Hmm, this is a very interesting thread, and though ordinarily I might find it futile to engage in this conversation, it is between innings of the Dodgers-Mets game and right now I have nothing better to do.
Karen, I have to wonder why you even brought up the escort issue, since I made no mention of it. I was going to give you the benefit of the doubt even if you said you had to coerce your son to go into the program. The use of escorts, in addition to that bizarre pornography comment you made on another board lends me to question your veracity.
However, for now I will give you the benefit of the doubt and very simply ask you if you've read the book 1984. The only thing that these programs produce that other services including some residential and inpatient services, is blind obedience to a given set of goals and beliefs part of which is the student-athlete culture.
Congratulations, your son is a great student-athlete. I have friends who probably with a little bit of torture would have been great student-athletes too, instead they never applied themselves to their full potential. Should they have been placed in a "program" in order to better themselves? No, they weren't dangerous to anybody.
There are two issues here. The first is a question of danger to self or others. There are plenty of short term programs that can fix that problem quite well. The second is becoming the "person you were supposed to be", which is really up to the person themselves.
I recognize that some programs are helpful in turning the lives of youth around. But at what cost?
