Teens in Trouble

Ever heard of Tranquility Bay?

It's this kind of resort for "troubled teens" in Jamaica. Y'know, the tropics. Where they have nice weather all year round, gorgeous beaches, and local officials who don't ask too many questions about foreign-owned businesses or what goes on inside them.

To get in, all you need to be is a "rebellious" teen with wealthy parents who don't know what else to do with you.

The London Guardian recently did an article on it.

Their methods will seem familiar to POWs of the Vietnam War, or to anyone who has researched cult mind control techniques.

Quote:

When most children first arrive they find it difficult to believe that they have no alternative but to submit. In shock, frightened and angry, many simply refuse to obey. This is when they discover the alternative. Guards take them (if necessary by force) to a small bare room and make them (again by force if necessary) lie flat on their face, arms by their sides, on the tiled floor. Watched by a guard, they must remain lying face down, forbidden to speak or move a muscle except for 10 minutes every hour, when they may sit up and stretch before resuming the position. Modest meals are brought to them, and at night they sleep on the floor of the corridor outside under electric light and the gaze of a guard. At dawn they resume the position.

This is known officially as being 'in OP' - Observation Placement - and more casually as 'lying on your face'. Any level student can be sent to OP, and it automatically demotes them to level 1 and zero points. Every 24 hours, students in OP are reviewed by staff, and only sincere and unconditional contrition will earn their release. If they are unrepentant? 'Well, they get another 24 hours.'

One boy told me he'd spent six months in OP.

I didn't think this could be true, but it transpired this was not even exceptional. 'Oh no,' says Kay. 'The record is actually held by a female.' On and off, she spent 18 months lying on her face.

The stories about what has been going on in Tranquility Bay, owned by the Utah-based World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools (Wwasp), are beginning to leak out to other news outlets as well.

A NY Times article, via the Salt Lake City Tribune, contains the following quote:

"I got some good out of it," said Colin Johnstone, 15, of Louisville, Ky., who came to Tranquility Bay at 13. "But it is kind of like torture. It did me more damage than good."

You'd think with conditions like this, they'd have wound up in court already.

Well, they have....

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Here are three pages of the testimony of a witness who was sent to Tranquility Bay at the age of 14 and was released at the age of 16. He smoked marijuana. That was his crime. (Apologies for the blurry text.)

. .

These pages were taken from the court record of the Farmer case, available in full here. (Note: their scans are much higher quality and much easier to read than the ones here.)

This page, describing an event unrelated to the case, might also be of interest:

The main part of the case is summarized in this Jamaica Observer article, which ran under the following lead:

After a six month battle in court, Gini Farmer got her 13 year-old cousin 'John' out of Tranquility Bay in Jamaica and back into the United States under court order. Farmer's story is posted on helpyourteens.com, with a warning to parents that such 'behavioural modification facilities' may in reality be a living hell for teenagers.

WHAT goes on behind the closed doors of Tranquility Bay, St Elizabeth has remained a well kept secret for years, even after a 16-year old girl fell to her death last year.

But in August this year, operations at Tranquility Bay were brought to the fore in a United States court, when the family of a 13 year-old boy tried to get him out of the facility and back to the United States.

Other Wwasp facilities have already faced similar problems. One in Costa Rica was closed down. Another had instructors who ran afoul of local laws against illegal imprisonment and torture.

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So what can one do about it?

It took some looking, but this message board has many links to discussions about Wwasp programs in Jamaica and other places.

Here's an excerpt from one kid's post on that message board:

I constantly have flash backs and bad dreams and I fear having people or "STAFF" scream and or spitt in my face..I am not here to bash the program im telling u the truth..im not getting to indepth with all of this but what every one has said is true..i did get " RESTRAINED " And i had the bruises and nerve damage to prove it.. So the call is yours..im informing u your son is not safe and i cry for the kids in Jamaica every night before i go to sleep..I leaft on level one..but i did get as far as level 4..Program Completion is not a must...A child has in his head wheter or not he is gonna do good on the outside wheter he has worked the program or not..I have seen kids graduate and kids leave with no sucuss in the program and in some cases program graduates are in jail...

I also found a "survivors" forum for "victims of behavior modification," focussing on Tranquility Bay, and a site accompanying the book "American Gulag," written by Alexia Parks, who has been crusading against these institutions since 1996.

There's a discussion on Barbelith on this now, which includes links to other sites... like the active community at The Straights.com, consisting of survivors of a similar program, "Straight, Inc."

And apparently, there's also an advisory from the US Department of State against sending your kids to these places.

So will parents start listening? Do they care enough? Or, one wonders, are they too busy conducting their custody battles for the children they're simply unable (or unwilling) to cope with?