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Sunday, December 14, 2014

Arkansas stops use of torture device, but across state lines it is another story

The State Juvenile Ombudsman Scott Tanner has ordered stop of the use of the WRAP restraint system in the states juvenile prisons.

However the unregulated youth transport industry can continue to use the system when they move teenagers around other states.

We find that the lack of federal guidelines may endanger the teenagers and urge the politicians to work for introduction of the federal legislation covering this area.

No teenager should travel for hours in restraints without courtorder. The mental results of being forcefully removed from will haunt the teenagers for the rest of their lives.

Please approach your local politicians and urge them to interfere.


Source:
State Urges Arkansas Juvenile Detention to Stop Using WRAP Restraint (Ozarks First)

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Epileptic girl could be at danger in a wilderness program

A recent plea from a step-parent was found on the Internet and it is quiet alarming. A girl suffering from epilepsy was put in a stressful situation far away from health services which are needed to help her overcome a possible seizure.

I looking for anyone who has good information on SUWS of the Carolinas.

My step-daughter is being held there. She was "escorted" there by a transport service 23 days ago. We are trying to get her released and need more information on the conditions of the camp.

She has epilepsy which is a concern, because her seizures are triggered by emotional stress (psychosomatic). We have had a phone conference with the Judge to request her release into our care. The judge doesn't seem to have an issue with awarding us custody of her, as our state says that any child over 14 can request a modification of custody. (Her mother is currently the custodial parent.)

The trouble we are facing is that the judge does not want to release her in the middle of a "therapeutic program" for fear of causing psychological harm. We are looking for good evidence to support that keeping her there would cause more harm than good. We submitted a letter from her psychiatrist that says removing her should not cause harm, but he is not convinced. We have a full hearing set for November 26th.

I am looking to paint a picture for the Judge of what the conditions at SUWS are really like because he just doesn't get it.

If anyone is willing, I need good information on living conditions, hygiene practices, meals, restrictions, pack weights, etc.

Can you help me, please?

That is quiet alarming. People with epilepsy are at an increased risk of death. This increase is between 1.6 and 4.1 fold greater than that of the general population. One of the key issues is stress. Being removed in handcuffs and leg restraints will cause stress. While people suffering from epilepsy are recommended to wear dark glasses being hooded to prevent the participants in wilderness programs to see where they are taken will be a huge risk provoking a seizure.

If a seizure occurs in a wooden area like the one SUWS of the Carolina, the paramedics could face difficulties to land their helicopter and save her life.

We know that a judge will have to rule in this case. Please release this girl now, so she doesn’t end up dying from a seizure far away from the emergency services which could save her life.



Sources:

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Age of consent does mean something if you get the chance to alarm the authorities

Several states disallow involuntary treatment of teenagers aged 16 and 17. One such state is South Carolina. Here teenagers age 17 can prevent involuntary treatment by alarming the authorities. Then a court has to decide whether treatment is needed securing the teenager minimum human rights.

Some parents are not aware of these laws when they hire youth transport firms to transport their children out of state to a place where there are fewer human rights for the teenagers. If the teenager becomes aware of the transport the teenager can seek legal protection by the authorities. If the teenager is discovered and liberated by the police during the transport, the teenager can sue the parents and the youth transport firm for unlawful arrest.

However many youth transport firms restrain the teenager and prevent them from alerting anyone because they operate during the night and the teenager is prevented from using any kind of communication devices before it is too late and the teenager has left the case.

In other cases the teenager is lured out of the state as part of a disguised holiday. On the Internet one such case found was the disappearance of Miss Parker from Corvallis. The family returned from a holiday without the teenager.

The friends were alarmed but the damage had been done. The legal protection the teenager might had got inside Oregon was not in place in Arizona which is a state were both boot camps, boarding schools and wilderness programs operates and children have lost their lives while they were involuntary placed in such a place.

The laws must be altered so the authorities can order a teenager returned to the home state for a hearing as soon as it is discovered that a teenager is missing. Otherwise the legal protection is of no or little use.


Sources:

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

How to Avoid Abduction (From: TeenLiberty.org)

TeenLiberty has provide 3 good advices to use if you are put in a situation where two strangers wake you at night to take you to some unknown "treatment" program:

  1. JUST CRY RAPE. If you are taken from home, school, or on the street, by "bounty hunters" or so-called "escorts" and find yourself in a public place, such as an airport, just cry RAPE! The authorities will act first to protect you, and ask questions later. You're heading for private incarceration by your parents. Tell the authorities your Right to Due-Process has been violated and ask for a lawyer to represent you. Meet with the lawyer. Sign papers that permit the lawyer to represent you.

  2. FILE EMANCIPATION PAPERS. If you are of the age of EMANCIPATION in your state, pay a lawyer to file Emancipation papers for you. This may be a very simple procedure. It may require that you show that you are able to support yourself. In some states, the legal age is 16. -- One teen who was diagnosed as ADHD hired a medical professional to conduct another test. This "second opinion" showed he was not ADHD. Fearing that he would be "disappeared" by his parents, he paid a lawyer to emancipate him, at age 16. -- He was given a job by friends and moved across the country. "Now," he writes, "I'm living 3,000 miles away from my parents and we're closer than ever!"

  3. NOTIFY THE POLICE. If you fear that you will be sent away against your will, legal experts advise another option: write a statement saying that if you are sent away ("disappeared") it will be done against your will and you will fight to protect yourself and to prevent this from happening. This is not assault and battery. You are defending your life. You have a right to defend yourself from harm. The document should be sent, or hand-delivered, to your local police or county sheriff's department. A copy should be given to a trusted friend and if possible, a lawyer. It should also include all contact information, including your name, telephone number, home address, and city. Parents are often advised by the behavior modification camps and boarding schools to let things calm down.... to catch you off guard. Stay alert. Maintain contact with your local child protection authorities. They will keep a file and record your concerns and fears. This may become part of a future Court hearing that will support your point-of-view.

Source:
The original website

Friday, May 23, 2014

Movie: Fix my kid

A movie is being made about one of the most damaging drug rehab programs which have ever existed:

Straight Incorporated and the copies named Alberta Adolescent Recovery Center (AARC) in Canada, Kids of Bergen County, KIDS of North Jersey, KIDS of El Paso, Kids of Greater Salt Lake, Kids Helping Kids, Pathway Family Center, LIFE Inc., Kids of Southern California, Phoenix Institute, Turnabout/Stillwater Academy, STEP Inc., Growing Together, Inc., Possibilities Unlimited, Life Line Inc., SAFE (Substance Abuse Family Education Inc.), ACE, Proctor Advocate, Yes Families, Second Chance, Operation Re-Entry all used variations of a 4 level system where the teenagers in the system were locked inside warehouses and homes of foster families until they had advanced enough through the system. And the methods used were bullying of those who were on the lower levels by those who had advanced in the system.

It is no surprise that the suicide rate among those who came in connection with this so-called drug treatment program is alarming high. The text below was found of the webpage of the movie.


A Letter From The Executive Producer

In 1983, when I was 13 years old, my parents made the decision to place my 15 year old brother Steve into a program called Straight Incorporated in Springfield Virginia. Straight Inc. was a “family treatment center” that was dedicated to preventing teenagers from using drugs and alcohol.

In the two and half years Steve was in the program, he lived in our house for no more than a total of two months. He stayed on first phase for the majority of his program, which meant while he wasn't in the Straight Inc. warehouse from 7am to midnight every day, he was sleeping at someone else's home -- we weren't allowed to know where he was being kept. At the time, that's all the information I was given about my brother.

Steve ran away from Straight seven times. He was brought back against his will each and every time. Finally, on his 18th birthday in September of 1985, he withdrew himself from the program. Steve was now homeless; neither parent would allow him to come home. He stayed on couches and in an abandoned apartment for the next 8 months. In June of 1986, he checked into a hotel in Springfield and jumped to his death from his 4th floor room. Confused and heartbroken, I was told it was because of his drug use (the same thing I had been told over and over again for the last 3 years before his death).

The years passed; then in 2001, I decided to Google "Straight Incorporated." Browsing the webpages I read stories of torture and abuse, even finding a couple of different websites that mentioned my brother. It was difficult enough to lose Steve, but to relive it all knowing he went through such horror was devastating. This was the most painful thing I have ever experienced in my life.

After more research, I came to find out that not only did places like Straight still exist, but many other abusive programs had popped up. It had become an industry.

My first thought was to put up a website about my brother's story to enlighten parents so they wouldn't make the same mistake. Then came the silver lining: I started getting emails from survivors of Straight who had known my brother. People who had amazing things to say about his courage, his strength, and his kindness. How he would stand up for people, knowing he would probably get hell for it. This was very bitter sweet, but I was glad to at least get to know my brother through the eyes of those who were being held captive with him. I also found out by talking to my brother's old friends that while my brother liked to party (like plenty of teens), he was in no way an addict (like I was told), and we had been lied to.

Prior to going into Straight I thought we had a happy family; 3 years later my father had gone, and my brother was dead.

Over the next few years, I met hundreds of survivors and have made some life long friends. During that time, myself, and my friends and fellow survivors Todd, and Alex, began talking about making a documentary about Straight. Fast forward several years, and here we are.

It is our hope that this film will not only promote healing among survivors, but will be used as a tool to educate both parents and professionals about the truth of this industry, as well as to encourage people to speak out and help put a stop to the needless abuse and torture children are experiencing every day in this country and around the world.

-Kelly Matthews



Source:
The webpage of the movie

Thursday, April 10, 2014

Movie: Just the Right Amount of Violence



The movie directed by Danish Jon Bang Carlsen provides us with a rare insight in the modern lives of idyllic, peaceful middle-class existence families.

We are shown how real-life transport firms works. The drama which in the future will result in trauma and broken child-parent relationships.

Source:
Just the Right Amount of Violence (Internet Movie Database)

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Petition: Outlaw the use of private "escorts" to transport minors to residential treatment centers

Text from the petition page:

Before dawn when I was 14 years old, three large men burst into my room while I was sleeping. As my parents watched, they pulled me from my bed, forced me to get dressed, handcuffed me, and dragged me from my house.

I had committed no crime; these men were not law enforcement agents. Nor was this a kidnapping. My parents had hired these men at the suggestion of a private residential treatment center for the purpose of transporting me to the facility by surprise. These men were professional "escorts", making a living legally abducting minors at their parents request, often transporting them across state lines, as happened to me. I was taken from my home in Florida by plane to Georgia, and then to Texas, on to Nevada, and finally by car to a facility in Utah, where I stayed temporarily before then being transported out of the United States altogether to a facility in another country. This traumatic and dangerous practice continues today, and untold thousands of children are transported in this way every year to facilities across the U.S. and in other countries.

The U.S. Congress has the power and a moral obligation to outlaw this practice. The Commerce Clause of the U. S. Constitution grants Congress the power to outlaw the use of "escorts" specifically and the interstate transportation of minors for psychiatric or behavioral treatment generally, and Congress ought to do so. This practice is dangerous. In many cases, children are tasered, pepper-sprayed, or "restrained" during transport, which can and often does result in broken bones or other serious injuries. Even in cases where children are not physically harmed, this kind of trauma often causes psychiatric issues such as PTSD- issues that can affect these kids for the rest of their lives and hamper the abilities to be healthy and contributing members of society. If parents need help getting noncompliant children into treatment facilities, this function ought to be carried out by trained law enforcement professionals who will be accountable for injuries or mistreatment, and the facility the children are taken to should be located in their own home state.

A society can be fairly judged by how well it protects its most vulnerable members. Our children are our most important and greatest national resource, and ought to be treated as such. Protect our children. Outlaw private "escorts" and the interstate transportation of minors NOW.


Source:
The original petition (Change.org)

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Aftermath of having been transported

This testimony has been pieced together by taking 3 statements on Reddit from the same person who had been sent to Northwest Behavioral Healthcare Services in Oregon and Eagle Ranch Academy in Utah.

From the "CALO for troubled teens" thread:

Exactly. That physical and mental "takedown" - so to speak - is nothing that can be noticed by parents touring a property, either, which is why it's so easy to rope them in to the idea of it bettering patients.

I was taken on two separate occasions by transporters - the first program was inpatient therapy and was actually really good, the second was residential therapy and was horrible. My relationship with my parents practically was nonexistent once I got out. I moved out before I turned 18 to try and escape the nightmare I returned to at home but maintaining any contact with them caused me to fear being sent away again, no matter how good my behavior stayed. Once I turned 18 and couldn't be sent again, it got a bit better, but I still resent them for all the awful things I experienced and the year or so of my life I lost in confinement.

Extract from the "What's your experience with programs for "troubled teens"?" thread:
The second place I attended was awful. I was driven from Oregon to St. George, Utah in the back of a cramped car, not fed or taken to a bathroom the entire trip, and teased and mocked the duration of the ride. When I got there, I was so dehydrated and disoriented, that when they asked me to urinate for the drug test, I could not. I was then made to stand in front of my "pod" - group, team, whatever - and drink bottles of water repeatedly while the other students and staff mocked me until I was able to provide a sample for the test. I was threatened that, if I didn't produce urine when I finally had to go to the bathroom, the staff member taking me to test would beat me until I passed out in a puddle of my own piss - a great first day, right?

Question and answer on the "Parents who expect you to look on your time in these facilities as a good thing?" thread:
Qestion:
I went through the book: "Janice's journey" a couple of months ago. I was astounded that transporters like those are allowed. The book is not best english work I have written but the author is also an European who lived most of her life abroad. Did they use restraints on you during the transport. WWASP related transport firms often do that.
http://www.movellas.com/da/book/read/201305181400212959
Answer:
Yes, restraints, they carried tazers, and seemed to very much enjoy roughing me up. It's insane that parents pay for these goons to come and kidnap their kids.
Sources:

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Father and son sues teen transport firm and wilderness program

An article in Court House News describe how a boy was sent to a wilderness program against the wish of his father. He was eventually freed due to the intervention and legal actions of his father.

From the article:

Andrew Decter was living with his mother in Manhasset, and was about to enter his senior year, where he played tuba in the high school band and was a technical director of the theater program at his high school, his father says in the complaint.

"Andrew has no criminal record and no history of disciplinary problems in school," the complaint states. "Andrew has never had a problem with drugs or alcohol."

But at 5 a.m. on June 20, 2012, Andrew was awakened by three large men - two of them standing over his bed and the other blocking the door to Andrew's bedroom, according to the complaint.

Andrew tried to escape, but "defendants told Andrew his attempts to leave would be fruitless," the complaint states. "The employees, servants and/or agents of the defendants told Andrew they were taking him into custody and taking him out of his home in New York and to the airport so they could transport him to Utah.

"The defendants told Andrew that they would stop any attempt by him to escape.

"Andrew was terrified and feared for his life

It was a normal reaction the boy experienced. The emotional scars from such a transport can take the rest of the boys life to heal.


Sources: