The inmates at Straight were florescent-tanned and brainwashed with sleep deprivation, lack of food, and indoctrination; we were required to flap our arms in the air like crazed monkeys in effort to get "called on." This enforced act of debasement was referred to as "motivating." On first phase, they made you sit bolt upright in a chair for 12 hours a day to participate in the "raps."
Occasionally, a kid's refusal to comply developed into violent incidents involving restraint carried out by the other kids in "group" at the direction of staff. It began with a knuckle to the back... and sometimes ended up with the kid being restrained by four or five other kids in his seat, or on the floor with the rest of the kids sitting on their limbs and maybe covering their mouth if the kid was yelling. It seems there is potential for personal injury there.
You were allowed to urinate or crap only when that was considered convenient to the group; you had to pay attention to the person speaking at all times. If you were falling asleep in group there must be something "going on" with you. Unqualified peer-staff (as well as the other kids in group) went on with their jive about you or whoever being a "druggie" and a failure to your or their family. You sat and listened to (and participated in) this bullshit day in and day out with little in the way of remission.
Virtually anyone who ended up in an "intake room" was considered a chemically-dependent, powerless druggie who needed Straight to save them from jail, insanity, or death. These mini kangaroo court sessions were beyond ridiculous. Straight took anyone they could get their greedy hands on and immediately set about coercing them to admit their "weak, druggie thoughts"...