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http://www.newsregister.com/news/result ... _no=168548

Dundee teens escapes Costa Rican camp, goes to jail here

Published: July 19, 2003

By MATTHEW D. LaPLANTE
Of the News-Register

A Dundee teen, who fled a Costa Rican academy for troubled youths after law enforcement officials invaded the campus in May, is in custody at the Yamhill County Juvenile Detention Center today after allegedly attacking several juvenile department staff members and a sheriff's deputy.

Cody Crawford was one of about 200 mostly American students boarded at the Academy at Dundee Ranch - a world similar in name alone to the Yamhill County town where Cody grew up - after running afoul of the rules back home.

Flush-cheeked and blond-haired, with a fledgling semblance of matching whiskers on his upper lip, the 16-year-old's wholesome appearance is betrayed by his record, which includes arrests for dealing drugs at a local middle school and burglarizing several Dundee-area homes and wineries.

He's called the "The Red Hills Rebel" by locals, a moniker that likely owes its origin more to his truculent manner than to his slew of misdeeds.

Of course, that's the very sort of challenge that motivates juvenile department counselors to work so hard.

But two years worth of probation violations and several new crimes suggested Cody might need something in excess of that which local authorities could deliver. So, following an April arrest for attempted burglary, criminal trespassing and theft, his mother asked the court to consider the Academy at Dundee Ranch - a behavioral modification program in Costa Rica she heard about from a relative and researched online.

Featuring stone fountains, a swimming pool and hacienda-style buildings amid a verdant atmosphere of tropical plants and animals, Dundee Ranch seemed more like a resort than behavioral modification facility - indeed, the academy's representatives boasted they had developed a utopian mix of each.

The website promised a "progressive academic program É appropriate behavior modification É emotional growth courses É and a balance of recreation, exercise, learning and social opportunities."

After a trip to Central America to see the facility first hand, Robin Crawford told Judge John Collins she found the perfect place for her son to get the help he needed to rid his life of alcohol, drugs and criminality.

And she agreed to pay the $2,000-per-month tuition as well.

Collins consented to the arrangement, signing the order that allowed Cody to leave the United States for a chance at a new life through the academy.

"As it turns out, things are not as they appeared," Cody's attorney, Lindsay Soto, said at a hearing held Friday morning in Collins' courtroom.


Hell in paradise

Testifying at the hearing, Cody described a harrowing experience which began the day his mother dropped him off. "It was like a total joke," he said.

The idyllic setting that Robin Crawford had been shown was actually reserved for upper-level students who had earned the privilege of staying in nicer rooms and eating decent food.

Cody said he was holed up in a hot, dirty, overcrowded room with a dozen other first-level students. The square meals his mother had been shown during her visit weren't what Cody found on his plate. "We ate rice and beans, every day and for every meal."

And rather than being handed "appropriate behavior modification" by the diverse group of clean-cut staff members pictured on the academy's website, first-level students were introduced to four large Jamaican men who reeked of marijuana and used physical force to deal with misbehavior. "You would hear kids screaming and they would come back and their faces would be black and blue," Cody said.

Acting on information from the academy's former director and parents who had pulled their children from the institution, Costa Rican law enforcement agents converged on the grounds of Dundee Ranch on the morning of May 20.

The students were summoned into the cafeteria, where officials informed them they had the right to call their parents and ask to be sent home.

Accounts of subsequent events vary widely, but all seem to indicate that over the next few days staff members at the academy fought to maintain order as dozens of students rioted and scores tried to escape.

Cody said he was beaten by staffers trying to prevent him from leaving, but he finally made it out with the help of an official from a Costa Rican child welfare agency.


Lost in the jungle

A four-hour drive in the darkness of night ended in the town of San Pedro, where Cody was lodged in a child welfare shelter. There, he met a Jamaican teen who said he had been at the shelter for two years and had yet to receive any help finding his family.

"I didn't want to end up like that," Cody said. "So I decided to try and find the embassy."

Unaware even of the city in which he was located, Cody wandered aimlessly for several hours.

Then, a Good Samaritan named Isaac Wabe stopped his car to pick him up. Cody spent the next week with the Wabe family as Robin Crawford made arrangements to come for her son.

Upon arrival, she learned from officials at the U.S. Embassy that prosecutors wanted to speak to the family about what happened at Dundee Ranch. The Crawfords were detained in Costa Rica for a month as officials tried to sort out what happened.

Dundee Ranch owner Narvin Lichfield, a native of Utah, is under court order to remain in Costa Rica while allegations made against him and his staff members are investigated. And Department of Social Services officials in South Carolina have issued a restraining order forbidding Lichfield from returning to a similar facility he owns in that state.

The Crawfords returned to the United States on June 25. They said they'll join a class-action lawsuit against Lichfield and the WorldWide Association of Specialty Programs, with which the academy was affiliated.

But the matter that began with Cody's illegal activities in Oregon is far from over.


Dispute over treatment

Citing the breakdown of the court's plan for the teen's security and treatment, Deputy District Attorney Debra Markham on Friday asked Collins to place Cody in the custody of the Oregon Youth Authority for placement in a foster home.

In the meantime, Markham said, the troubled teen should be placed in the county's juvenile detention facility.

But Soto, Cody's attorney, disagreed. "Cody didn't fail the program, the program failed him," he said. "Detention is a real drastic measure and it should be reserved for people who have done something wrong."

Soto argued for a 30-day grace period in which the Crawfords could examine a treatment facility in Payson, Ariz.

After contacting a representative of the Arizona facility on the court's speaker phone, Collins declined to approve that move. He ordered Cody into OYA custody.

But capitulating to part of Soto's argument, Collins agreed to allow Cody to remain out of custody until the OYA could find appropriate foster placement for him.

Juvenile department authorities reluctantly accepted the judge's decision, asking only that Cody agree to submit to random urinalysis tests as a condition of his release.

The first test, they decided, would take place before Cody left the courthouse Friday.

Cody's mother and sister waited in Collins' courtroom as Cody was led to the basement floor of the courthouse and the offices of the county's juvenile department.

Initially, the teenager said he didn't have to go, but an hour later authorities said they caught him trying to use the rest room facilities secretly.

The sample they ultimately obtained indicated a high level of tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive chemical found in marijuana.


Back in detention

Set against going into custody, Cody "reacted violently to say the least" when told he had failed the urinalysis test, Markham later told Collins.

Four juvenile department staff members were called in to control the angry teen, who was ultimately immobilized with the help of Sheriff's Deputy Bob Eubanks.

An hour later, Eubanks entered the courtroom with a bandage wrapped around a bloodied finger that had been injured in the altercation. He was among those who heard Cody pledge to kill himself as Collins explained why the release agreement had been terminated.

"To be blunt, it looks to me like you've been smoking dope," Collins told Cody, who was listening in over a speakerphone from the detention center.

"I'm going to kill myself and it will all be your fault," Cody answered back.

The white-bearded judge winced at the young man's words, but didn't waiver in his decision. He said new charges of assault were likely to be filed against Cody for the way he reacted.

Soto didn't argue against the detention, but asked for leniency in future proceedings, citing the context of Cody's reaction. "He's been through a lot of different things in a very short time," Soto said.

I was going through some old posts and found this nugget of wisdom regarding the media, lawsuits, and insurance companies. Thought it might be appropriate given some of the dialogue of late.

********************************
this is tommyfromhyde
Face, remember, when she or anybody else
wins [he's refering to a mom who enrolled her teen then removed him and filed a lawsuit]
we want the insurance industry to get
the message that when they cover these
programs that they expose themselves to huge
judgements. That'll shut'em down faster than
anything else.
---------------
         
this is tommyfromhyde again
In other words, the press coverage that
counts is in the buissness press and especially
the insurance industry press.
Peace,
Tommy
***************************************

I think this is an area we activist could really work. Without insurance coverage many programs would fold. Can't stop the second mortgages or the use of college funds, but we could draw attention to insurance.

It's fraud when a facility registers with their state as a boarding school, yet advertises to the public as a Therapeutic Facility and receives government funds for special education or insurance companies for mental disorders. They shouldn't have it both ways. Either they're a traditional boarding school or a psuedo psych facility with an academic component.

I know this was the case with the TBS I'm familiar with, and I'm sure (know) there are others.

How do we draw attention to this?
If you know of a program that is running this scam, do the preliminary research and pass it off to a worthy journalist.

If you are privy to which insurance companies are being defrauded, write them a letter. Provide solid evidence. If you happen to be a customer, let them know you don't want your premiums to increase due to this fraud. We all pay when insurance is abused.

And the programs need to have their feet put to the fire, one or the other. Can't have your cake and eat it too.

Every little bit helps.
Deborah

http://www.statesman.com/metrostate/con ... brown.html

The Austin American Statesman continues their series of articles on the TH Industry, following the death of Chase Moody at "On Track" in Texas. The focus is on Brown and CEDU.

http://www.latimes.com/la-na-toughbar13 ... 8018.story

Key to His Schools' Success? It's God, Founder Says
 Robert Lichfield founded one small facility and built it into a business empire. In an interview, he makes frequent reference to his Mormon faith.

 
     Related Stories
 
Doubting Their 'Tough Love'
July 13, 2003
           
By John-Thor Dahlburg, Times Staff Writer


ST. GEORGE, Utah -- Robert Browning Lichfield opened his first "tough-love" academy at a time when he was so financially strapped that he, his wife and four children lived crowded together in a one-room apartment.

In the ensuing 16 years, Lichfield had three more children, added 10 schools to his investment portfolio and founded a business empire whose holdings include everything from restaurants to radio stations.

At 49, Lichfield cuts an unmistakable swath through this fast-growing southwestern Utah city. In achieving material success, he has also become something of a civic and political figure ? and a major contributor to the state's Republican Party.

When asked about his success, and about the criticism surrounding the school network that he created, he makes reference to his fervent Mormon faith.

God is the key to his accomplishments, he says, and Satan is stirring up his foes.

"We're here getting kids off drugs and other evils," Lichfield said during a rare interview at the headquarters of the World Wide Assn. of Specialty Programs and Schools. "We're here connecting kids with their families. We're here getting kids in touch with their higher source.

"Do I believe, being a God-believing person, that the adversary to all good is going to sit back and let that happen without a major unleashing of dark forces? No, I don't."

Lichfield is a bearded man, with a burly physique and shy, congenial manner recalling John Candy, the late actor and comic. He wore an open-necked shirt and toyed with a business card during an interview with the Los Angeles Times ? a meeting he agreed to only after months of negotiation.

He requested his photograph not be published in The Times because "some kids are a little deranged.... You never know what they might do."

Lichfield says his role in the for-profit schools is that of an investor and advisor, but his adversaries say he has a key role in managing them. Whatever the case, he usually leaves Ken Kay, the association's white-haired president, to answer questions about the schools' policies.

Lichfield's role in politics is easier to pin down. According to Federal Elections Commission records, Lichfield and his wife gave the Republican Party $175,000 in a recent 12-month period, and he was named Republican of the Year this year by the Washington County GOP.

"As a person, he is great," said county GOP Chairman Naghi Zeenati. "He is community-minded and always available to help."

Lichfield got his first job with problem teens in 1977 when he was a "dorm parent" at a private boys' school on a wooded lot north of Provo. At the fenced-in compound known as Provo Canyon School for Boys, students were subjected to tough treatment, including long periods of solitary confinement and forced lie-detector tests.

It was "baptism by fire," said Lichfield, who has no formal qualifications in education or child psychology and didn't graduate from college. On the job, he said, "you learn real fast, just as a [physician's assistant] learns doctoring skills by working with doctors."

However, not all of his charges from those days recall the fledgling educator with fondness. David Doran, 34, of Tarzana spent time in his youth at Provo Canyon and said he remembers Lichfield as a humorless, dictatorial figure who seemed to delight in taunting students.

About the same time, Lichfield founded the Cross Creek school, his first. In 1987, Lichfield signed a contract to run Brightway Adolescent Hospital in St. George, which health officials said quickly became a pipeline for enrolling students in tough-love schools.

State inspectors investigated the private psychiatric institution after receiving complaints of children being admitted without consent from both parents and a failure to report a suspected case of child abuse, Utah Department of Health spokeswoman Debra Wynkoop said. The hospital shut down in 1998 after being informed by state health officials that they were going to order its closure, Wynkoop said.

By the time WWASPS was created in 1998, Lichfield said he had let other people assume ownership and management of the schools. Ken Kay, president of WWASPS, declined a request from The Times to provide a list of the owners. But some affiliates are family members.

Lichfield's younger brother Narvin owns Carolina Springs Academy near Abbeville, S.C., and the Academy at Dundee Ranch in Costa Rica. Kay's son, Jay, runs the WWASPS school in Jamaica, called Tranquility Bay.

What Lichfield does own, he said, are many of the buildings and grounds that house the WWASPS schools. Title formally belongs to a legal entity with a name intentionally so long newspapers won't print it, he joked. That entity, the Robert Browning Lichfield Limited Family Partnership, has Lichfield and his wife, Patricia, as sole partners, according to documents filed with the Utah secretary of state's office in 1995. Lichfield said he co-owns other properties with business associates.

As for his role in WWASPS, on paper Lichfield is simply a trustee. Some adversaries contend that the limited designation is the way he protects himself from legal liability.

A thicket of interrelated, for-profit companies has grown up around the nonprofit WWASPS. They include Teen Help, the association's marketing arm; Teen Escort Service, which convoys children to and from member schools; and R&B Billing, which sends the monthly bills to parents and processes their payments.

Thomas Burton, an attorney in Pleasanton, Calif., who has sued WWASPS, its member schools and associated businesses at least seven times ? though he has yet to win a case ? contends that all of these entities function as a huge, single commercial venture with Lichfield at the heart.

"The corporations keep shifting and being reconstituted with different people in different places," Burton said. "It seems they want to keep this a moving target."

In March, the Northern California lawyer filed suit in federal court in Salt Lake City on behalf of a former student at Tranquility Bay, claiming the WWASPS school in Jamaica was a "steaming squalid jungle camp, infested with flies, mosquitoes, scorpions and vermin."

After listening patiently during his interview with The Times to a recounting of these kinds of parent and student complaints, Lichfield spoke again of religious faith and his conviction that the methods he pioneered have aided many.

"God can't help everybody. I don't know how we're going to," he said. "But it [WWASPS] does provide an opportunity for thousands of kids to improve their lives. Those who choose not to, choose not to."


[ This Message was edited by: Deborah on 2006-05-28 11:47 ]

Ginger, I didn't check to see if this had been posted under a different topic. If it has, feel free to delete it and save space.
Deborah

http://www.news-observer.com/news/story ... 2118c.html

Tuesday, June 24, 2003 5:13AM EDT

Haven for troubled boys has troubles of its own
Bankruptcy piques parents, Va. police

By CRAIG JARVIS, Staff Writer

Ted and Cindy Mitchell of Youngsville were desperate to find a place like Wellspring Academy, a private boarding school for troubled teenage boys in rural southern Virginia that offered a structured schedule and Christian counseling.
Like many other parents from the Triangle and throughout the country, the Mitchells paid the up-front tuition of $49,000 for a year and hoped for the best. But their hopes ended Easter weekend when the school closed amid a swirl of rumors and accusations.
The Mitchells -- who say they were out $63,500 after paying additional tuition to avoid a rate increase -- were livid after the school's owner, Bob Gluhareff of Raleigh, announced he would file for bankruptcy.

Now Virginia and federal investigators want to know whether Gluhareff defrauded parents by taking tens of thousands of dollars knowing he was about to go out of business.

Investigators also are looking at whether a counselor broke the law and triggered a panic that led to the school's closing when she sneaked four boys off campus and told their parents to come get them because Wellspring was collapsing.

Gluhareff blames the counselor for destroying his life's work.

Authorities are evaluating child-welfare conditions at the school and checking its tax records.

The disruption to teenagers in need of help is, for some parents, the most painful fallout of all.

"I don't want to ruin a man, but he's ruined a lot of families," Cindy Mitchell said. "He preyed on people that had nowhere else to go."

Gluhareff, 58, an ordained Baptist minister and longtime family counselor based in Raleigh, says it is ludicrous to suggest he intentionally went out of business.

"We are not embezzlers, we are not swindlers, we are not fraud people," Gluhareff says. "We gave and gave and gave. ... It's a sad, sad story if one family has lost $25,000, but I've lost everything I worked for all my life. Why would I tank my own school?"

Gluhareff started Wellspring in 1986 on 510 acres outside South Boston, about an hour north of the Triangle. It offered high school and two years of college instruction for at-risk boys ages 13 to 19, emphasizing a structured environment with Christian counseling.

Gluhareff initially recruited students from the Raleigh area and later from throughout the country. Students wore uniforms of khakis and polo shirts. They included teenagers ordered by judges to attend and boys whose parents thought they needed to be there.

Gluhareff made strong ties with Halifax County (Va.) authorities and the state Republican Party. Virginia's attorney general spoke at last year's commencement.

Gluhareff built the school to a peak enrollment of about 90 students and 60 staff members. Last year, its budget was nearly $3 million, with two-thirds coming from tuition and the rest from donations, tax records show.

A clash of styles

Lisa Grant was hired as a counselor in May 2002 fresh out of graduate school. Favoring thrift-shop attire, Grant tacked a poster of 1960s rock star Jim Morrison on her wall when she arrived. Her style didn't go over well, and she grew discontented.

She says that the youths at Wellspring were not counseled as often as parents were led to believe and that the daily schedule was not nearly as structured as claimed. Then, she says, she watched with alarm as financial problems grew.

Court records show that the school's food vendor claimed Wellspring failed to pay for goods for more than two months last year and later sued for $26,700. A local gas and fuel oil company sued for nearly $6,000 in unpaid bills, and an auto mechanic sued for $1,000 overdue for repairs.

Late last year, the staff took a 20 percent pay cut; this year, a security staff member quit. Grant's paycheck bounced at the end of March but was made good the next week. Her next paycheck, on April 18, was postponed for the weekend.

Grant, 40, a single mother of three, said she decided to quit that day and, on an impulse, piled four boys into her car and slipped them off campus. She began calling their parents and telling them to pick up their sons because the school was going out of business.

The school phones began ringing nonstop with calls from alarmed parents. Gluhareff called sheriff's deputies and reported that Grant had kidnapped the boys.

Word of Grant's escapade spread through the 30 or so boys who were not on spring break, Gluhareff said. They began to rebel, he said, refusing to wear the school uniform and threatening to burn the dorms down.

"The kids were electrified," he said. "... All of a sudden, the school looked like something out of 'Blackboard Jungle.' "

On Easter, operations were suspended and Grant's car mysteriously burned in her front yard.

On April 30, Gluhareff wrote parents that he would have to keep the school closed, blaming the economy, parents' failure to pay tuition on time and Grant's actions. Two weeks later, his attorney told parents in a letter that Gluhareff had no choice but to declare bankruptcy.

Parents react

About a dozen parents planned a response, including a campaign to draw news media attention, to complain to the North Carolina board that licenses counselors and to look into suing. They grew angrier as they shared their stories.

A divorced Virginia couple, whose son began at Wellspring in October, paid more than $54,000 because the school was collecting double tuition from them. Karen McCollum says Gluhareff and the school president separately told her and her former husband that the other one wasn't going to pay.

Gluhareff says that was because of a clerical error and miscommunication, but McCollum remains furious. She says she told him in a phone call that he had betrayed her trust.

"You devastated my family, you devastated my son, you forced us into a financial situation I don't know we'll ever recover from," McCollum says she told him. "I don't care how long it takes, how much money it costs, how hard it is -- my mission in life now is to see you never open another school or other type of facility as long as you live."

Gluhareff, in turn, began soliciting letters of support from parents and staff to send to investigators. He says he and his wife planned to retire at Wellspring and be buried on the grounds.

He says he had recently put a $10,000 down payment on a gym and had been expecting $135,000 in tuition and donations within the coming week. But he says that wouldn't have been enough to avoid bankruptcy because Wellspring survived month to month without a reserve, in large part because it gave scholarships to many families who couldn't afford tuition.

Most of the parents of the 70 or so boys who were enrolled at Wellspring when it closed have not complained publicly. Some, including Jenny Openshaw of Alabama, say they aren't angry at Gluhareff, even though they lost tuition, because Wellspring helped their son so much.

"I think he has the best intentions, and this was his dream," Openshaw says. "I just weep for him it's turned out this way."

This month, Gluhareff said Grant might have taken revenge after learning that she was going to be fired that weekend. However, his April 30 letter to parents described her as a "trusted counselor."

Under investigation

This is not the first time Gluhareff has been in a dispute with a former employee: In 1999, a female staffer sued him in Wake County, alleging he seduced her and coaxed her grandfather into paying more than $60,000 to counsel her, her sister and her mother. Gluhareff denied it and countersued for slander; both suits were settled out of court.

Investigators expect to take at least six months, and maybe a year, to sort out the accusations, said Lt. Ann Barber of the Virginia State Police. She said that the Internal Revenue Service and U.S. Postal Inspection Service are involved and that investigators are just gathering facts at this point.

"It's a very complex case," Barber said. "We'll just determine if a violation of law has occurred."

Gluhareff has returned to Raleigh and opened a counseling practice. He says he is contemplating reopening the school.


Staff writer Craig Jarvis can be reached at 829-4576 or [email protected].

Hey Fellow Watchdogs,
I know a 16 yo teen girl who is about to be placed in a program, unless I have the opportunity to convince her mom otherwise.

She was incarcerated at Laurel Ridge (Brown Schools) for a short stay, then came home and got into some trouble- stole her adult half-sisters car, hid it and used it ocassionally. She was apprehended last week while driving it. She was also in possession of numerous drugs. She is in juvie until a placement can be arranged.

They are considering a wilderness camp funded by the Salesmanship Club in Dallas. A group of local business people. The Byran Nelson Golf Tourney raises millions (5+ this year) to support this program every year.

One- does anyone know the poop on this program?
Two- she is going somewhere unless I can stop it. Any suggestions, first-hand knowledge of a program that treats teens with respect and doesn't limit contact with family or employ abusive BM techniques?

My heart is breaking, as most of you know my opinion of the industry in general. :rofl:  But, here I am. And, I need to do everything I can to ensure she doesn't land in the hands of abusers...if that is possible.
Thanks,
Deborah

The CR government indicated that 4 "feared" staff at Dundee were deported to Jamaica.
Kay says 'absolutely false'.
He speaks of Lichfield (Dundee) as if they were perfect strangers. The media can be a powerful tool when one wants to spin a web of illusion.


http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/htm ... ty_bay.asp

Jamaica no problem, says Tranquility Bay
 
BY PETRE WILLIAMS Observer staff reporter
Sunday, June 08, 2003
Excerpts
*****************************

At the same time, he [Kay] expressed reservations regarding the allegations about the Costa Rican facility, but said he would be outraged were they found to be true.

"If there are substantiated cases of abuses that have been alleged then I would not only be disturbed but I would be outraged. I fully support the government's investigation into such allegations. I think it's mandatory but I do feel the government could have approached things on a more proactive basis so as not to create such a chaotic situation at the school as has been reported," he said.

Added Kay: "I mean, I've been doing this about 10 years, and after dealing with thousands of kids quite often you'll find many embellishments in their report and that's not to say they are not accurate. But kids clearly operate on an agenda.

"A number of the kids that I have spoken to were at the facility in Costa Rica. First hand, they have not substantiated the allegations. But I haven't been there so it is hard for me to comment..." said Kay.

"Tranquility Bay is not abusive and I can supply kids who will say we are not abusive and who were there for two years..." he added.
******************************

"We don't USUALLY have a problem there (at Tranquility Bay) with sanitation," a Health Department official WHO REQUESTED ANONYMITY told the Sunday Observer.

Added the official: "We do not have checks like monthly and so, but I would say once every three months. We look for wastewater disposal, sewage disposal, and pests. We look at the drainage, the canteen, and the bathrooms. And over the period we have never had any adverse conditions as such," the official said.

"You will find little things here and there that need to be remedied and we usually get that done. For instance, like at the canteen you would find a broken window or so and say, 'okay, get this put in place' and they USUALLY comply."
*******************************
Anonymity.. Usually..leaves alot to the imagination. Cleaver. Put ALL the focus on sanitation to minimize the abuse.
****************************

"We haven't had any more incidents happening there since that one (suicide)," Corporal Allecia Stewart of the Constabulary Communication Network told the newspaper.

But she said the cops on patrol DID NOT ACTUALLY GO ON THE COMPOUND. "They just speak to personnel FROM THE OUTSIDE OF THE GATE to check to see if everything is fine."

Kay said the facility enjoyed a good relationship with Jamaican state agencies and he dismissed charges that his operation lacked transparency, saying he had no problem with people touring the facility, as long as the privacy of the teenagers was not compromised.
***********************************

"Everything's fine" must imply that there are no student uprisings or suicides. They obviously aren't there looking for abuse or neglect.
*************************************

The paper provides a message board and invites folks to "Talk Back" about this article. There is only one post which reads:

Posted by: Lou St. John  
Posted on: Monday, June 09, 2003 at 12:22:33 AM  
Location: Malvern, Jamaica  
Occupation: company director  
Comments: If "the cops on patrol did not actually go on the compound" how on earth do they know whether there are problems there or not. Maybe Jamaicans for Justice should drop in unexpectedly, or Amnesty International.
**********

Deborah