leveraging good ol' fashioned human love for misery to fund rehab and/or education through those ads.

Talmonis
Jun 24, 2012
The fairy of forgiveness has removed your red text.

S.T.C.A. posted:

This is what happens when you have a prison industrial complex. When powers-that-be start to view humans as profitable headcount in their cells, they start to realize that hey, we have a whole untapped market: the juvenile corrections system!

It would take the same thing it takes to undo the massive incentives for the PIC: the tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of families that get income from prisons and other PIC support industries like bail bonds, whole towns dependent on their households getting PIC income to spend in-town, endless marketing campaigns that tell judges "you will be tough on crime or you will not be elected," because enough people buy into attack ads that bend the truth, etc. Enough of those families know that they (or their friends) may lose their mealtickets if even 10% of it went away. All that has analogs in the juvenile system, if not direct overlap in many cases.

What incentive do they have to believe that they should trouble themselves and make their own lives uncertain instead of just saying "bad things happen to bad people, and my family is good, it's too bad this has to happen but I'm just doing what I need to do for my family," or other rationalizations?

You find a way to fix all that, and you're gold! More violence, any violence, will always just help the PIC because the PIC has way more control over messaging.

I don't mean to sound cynical, I'm just saying, that's pretty much what you're dealing with.

Comedy option because even though it isn't a silver bullet, it's such a huge improvement to everything about the PIC: have every LEO and corrections officer require body cams that upload live via the web, ad-supported or pay-for-no ads. All of them, all the time while on duty. If we're willing to pour state funds into private prison budgets, let's start up some cam industries and monetize the coolest loving miniaturized cameras and HUD technologies possible while leveraging good ol' fashioned human love for misery to fund rehab and/or education through those ads.

But this wasn't about the Juvinile Corrections System, it was about the private schools that are torturing kids. The JCS is a whole other kettle of fish.

Tempora Mutantur
Feb 22, 2005

Talmonis posted:

But this wasn't about the Juvinile Corrections System, it was about the private schools that are torturing kids. The JCS is a whole other kettle of fish.

I may be grossly misinformed but there's a huge overlap between them all in terms of systemic not-giving-a-gently caress about kids and people that is pretty heavily tied into all of it.

I bet you can find people working both industries either directly or in consulting roles, though I haven't dug to find them myself.

Talmonis
Jun 24, 2012
The fairy of forgiveness has removed your red text.

S.T.C.A. posted:

I may be grossly misinformed but there's a huge overlap between them all in terms of systemic not-giving-a-gently caress about kids and people that is pretty heavily tied into all of it.

I bet you can find people working both industries either directly or in consulting roles, though I haven't dug to find them myself.

Very possibly, but public opinion is much easier to sway on things like "Private run school locks children in cages" then it is to claim that the Justice System is anything but right.

Hieronymous Alloy
Jan 30, 2009


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Morbid Hound

S.T.C.A. posted:

I may be grossly misinformed but there's a huge overlap between them all in terms of systemic not-giving-a-gently caress about kids and people that is pretty heavily tied into all of it.

I bet you can find people working both industries either directly or in consulting roles, though I haven't dug to find them myself.

Well, *generally* juvenile justice inmates have non trivial legal rights, such as ability to send mail, contact an attorney, existence of a grievance process, etc. The private programs I'm hearing described here appear to not have those, you just get disappeared.

That seems like a significant difference and a good angle for working on reform. It's a lot harder to abuse kids who can call social services.

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Radbot
Aug 12, 2009
Probation
Can't post for 4 years!
S.T.C.A. - Sound like those concerned with the problem (but who haven't personally experienced it) should just forget about it, lest we be considered creepy. Is that right?

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