Remember that Tranquility place?
Update: Seems this isn't new news at all -- Boing Boing blogged it almost a year and a half ago. The post below was made in 2001. I don't know if I feel better or worse that awareness was being raised that long ago. On the one hand, it's good that word is getting out sooner rather than later, but on the other hand, I'm not aware of any of this press making a blip with the public. Food for thought.

*****

You know, the Jamaican prison for kids therapy center for unruly adolescents? Seems that there exists a support forum for those that came out of places like this. This particular post concerns Cross Creek Manor:

I was reluctant to post my story about Cross Creek Manor due to the pain it would rehash but I have come to realize that although it may cause some pain to me it will help prevent the pain of others. ... My father was an alcoholic and abusive to my mom so she moved back in with my granny when I was only about 6 months old and my brother was about two and a half. We all lived together until I was about ten or eleven. This is when my mom met my now stepfather. At first they just dated but after awhile they made plans to move in together. Of course my mother asked me to go with her but I would not hear of it. I had lived in the same town for almost all my life and I was shy and not so ready to pick everything up and start all over with a new school, friends etc. I guess you can say this was about the time I started acting out.

Onward to CCM:

I arrived at about 4:00 am in the morning. I walked in the big white doors of the manor. Immediately they were slammed shut behind me and I was asked if I knew where I was. I said no and was told "You are at a long term drug rehabilitation facility." I freaked out and asked her if I could call my mother. To that I got the reply "No you cannot. You are here because your mother doesn't want anything to do with you." I thought It was all a bad dream I actually pinched myself to try and wake up-but to no avail- it was all HORRIBLY REAL!!!! I was stripped searched, my clothes were taken away and I was given some second hand dirty T-shirt and sweat pants to sleep in. I was forced to sleep on a mattress on the floor for days. I was woken up at around 7am and was surrounded by robot looking girls running around to get ready on time. And that was just the beginning.
If I could remember everyday and every bad thing that happened I would tell you but I don’t. Some of the things I do remember are as follows:
-Every doorway I crossed I was made to ask May I cross
-I was watched going to the bathroom, taking showers, sleeping-everything I did I was under constant surveillance
-I was told daily that I was a f**kup, a slut, a homewrecker, that my mom didn't want me and that I would never change.
-When I admitted in therapy that I was raped I was made to feel that it was my fault because of my behavior.

It goes on. My question is: do we as a society* let people get away with running places like this because we don't know they exist, or because we think they work? Even if we simply don't know about them -- and with stories like these hitting the blog scene, this could change -- is ignorance a valid excuse? I think I would be more frightened to learn that North America believes on some level that this sort of thing is necessary.

* I refer to North America in general when I say "society". I am not aware of any facilities such as these in Canada, but somehow, I don't think I would be too surprised to find one in the backwoods of BC or some other place like that.

Scary stuff, kids. Spread the word.  ¶ 7:58 p.m.