All over the world there are private residential treatment programs harming and killing children. The Federal Trade Commision states " No standard definitions exist for specific types of programs. The programs are not regulated by the federal government, and many are not subject to state licensing or monitoring as mental health or educational facilities, either." Since treatment facilities are private businesses, they operate with little to no regulation from the government and are able to profit while using ineffective and abusive techniques under the guise of "treatment". In fact many of the techniques used in the programs are outlawed in juvenile prisons.



These programs for youth operate under many different names: boot camps, emotional growth schools, residential treatment centers, wilderness programs, and therapeutic boarding schools. The majority of them exist in the United States, but many are already being planned and constructed abroad. Youth are most often sent to programs in Utah, Montana, New York, Georgia and California. There are also many programs in Jamaica, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Western Samoa and Costa Rica, which accept mainly American children. These programs claim they must remove youth from their regular environments in order to remove unwanted distractions and influences.



Reports from organizations that have researched the residential treatment industry found many violations of basic human rights towards clients, such as dangerous methods of restraint and medical/nutritional neglect. Testimony from the Government Accountability Office states that youth in residential treatment programs have been "denied medical care, starved, beaten, forced to eat vomit, lie in urine and feces, and to use their toothbrushes to clean toilets and then on their teeth". Patients often report rights were violated, mail was read, phone calls were monitored and there was no access to advocacy groups to field complaints. With all of these restrictions in place it is extremely difficult for teens/youth in these programs to get any help while inside.



Abuse occurs for many reasons, but most often because of ineffective program management, untrained staff and negligent operating practices. Since these programs are private institutions that take no federal funding from the government, claim affiliations with a religion, or assert that they are a school even if providing therapy, they do not need to comply with regulations.



Due to all of these factors children and teens are being tortured and in some very tragic cases killed by people who are employed to help them and care for them.

TO COME: the connection between RTC's, Educational consultants and transport services