I could not watch more than 20 minutes of this because it was sickening. I think that Zen while prisoners technically do have more rights than kids in programs, they are usually fairly marginalised people. There are not many adults anywhere in prison who have stable, financially secure families and wide networks of friends to speak on their behalf. Many people in jail are mentally ill as well. This makes such a population extremely vulnerable to abuse.
I think this gave an insight into the mentality that runs programs as well as these prisons. While it is true that these guys had been tried for something illegal to end up there as opposed to program kids who dont have any such due process the mentality is not disimilar. The people who do this feel they have right on their side. Even the local drunk tank is used as an instrument of torture.
Oz Girl, you're certainly right about the prison documentary being disturbing, I felt the same way watching "Tranquility Bay". It's interesting you should make the observation that the prisoners are marginalized individuals. My wife and I were doing Peninsula Village research on the metasearch engines and came across an ad where PV claims to accept "disturbed,
marginalized, and drug-addicted youths". That description certainly doesn't match the admissions criteria listed on PV's website, it sounds like the description of a minimum-security prison.
PV states on their site that all new patients have to go through the initial lock-down phase, no exceptions. Why would a child sent to PV for being the victim of sexual abuse need the intense, scary experience of being in the lock down unit of STU? As I told my wife, some sexually abused kids spent a lot of time locked in rooms by their abusers, STU has to be hellish for them, and they react by screaming and acting out. Then the victims misery is compounded by being restrained by counselors with questionable training in TCI.
Treatment at PV is not individualized, despite the program's claims to the contrary. All of the kids I've spoken with say the entire group goes through the same "breaking down" process, regardless of the reason they are there. The clinicians and staff don't care why the kid is there, it doesn't change what their one size fits all approach. PV performs a service for parents, they have only one process they perform, and it's across the board. It doesn't matter whether a patient sodomized a call girl with a baseball bat or is suffering from an eating disorder, they'll be run through the same group therapy led by counselors lacking the education to lead productive therapy.
Your right about prisons being filled with the marginalized and mentally ill, but they've been convicted of crimes. While some of the kids at PV have been convicted of crimes, (some as adults), the majority of them have not. My step daughter has never been in trouble with the law, was an honor roll student, has no addiction to drugs, only two incidents of experimenting. She did commit what a professional friend called para-suicide, an attention getter. Her estranged father used this as an excuse to send her to PV.
Prisons, programs ...remember the Stanford experiment, where students put in charge of "prisoners" went from being easygoing to physically abusing their fellow students who were taking the prisoner roles. It ended when horrible abuses were occurring.
The very same thing happens in programs, in my opinion after a certain amount of time the "keepers" lose sight of the fact the prisoners/patients are human and view them as faceless cattle.
I'll PM you later about the work you told me you were doing, I have a couple of questions. Once again, hats off to you, you're doing a great thing.
