General information:
Name: PM me
Address for check-in facility. (address not known) High Impact, Near Tecate, Mexico
Year established: (n/a) closed in 2002
Number of detainees in each group: Girls: average of 13 Boys: average of 15
Gender, coed or unisex: Genders separated living area, walking area shared but used at separate times during the day.
Program duration: average 2 months
Owner: Allie and Miguel (last name unknown)
Program structure:
Admission: I was first admitted into Casa By The Sea in Ensenada, Mexico. The administrator of CBS, Dace Goulding recommended to my mother the High Impact program and I was escorted by the driver usually hired for CBS to the High Impact facility.
Did they have a level system? What were the requirements to graduate to the next levels?: They utilized a system based on demerits vs points earned by laps walked in a day. Because I was from CBS they told me I was expected to already know the rules, and therefore any rule breaking would be considered a "Cat 2", which represented 80 demerits. I could only earn about 100 merits a day and the "rules" were beyond strict so I basically made no progress toward "graduating" until the staff decided to allow me to have "Cat 1" consequences which only represented 5 demerits. In order to avoid consequences I needed shut down my conscious mind, and not move my body in the slightest way, once I had enough merits as calculated by the staff (I was never aware how many I had at any time) they allowed me to return to Casa By The Sea.
Living conditions: The "living conditions" consisted of a large desert property, the "facility" was a fenced in dirt lot that was made up of 3 sections: the walking circle, the girls side and the boys side. On the girl's side, near the entrance of the compound there were 4 tall chain link cages with about a foot and a half of open entry/exit space on each cage. there stood a pile of wood to the left side of the cages and a fire pit used for cooking to the right. In the middle of the compound was a concrete slab that hoisted a large green military tent which served as our community living quarters. We spent 6 hours a day sitting indian style on the concrete listening to the same solitary tape about the 12 steps of AA. instructed not to move even in the slightest. There was a crude concrete building at the southern most side of the compound that was used by the staff as sleeping quarters and our community bathroom. There were two shower areas that consisted of a cold stream of water that came from the ceiling that we all used at the same time. There were 3 toilets with no doors and they were often clogged or not in working condition at all yet since we were given such strict time limits, girls usually used them anyway, often causing overflows that we were expected to clean up with our bare hands. The walking circle was a separately fenced off area that was shaped like a rectangle and had deep grooves in the dirt that had been formed from the large amount of walking we were required to do for 4 hours everyday. The facility was located at the bottom of a hill where a top the hill stood the house and personal property of the couple who owned and operated High Impact, There names were Miguel and Allie, I am not sure of their last names. I have been told that down the road from the property there lived a mexican drug lord, but of that I cant be entirely sure.
Sleeping: The "sleeping conditions" consisted of a concrete slab covered by a large army tent in which we slept in a sleeping bag or on a towel on the floor. We were also not allowed to use the bathroom at night so there was a bucket kept in the middle of the tent that we all had to use during the night.
Food: We cooked our own food, by building a fire and boiling the ingredients. Breakfast: boiled oat slop (or unsweetened oatmeal) with no sugar or flavoring. Lunch: rice and beans. Dinner: rice and a leg or breast of chicken. Most times the chicken still had the skin on the meat, that most times still had feathers inside of it that we were FORCED to eat, as well we were forced to eat the giblets (organs) of the chicken. At select times we were awarded a tomato or an orange.
Communication: Our letters from our parents were delivered to us as a fax, any information they didn't consider us privileged enough to have would be crossed out with permanent marker. I am not sure if the letters I sent to my parents were in anyway "tampered with" or edited before being faxed over but I do know that they read our letters and did not send those that they deemed "manipulative" The first letter I wrote to my mother explained that I was being held dog cages and being abused (via the extreme restraining methods) and the owners of the program confronted me, telling me I was lying to my mom and that I was a pathological liar. They then told me they would not be sending that letter to my mom and that my communication with my mom would be cut off until I "learned to be honest with myself".
Education: None, there were NO academics.
Staff: Im pretty sure none of them had any qualifications, I think one staff member used to be in the army but it was clear that the owners had NO qualifications at all, in fact I would highly question their level of education.
Punishments or consequences: The "consequences" were small pieces of paper that we would fill out when we were given a consequence by a staff member. Staff would do this for "rule violations" such as "playing" which was actually translated into moving at all, itching your face, shifting your weight, moving your fingers even in the slightest bit and licking your lips (due to the fact that we were not allowed chapstick or sunblock) I once asked to use some chapstick because I was repeatedly getting consequences for "playing" with my lips (licking my lips to try to ease the cracking and bleeding) and they instead forced me to clench a piece of wood in my mouth for 2 weeks. I can't remember if there was any reason for this but I was sentenced to carry a large bag of sand about 30-40lbs around my neck for more than 45 days. The main punishment was being restrained, this punishment would be doled out for any reason what so ever, including but not limited to crying, collapsing from pain or exhaustion or complaining about injuries or illnesses. Being restrained felt like being raped without penetration. It was violent and the point was to inflict as much pain as possible for as long as the staff cared to do so. When a child was being restrained the staff would put the child's arms behind their back and force them upwards until the hands are touching the back of the head, (often times the arms would pop out of the shoulder sockets) The legs would either be held pinned in a hog tied position against the child's back or held spread eagle by 2 staff members while the third dug their knee and all their body weight into the child's lower back. The head was forced to stay up with the chin on the ground, usually the method to obtain this position would be to pull the hair back and grind the chin into the rocky dirt. At times the staff would take turns restraining, take breaks and then resume the abuse or just sit on top of the child for hours and hours on end. This was most always done on the hot desert dirt floor, my stay was during the summer months so often after a whole day of being restrained and left laying on your stomach we would be missing large patches of skin and the rest of our body would be badly burned (either by the hot sand or the sun). Water was also often withheld as a punishment, we were expected to ration it and in the case that someone decided to steal and drink our water, we would not be allowed to refill our water for another few hours. A peer punishment system was set in place, detainees who had achieved a certain amount of points would be instructed to "watch" the other detainees and inform staff of any infractions of the rules. Here again, normal actions like scratching an itch, shifting your weight while sitting or moving your fingers were usually called by the upper levels and consequences would be given.
In the news:
http://www.wwaspsinfo.net/paradisecove/ ... 03.02.htmlExternal Links
Info pages and homepage of the program: No Longer Exists
Groups on the internet:
www.Troubled-Teen-Industry.com Links to treads in forum:
http://troubled-teen-industry.com/index ... &Itemid=67
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