Friday, July 25, 2008
Past: Aspen Ranch
So I have [obviously] been thinking about AR a lot recently. Not sure why... just one of those "phases" all of us "alumni" go through. The good times. And the stupid shit. Speaking of stupid shit, what was the thing called when we were "locked down" in our cottage because of something or someone? I remember my first stay at the ranch, team 5 cottage, there was one of these. I think it was right after I got finished with round-up. Which, by the way, was TOTALLY different then my 2nd stay. Round-up used to be... totally secluded! They used to have us sleep in the basement & have absolutely no contact with our team, or anyone for that matter. Also, I remember not having the privilege of using real shampoo & conditioner. The was received once you got out of round-up. Until then, you had to use one of those commercial soap dispensers filled with a multi-tasking body cleanser. Ha ha ha!! Good old Sysco provided us with everything. Including some really disgusting looking food; you would only know this if you worked in the kitchen via Greenhorn privileges.
OKAY-- so for those of you who have never been to AR, or who have never heard of it, let me explain a little bit about the program.
First & for-most, AR is for the bad little kids (under 18) who their parents don't know what to do with them. Drugs, depression, violence, etc etc. Aspen Ranch is a "lock-down" boarding school in the middle of NOWHERE Utah. Loa, Utah, to be exact. Loa is about, a three or four hour drive (if I remember correctly) from Salt Lake City. Down many twisted roads, through & up & down mountains, passed mining & drilling... around NOTHING. Seriously. I suppose this was a good decision on their part considering it makes it very difficult to run away from this program. During my second stay, though, there were two boys in round-up who ran away & ended up riding w/a truck drive to Cali where they were eventually arrested & locked-up in Juvy [so we heard].
Aspen Ranch is in fact a Ranch... a wana-be campus type layout. You turn off of the "main highway" onto a long dusty "driveway." The driveway splits, at a point, and you can either go towards the horses & barn or to the rest of the "campus." Continuing up towards the main part, you pass the school on your left [which is a TOTAL joke... nothing actually gets accomplished here other than the girls sneaking off to have sex in the bathroom with the guys]. Next is the admin building where the president, therapists, etc have their offices. Then one of the guys cottages is next. A little bit further up are the three girls' cottages, on the right... teams 4, 5 & 6. On the left, up quite the dirt "mountain," I may add, is the main house. Continuing up the driveway to get to the main house, there is the boys "dorms" which houses the other three boys' teams in a dorm-style housing. There are typically no more than 12 guys/girls to a team at one time.
To break it down for you, here is the program description per [http://www.secretprisonsforteens.dk/US/AspenRanch.htm]:
Aspen Ranch is a behavior modification facility located near Loa, Utah.
It was established in 1995 and is a part of Aspen Education Group.
The detainees are a mix of children placed and paid for by their parents and detainees court-ordered to serve their time at the facility.
An average stay takes 11 months, but parents are advised not to talk about the length of the stay to prevent the child from knowing his or her release date.
Program description
Most of the detainees arrive by use of a Youth transport firm, but some arrive with their parents.
Level system
The ranch use a system, which consist of six levels. New detainees arrive at the lowest level known as round-up or orientation phase. The detainees has to remain silent in a basement or do manual labor during the demanded stay (2 weeks) on that phase.
They can apply for the next level at the end of the 2 weeks. If they are allowed to go on the next level, they leave the basement and goes on to live with group at the dormitory.
Higher levels has names like: Mustang, Maverick, Greenhorn, Rider and wrangler.
Communication between child and parents are letters-only at the lower levels. However, as the child moves up through the levels monitored phone-calls will be allowed. In the contract between parents and the facility, the parents give permission to open all mails going from and to the child, cut off phone calls and strip-search the child.
Detainees has to stay at given level for at unknown length of time. The reason given for that is that the detainee has to demonstrate that the student is really ready for the challenges of that level.
So going back to the "locked down" procedure/event when something happened... I feel like there was one during my second stay also, but I do not remember what that one was regarding. The first stay was because during our Sunday morning deep-clean, the part where we had to lay out EVERYTHING we had & kept in our possession [clothes, underwear, letters, notebooks, etc], I do not remember what this part was called, so the staff could go through them & make sure they were A)ours and B)withing the compliance of AR's regulations. Well some stuff was confiscated from this dumb girl [who looked like Michael Jackson seriously]; she got this stuff during the infamous Parent Week. One of the things she had was gum. Which god forbid, we were not allowed to have. The staff put it somewhere off to the side in "their possession" and apparently she stole it back. But of course didn't say anything. So the staff goes to trash the configated stuff & sees that the gum is missing. Of course she flipped out yelling at everyone & no one would come forward & say they did anything. This resulted in us all having to push the furniture to the middle of the room and sit, facing the wall [like some little toddlers] until someone would confess. Hours passed. We could not eat with everyone at the main house for lunch; instead we were delivered a PB&J sandwich and a little milk carton. I think we had to be silent for like 15-20 minute intervals & after that we had a chance to confess; during the confession time we had to write answers to some "deep-thought" questions about like honesty & shit. If I remember correctly.
Ha ha ha. It's kind of funny and pathetic to look back on, but this is the shit we went through and the shit that was oh-so-serious at the time.
Speaking of food, the meals there were so bizarre; and it's funny how excited we got about the "good" food. I think probably the most popular meal there with everyone was cereal mornings. Good old knock-off name brand cereals. The brand was Western Family, which is apparently the non-name-brand in Utah. I wish I could remember the cereals' names. They were pretty damn funny.
Posted by Ms. Ambitious at 10:28 AM
http://illusionofsuccess.blogspot.com/2 ... ranch.html