Category: Juvenile Boot Camps

Religious exemption allows some children’s homes to shield abuse verging on torture

Alan Weierman According to an investigative report by the Tampa Bay Times, religious exemptions allow unlicensed religious homes in Florida to abuse children and go on operating for years.

State authorities have responded to at least 165 allegations of abuse and neglect in the past decade, but homes have remained open even after the state found evidence of sex abuse and physical injury.

The Cult That Spawned the Tough-Love Teen Industry

The idea that punishment can be therapeutic is not unique to the Rotenberg Center. In fact, this notion is widespread among the hundreds of “emotional growth boarding schools,” wilderness camps, and “tough love” antidrug programs that make up the billion-dollar teen residential treatment industry. No fewer than 50 programs (though not the Rotenberg Center) can trace their treatment philosophy, directly or indirectly, to an antidrug cult called Synanon.

From abuse comes art

Troubled teens, most with serious drug problems, slept in windowless rooms, were accompanied everywhere from the kitchen to the toilet stall, were often completely cut off from parents, and were subject to physical, emotional and, sometimes, sexual abuse, Gaglia says.

U-Turn for Christ: 3 men jailed in beating at youth camp

Investigators are looking into other claims of abuse at unlicensed facility SAN ANGELO – Three of four adults associated with a Christian-themed youth camp were jailed in the alleged beating of a 13-year-old boy at the unlicensed facility, authorities said on Tuesday. Jason Brian Baker, 30, Robert James Kelly, 18, and James Edward Esther, 33, face one charge each of injury to a child, according to the Tom Green County Sheriff’s Department. They were arrested Saturday and remained in the county jail on Tuesday. None had attorneys. The charge relates to the beating of a 13-year-old boy at U-Turn for