Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > The Troubled Teen Industry
ANOTHER LIST OF DEAD INSTITUTIONALIZED AMERICAN TEENS
Antigen:
--- Quote ---On 2003-07-20 10:02:00, Anonymous wrote:
"The focus it seems to me should be on getting better regulation, making sure treatment meets a standard of care for a particular condition, making sure treatment is based on real evidence, not just someone's stories-- if you expand beyond that into "all psychiatry is bad" or "all psychiatric medication is bad" you are not going to get very far."
--- End quote ---
I don't think more regulation is going to do the trick here. This goes all the way back to Art Barker and The Seed and new NIDA regulations that required informed consent for treatment. Soon, the fan-fare died down, The Seed shut down in St. Pete, Cleveland, Miami and wherever else it had spread to and pulled back to just the one warehouse in Ft. Lauderdale.
Within a couple of years, Straight set up shop with a half dozen former Seed staff and parents. Same song and dance, same people, same town, same.... everything. But the consent form requirement was just ignored, along with the ban on federal funding.
As de dawg chases his tail...
I think we make a mistake when we get distracted by what amounts to administrative bullshit. Every day, these programs do things which are patently illegal! I don't care how much of a control freak someone may be, it is not legal to pay professional kidnappers to abduct the kid from their bed or elsewhere the way they do. If you want to put cuffs on someone, you must 1) be a law enforcement or medical professional and 2) be able to prove you had a damned good reason to do it AND no other recourse.
No amount of procedural band-aids will ever change WWASP into a responsible, humanitarian organization.
It breaks my heart to see these evil bastards get off with what amounts to administrative changes, some oversight, maybe paying out a settlement. It's like watching Charles Manson get off with a jaywalking ticket.
Charles Long III was criminally charged for the death of a child in his care. Still don't know the verdict or sentence. Miller Newton just got stung to the tune of $6.5Mil for what he did to one young lady and her family over the course of 15 years.
Maybe we'll see more of this sort of thing. Maybe we should pressure Congress for some kind of inquery? Certainly, the journalism is helping.
The right of self-defense is the first law of nature; in most governments it has been the study of rulers to confine this right within the narrowest possible limits. ... and [when] the right of the people to keep and bear arms is, under any color or pretext whatsoever, prohibited, liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the brink of destruction.
-- St. George Tucker, Judge of the Virginia Supreme Court 1803
--- End quote ---
Anonymous:
Kidnapping someone who has reached the age of majority (18 years old in most states) is a federal offense. No wonder so many of these programs urge parents to "do something before it's too late". This is one area of the law that can and must be changed to keep pace with the growing number of teens being kidnapped and transported (sometimes in hand and leg cuffs)across state lines into private instititutions.
Perhaps Ginger can start an online petition to help facilitate congressional hearings?
In the meantime, every state should follow the lead of California which has passed legislation protecting the rights of transported children and their families. How about organizing a national campaign to get other state lawmakers to sponsor similar legislation?
:wave:
Anonymous:
P.S.
Of course, many parents have a different point of view about transport services. See link below to participate in a discussion about this very topic.
http://www.strugglingteens.com/cgi-bin/ ... 2;t=000523
:wave:
falconstar:
Deborah
We hear this every day. Often, institutions and their carriers use bankruptcy to avoid accountability. It takes a VERY couragous and committed (and well funded) attorney to disregard all the risks they incur trying to plow through this strategy. However, it can be done.
I'm not an attorney, but I believe you are entitled to an itemized accounting of expenses. (10% is not "out of line" but I wonder if they were shared among a number of plaintiffs).
I wouldn't comment on your attorney, (I'm only vaguely familiar with your case, as a Social Worker in private practice, a family with whom I worked, placed their son at MMA. He left a few years before your case came to light and had no complaints). But if you have doubts about what you should do next, I would encourage you to consult another attorney.
To finally answer your question, "How does one determine if an attorney is a settlement hack or one that loves the court room?"
1) Have they won a judgement, (hopefully a BIG judgement) in a similar case, AT TRIAL"
2) Are they well funded, with the financial ability to adequately prepare and prosecute the case. ie: expert witnesses, investigators, mock trials, jury experts, forensic accountants, bankruptcy attorneys... (it's not uncommon to see a firm spend more than $100,000 on a case)
4) Do they specialize in institutional neglect and abuse cases?
5) Their first ethical responsibility is to their individual client, but beyond that, are they true advocates for SYSTEMIC change, are they active in advocacy groups, etc.
If you can answer an unqualified YES to all of the above questions you probably have found the right attorney.
suflowersinamericanow:
Just Call Them Crazy
http://www.wiretapmag.org/story.html?StoryID=16151
Youth activists have long been marginalized and ignored by their
parents, teachers and lawmakers. Now a new psychiatric label -- "Oppositional
Defiance Disorder" -- is being used to take away their rights and keep
them locked up in reform camps.
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