Fornits

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An open discussion about the troubled parent industry

I seem to remember one of the wwasp programmes using their junior level staff to perform restraints. Can't joggle the memory on that though.

The Golden Hour

Escaping from an unlawful confinement can't be easy on the nerves. The one conversation on it I've had with a young man who attempted an escape that was reasonably well planned indicated he was a bundle of nerves at least two full days prior to the event. I had mistakenly put it down as nerves regarding a pending decision over a major change of status in the program. All along the young man actually had been planning to make a courageous break for freedom. He had a plan, knew just the right time to make his break, and had considered his clothing and surroundings. For the entire first night the only ones looking for him were two counselors due to being short staff. Both of the counselors, myself and borrowed counselor from a nearby short term program ran by the same company, weren't particularly motivated to go smashing our way through the forest.

His only mistake was violating the principle of the golden hour.

The golden hour is the one hour of time immediately after your escape. This hour is going to immediately determine if your escape is going to be successful or a failure. In the case of the young man's plan he had intially decided to attenpt to hide out near the camp until the search parties had been called off. This actually wasn't a bad idea considering that the sheer man power involved comes from all parts of the facility and ends up causing all sorts of problems with the day to day running of the program. This means that the ability of a program to search the surrounding vicinity is limited by the amount of people they can keep actively searching for a set period of time. The young man failed because he broke cover and started to make his departure from the geographical location the very next day. It is due to this movement that a counselor heard him and quickly discovered him.

Whatever plan you have you need to remember The Golden Hour. Without the steadiness of nerves to carry through with your plan of escape you will end up complicating the issue and cause yourself to be recaptured. Once you decide on a course of escape stay with your plan only until the current situation dictates you need to change it. These situations can include potential discovery, medical issues, and loss of fortitude to carry on. Don't feel bad if you feel like giving yourself up. If anything you bogged down the amount of torture and pain your program could heap on your peers for however amount of time you were on the run. For this your peers should applaude you, but more than likely they will spite you as the general trend of programs is to tighten up on personal liberties even more in the event of an escape to prevent further escape. With this stated lets examine the Golden Hour.

With your plan of personal release from the program planned out and prepared for you make your departure. The very second you move away from your program the clock starts ticking. From this second onward you are racing time to enact your personal departure plan. The Golden Hour is crucial as if it starts poorly you are fighting an uphill battle to successfully escape from the very start. If the hour starts properly you won't be fighting against time and staff to enact your plan under pressure. The odds are stacked against you in the sense that you will be fighting your peers, staff, locals, police, and your own family.

Once you've made your break you have better know where you are going and how you are going to get there. Having a destination is crucial, but not immediately crucial. How you plan to reach that destination is an immediate issue. Remember that most programs don't have the man power to adequetely search the surrounding countryside. This is why so many are located in remote wilderness locations. It makes it harder for a person not used to the wilderness to maintain their bearings. Knowing what will happen after you escape is important. Will the program call the police and resort to a search and rescue party? Does your program have access to bloodhounds? I've heard of programs using bloodhounds to run down escapers in Utah (See the section regarding evading bloodhounds).

Becareful though as programs tend to regard those sorts of questions as a flight risk and may take action. Don't be shy about being the sort to learn from the escape attempts of others. Be keenly aware of your surroundings every single time you leave the program for any reason. With this information at your disposal you can make a decision on how you will proceed on your journey.

There are two general strategies I've seen used. None of them successfully, but the failures had other factors that included poor planning and even poorer judgement of the escaper.

The first strategy is to find a hiding spot a short distance away from the program and hide for a few days. By minimizing your movements you can avoid detection. This strategy has the potential to work only if you can remain still and remain even quieter. Failure to do those two things puts yourself at risk. I'd strongly suggest you not hide in any abandoned buildings, prominent geographical locations, or areas that are exposed to the elements. You are going to want to have some cover to protect yourself from the elements of nature and being spotted.

The second strategy is to move away from the program as fast as you possibly can. I believe if you are physically fit enough you may want to risk it. Don't forget that the more movement you make the greater the chances of discovery. This strategy takes into account the fact that the program may resort to search and recue operations that are man power intensive and may even include bloodhounds. When using this strategy take care to stay off public roads, forest trails, and power cuts. Also don't walk on exposed ridgelines as you tend to stand out for miles around. When moving through rough country take care not to break your way through the brush. Rather than doing this move through the forest carefully to avoid leaving a massive swath of devastation that can be followed. You really do want to minimize the impact you have on your environment to avoid leaving a trail. Don't urinate or defecate in noticeable spots. Take the time to dig a small hole to bury your bodily wastes and trash.

Either way stay with your plan until the circumstances of the situation deterime its time to change your approach. With steady nerves and clear thinking you should be able to stay one step ahead of your program. Your program is for the most part a creature bound by operating proceedures. Learning those proceedures can give you all sorts of potential points of attack to exploit to go about carrying out your personal departure plan.

This next installment of the Escaper's Guide is going to deal with the SEVEN Ps of any sort of planning. The seven Ps are as follows:


Prior
Proper
Planning
Prevents
Piss
Poor
Performance

There are variations on this theme, but this is the one I tend to use. In short if you haven't put some thought into your escape you are most likely going to fail. In the last segement I advised the prospective escaper to consider items like water, food, and clothing. In this segement I'm going to take it a step further. Now that you've looked over the fundamentals of survival while on the run you need to consider how you are going to effect your get away. I suggest you beware of the following issues during this phase of the escape.

If you talk about your plans to a peer in your group more than likely he will rat on you.
IF you write about your plans in a letter or in a journal you are at risk of being discovered.
If you even act like you are making preparations to run your counselor/HACK more than likely will notice.

You need to be subtle here and keep this to yourself. Don't breathe a word of your plans to anyone and don't write anything down about it either. Don't make any lists, don't draw any maps, and definitely don't start making any obvious caches of goods that can be discovered easily. I know I said it might be wise to stock up on your high calorie snacks, but keep in consideration most programs, if not all, consider this contraband and view it as a run away attempt. It is a calculated risk you have to factor into your preperations, and it depends on your counselor/HACK.

For this part of the preperation I want you to OBSERVE. Watch your counselors and begin to learn their habits. Counselors are creatures of habit. The very nature of the job requires a counselor to attempt to follow the facility proceedures. Proceedures that dictate everything from the time you wake up, when you go to bed, and in some cases even how you fold your boxers. Facilities thrive off routine and order and there is always a great deal of pressure put on counselors to keep their charges on time for the various daily activities to maintain. Groups that can't stick to their daily routine are generally the poorly functioning ones, but be aware that there isn't any difference between escaping a good running group or a poorly running group. The risks are still the same, and in my opinion the risk of detection is higher in a poorly running group due to counselor/hack paranioa.

This is what I believe you need to watch for:

*What times do your counselors appear to be the least alert?
*When does it appear that your facility seems to be the shortest staffed?
*When would be the easiest time to slip away from your group?
*Who is the best counselor to have on duty to make a run on?

Let's examine each one of those individually.

*What times do your counselors appear to be the least alert?

If your counselors are 24 hour staff then you are going to find yourself with all sorts of opprotunities to exploit. Not all programs utilize night staff. If you are one of the fortunate ones whose torture center doesn't utilize night staff then attempt to find out when your counselor sleeps the heaviest. Best way to do this is to randomly wake him or her up in the night asking to go to the bathroom. Once you can ascertain when you counselor/hack seems to sleep the heaviest then plan your departure around that time. My own heaviest sleep patterns was always 2 hours after I fell asleep. My group go so used to it they never bothered even trying to wake me up during the night.

If your program uses night staff all is not lost! At some point your night staff is going to be prone to struggle to stay awake. Further, most night staff aren't going to forbid you from using the bathroom. Plan your departure accordingly around these times and be ready to resort to fleeing when the window of opprotunity opens itself up to you unexpectedly. This window of opprotunity might well not even be at night. It could well be during the day. Just be ready to flee your captors when the opprotunity presents itself to you.

*When does the facility appear to be the shortest staffed?

This should be obvious, but for those not in a program I will elaborate on it. The less people on duty the harder it is for them to run you down. Someone has to watch the groups, and this takes time to organize. Frequently on weekends staff numbers are lower, and likewise after office hours on weekdays.

*When is the easiest time to run from your group?

No all facilities have strict rules about captives being used to search for run aways. Several WWASP facilities have been known to utilize high status captives in search parties for run aways. SUWS actually has a stage of their program devoted to search and rescue operations that are also geared to the recapture of their prisoners. Also in my own experiences I have seen other captives spontaneously intervene on the sight of a fellow captive attempting to run. For this reason I suggest attempting to ascertain the time when your group seems to be less likely to intervene.

*Who is the best counselor to have on duty to make a run on?

Some counselors/HACKs are better to run away from than others. Rule of thumb that I suggest is avoid running from your captors if they are physically fit. Literally wait till the overweight wind bag of a HACK is on duty. Though keep in mind that not all of us larger men are slow over short distances. I've been known to have a hellishly fast short sprint. Watch your counselors/HACKs during recreation times. It helps to know what distances will be needed to keep away from them. Also important items like, which counselor sleeps the heaviest. I once had a fellow counselor who was a college level track runner, but he slept like he was dead. Literally I had to shake his entire bed and scream at him to wake him up at night if I needed his help.

These smaller programs are popping up like weeds.

It used to happen at Eckerds like 15 or so years ago. Wasn't allowed at the time I worked there or at 3 springs.

Good luck with that lawsuit I have a feeling Pizza Hut is gonna be a bit pissed with you though.

I'll miss this bunch for sure. My boss must have been cackling fiendishly when he put the class together with the idea that so many young girls would drive me insane. Turns out he was flat wrong and they turned out to be my best behaved class yet in 2 and half years of teaching.

They would regularly bring me food from home to eat. When I was in the hospital for a day due to a knee problem they all made me get well cards and gave them to me the next day when I hobbled into work.

I think they even learned some English, not sure, but just maybe they did. So if you ever hear some Korean girl speaking English with a slight southern accent you know where she probably picked it up.