First hand I've seen kids mistreated and abused in the most highly regulated adolescent psychiatric hospitals, as well as unregulated programs. A new set of rules is not going to make any difference here. Parents who care about their kids, and check up on them, and are not dumping them off on some poor schmuck who babysits other people's kids because they are irresponsible for whatever reason. It all comes back to the parents. I've seen kids in lockups because their parents are alcoholic, sexually and physically abusive, negligent, and I've seen the other side of the coin of rich over protective and ignorant parents sending their kids away to private camps. So whether a poor kid ends up in a state program, or a rich kid ends up in a private program, the end result is the same. That is why I hope others realize that legislating rules or somehow regulating this will not be helpful. If anything, it will make the existing programs more successful at monopolizing the industry since they will be around as the standards are set. If parents would take care of their own damn kids, for whatever reason, none of this would be happening. It all starts at home. Then we could focus our attention on getting proper care for foster kids who's parents have died. Instead the system is clogged with kids who have parents, who refuse to step up to the plate.
Well yeah. And a mass change in this whole pervasive mentality is the ultimate goal. But, that is not something that is going to happen overnight. In the meantime we have people that are sufferng right now inside chambers of horror, with abosolutely no way to even cry for help.
As a kid, I spent time in a backwoods religious torture camp, a Straight spinoff, and state run facilities. And I'll tell you right now, when I was in those private hellholes, I would have literally given my right arm just to be in one of those state facilities if I had the chance. Try being thrown in a van, sat on by Bubba and almost asphyxiated, held behind closed doors and forced into slave labor, being under absolute control of someone like Herman Fountain or Helen Peterman, living in an isolated culture where things get much, much worse for you if you even say, "I don't like it here", having absolutely no contact whatsoever with the outside world, nobody to complain to if you're deprived of sleep, beaten, humiliated, or denied medical treatment.
And the fact is, most of us who have experienced that kind of treatment have never even said a word about it, so the problem is far worse than others can imagine. A lot of people, 20 or 30 years later don't even think they were mistreated! This kind of secret environment that goes on unseen is what spawns stuff like Jim Jones and Heaven's Gate. The vast majority of the suffering could be stopped pretty damn quick just by doing 2 things that state run facilities genereally already do:
1) Don't allow anyone to be involuntarily incarcerated unless it has been ordered by a judge.
2) Allow unrestricted and private communication with an independent, 3rd party, Human Rights oversight organization
Sure, there's a much deeper societal issue at work here, and changing that needs to continue to be an ongoing effort until people wake up. But that's a huge, long term task. A focussed, consicely stated campaign to allow some kind of Human Rights watchdog to keep an eye on this shit, and actually listen to, and investigate reports of abuse, and viotations of Constitutional rights, would minimize, or even put a stop to, the kind of trauma that is already going to stick with people and cause nightmares, suicide, PTSD, etc. for the rest of the lives of those suffering right now.
