On 2006-05-10 06:04:00, Anonymous wrote:
"Wow, that's stupid. Every kid I've talked to coming out of a long term TBS environment tells me they are MORE likely to do drugs when they get out. To make up for time missed, to try all the things they heard about, and to deal with the pain of having everyone in your life two years ahead of where you are at.
I've talked to several dozen kids now in my research, and one thing is clear, these programs increase drug use when they teen eventually gets out.
Parents are just trying to delay the inevitable. They are just making it worse. Ironic, and sad."
You're exactly right. 75% of all kids that "graduate" TBS's recidivate. The ones that graduate typically represent only 40-50% of the total population.
They are warehoused with some severely disturbed kids who become their role models, contacts and connections. They learn to "cheek" their meds and trade for other kids' meds or drugs from residents and staff alike. They carry these habits of lying, cheating, stealing, etc. that they honed at the TBS into practice when they get home. The kids that only drank or smoked pot try acid, meth, cocaine and ecstacy. These are the problems associated with aggregating distressed teens and has been well-documented since the mid-fifties by several research studies.
It is also well known that any "positive" behaviors learned in the TC environment don't generalize to other environments - they're "environment-specific" behaviors.
TBS's that use isolation, BM, LGAT and coersion simply don't work.
