Good News: Bad Economy Killing Abusive Teen Programs

Maia Szalavitz
Posted January 30, 2009 | 05:48 PM (EST)

There is a silver lining to this bleak economy: Abusive and ineffective “tough love” programs for teens are failing right and left.

In just the last few weeks, the notorious Tranquility Bay program in Jamaica, Spring Creek Lodge in Montana, and Pathway Family Center in Detroit and Ohio have all been shuttered.

Tranquility Bay was known for making kids kneel on concrete for days and using “restraint” so harsh that it broke bones. Both Tranquility Bay and Spring Creek Lodge were part of a network called the World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools (WWASP or WWASPS)–and the group’s philosophy involves constant use of emotional attacks and humiliation in a rigid, structured day in order to break teens’ spirits.

Spring Creek was notorious for a frigid, small isolation room called “the Hobbit”–sometimes teens were left there for months.

From Pathway–which was descended from the infamously abusive Straight Inc.–I received two separate accounts of suicide attempts by girls which were not reported to their parents, and many stories of the usual attack therapy and humiliation. Unfortunately, neither WWASP nor Pathway is completely dead yet: WWASP still has centers operating in the US and abroad, and Pathway has sites in Indiana: Porter and Indianapolis.