I thought the topic was, "Is psychiatric hospitalization better than a program?" Why are we not talking about this. It seems instead we are continually diverted into whether coerced thought reform is bad and people do not deserved to be abused, which are great topics in and of themselves but are not directly related to where this thread was supposed to go.
Addressing this topic,
Simple answer is no and yes. Depends upon the needs for certain children. Children are being sent to TC's that should have been placed in Psychiatric facilities and visa versa. I was placed in a PW when I was young for running away from home, stealing and down right belligerence. This is when I learned about Thorazine, especially when you were misbehaving there. Thank god my mother came when she did.