Send your kids to torture camp in Jamaica, it's legal too

[Hippo_Tron]

Sorry but I had to change the name because nobody noticed the thread...

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/story/0,11913,987172,00.html

I read about this a few months ago and sent it to my senator, who never replied. It just occured to me that I should post it here. Oh yeah what's even sicker is that though the subject is not brought up much to the best of my knowledge, the GOP thinks it is okay!!! It's so sick...

[madfloridian]

1. Not heard of that one, but there have been similar places here.

Right now I can not think of a name to search on, but the guy was a big Bush family friend. Maybe someone will remember. I had not heard of this one. This sounds too far out to be safe.

[On the Road]

8. Some Kids Need Control and Behavioral Change

and by the time they're 11, it's too late for methods that work for small children. I started the article with an open mind.

But I am appalled at some of the practices like being forced to lie on your face for six months. I also wonder how long the treatment is effective. For a center specializing in behavioral change, they don't seem to know one of the chief findings of behavioral psychology: that punishment never extinguishes behavior completely. The only way is positive reinforcement of alternates.

Whatever the professed philosophy of the group, they are creating compliant teeangers filled with silent rage.

[mkregel]

20. Behavior change is one thing

Mind control cults are anothing thing completely.

[TorchTheWitch]

16. wow... this really rings a bell

Right now I can not think of a name to search on, but the guy was a big Bush family friend. Maybe someone will remember.

I remember seeing a show on 60 Minutes or one of those types of shows about a place like this in Texas or Arizona maybe (somewhere hot and dry), and one of the kids died because him and a few other kids were made to sit in the hot desert sun all day without any water, and they denied him medical treatment when the other kids said he was really sick and needed help. I remember the guy that ran the place was some friend of Bush's... ex-military I think. The guy had no remorse for that kid whatsoever... made me sick.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

2. Let's call it what it is:

A concentration camp. Do they have Tiger Cages, as well?

Perhaps the parents would enjoy going through the courses?

[Hippo_Tron]

3. Did I mention...

On the state department's website they acknowledge the existance of these places and say that they 'recommend' that you go look at them before sending your kids there. For god's sake if I were president I'd have the state department telling these people to put these kids on the first flight back home and using force if necessary and I'd have the attorney general on all of these parents' asses.

[7th_Sephiroth]

4. those places are torture

and thier legal cause thier supporters are rich, white repugnantcons, i have known people who went through those things, they diddent act...natural, and one beat tortured and killed her parents and then killed herself.

[On the Road]

6. I can easily believe

that murder and suicide come naturally to graduates.

I don't think Tranquility Village is the kind of village Hillary Clinton felt was need to raise a child. But she might be interested -- this is right up her alley.

[mkregel]

21. What have you got against Hillary Clinton?

She wasn't even mentioned in this article....

Rush? Is that you?

[On the Road]

5. Just Like "A Clockwork Orange"

and will probably have the results once the graduates return to their old neighborhoods.

[Valerie5555]

7. How about the "Istanbul or whatever city in Turkey" penitentiary in

MIDNIGHT EXPRESS???????????????????????????

[Valerie5555]

9. Could parents also do that if they thought their kids' political or

other beliefs were "too liberal" or "too radical????????"


On edit :scared: :scared: :scared:


On edit Or what if their kids were GAY?????? Or in other words, guys who LIKED OTHER GUYS or gals who LIKED OTHER GALS????????

On edit I did remember reading of a kid who was sent to such a camp for his "too radical" pro - environment, pro - animal rights beliefs.

[7th_Sephiroth]

10. there are people

in those programs for those reasons

[Valerie5555]

23. As an animal lover, what

:scared: me is the notion that there may be kids there for being "fanatical" about animals, even to a mild degree.

[Noordam]

11. They had a place like that in Costa Rica and they closed it

down.

[Sephirstein]

22. I'm not surprised...

Costa Rica doesn't stand for that shit!

[Bombtrack]

12. I have a friend/aquaintance who got sent there

he came back very different and straight edge from being out of control, but reverted back to his old friends/habbits after a while.

[DoveTurnedHawk]

13. DISGUSTING

A number of these students are 18 years old and therefore legally free to walk out, but until they graduate the programme their parents are refusing to have them home. Lindsay Cohen is nearly 19. A straight-A high-school graduate, she was heading for Harvard until an unsuitable choice of boyfriend had her sent here at the age of 17. The day she turned 18, Tranquility would be obliged to hand over $50 and the return half of her air ticket if she wanted to leave.

:puke:

I'm actually somewhat surprised that none of these kids have taken a gun, returned to the place and shot it up. (And no, of course I'm not advocating for that.)

DTH

[Loyal]

14. Fucking sickening

There are no other words to describe it. Why is Jamaica so fucked up? :shrug:

[TreasonousBastard]

15. OMFG...

I've heard of these people a while back, but they kind of dropped off the radar screen for a while.

They must be stopped.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wide_Association_of_Specialty_Programs_and_Schools


http://www.isaccorp.com/publicdocs/tranquilityreport.pdf

[Nobody]

17. Those kids are going to need much of their adult life to get over this

And believe me, I know from experience.

It was a local place that was not a boarding school, but I lost two years of useful education because of it. The "education" described here is exactly the kind of non-education I got. Most of the school day was spent in psychological brainwashing techniques.

Yes, you would do anything and kiss any number of butts to get out of there.

[spooky3]

18. Two words--CHILD ABUSE. (eom)

[Hippo_Tron]

19. I'm going to try and write my Senator again when I get a chance...

Think about it, even though you are sending your kids to a foreign country and therefore American laws don't apply there you still can't hire somebody to handcuff and gag them and throw them into a van. That's child abuse commited in the US right there. You'd think this could be brought up in a debate at one time or another.

[madfloridian]

24. OK, here you go. Info on a Bush friend who founded Straight.

Straight was based on the Seed. It is now DFAF, which I am not familiar with. Here is some stuff I found. Mel Sembler is now Ambassador to Italy.

http://www.nospank.net/rehab.htm
SNIP...."Samantha Monroe was 12 years old in 1981 when her parents enrolled her in the Sarasota, Fla., branch of Straight Inc., an aggressive drub rehab center for teens. Barely a teen, Samantha also had no history of drug abuse. But she spent the next two years of her life surviving Straight.

She was beaten, starved and denied toilet privileges for days on end. She
describes her "humble pants," a punishment that forced her to wear the same
pants for six weeks at a time. Because she was allowed just one shower a
week, the pants often filled with feces, urine and menstrual blood. Often
she was confined to her closet for days. She gnawed through her jaw during
those "timeout" sessions, hoping she'd bleed to death.

Sembler and "Straight" which is now DFAF. This search leads to the Seed,
which was what Straight was based upon. This guy is on Florida's Council of
100, who are not known for caring about our state, he is a huge GOP
fundraiser, AND he is ambassador to Italy? Busy guy.

http://www.thestraights.com/drugpolicy.htm
SNIP...."From 1976 to 1993 Straight, Inc. was the biggest chain of juvenile
drug rehabilitation programs in the world--and one of the most destructive.
Forty former clients have committed suicide; others are insane. In 1996
Straight changed its name to Drug Free America Foundation (DFAF). DFAF does
not treat kids for drug addiction, rather it helps small businesses set up
drug free workplace environments. DFAF is also a major force behind national
and international drug policy.
Straight was preceded by a teen treatment program called The Seed which was
funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). The Seed closed its
expansion programs after the US Senate accused it of brainwashing American
kids and ordered NIDA to require Seed parents and clients to sign NIDA forms
acknowledging that they were participating in human experimentation. Drug
Czar Robert DuPont was then the director of NIDA. Mel and Betty Sembler, two
multimillionaires from Saint Petersburg, Florida, had a kid in The Seed.
They opened Straight which was patterned after The Seed. ....."END SNIP

From an Italian newspaper online, English version.
This is the shortened link.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?V48751A36
SNIP...."
WORLD CONFERENCE ON DRUG PREVENTION FROM SEP. 22 TO 26
(AGI) - Rome, sep. 20 - "Two wings to fly high against drug." This is the
slogan chosen for the fifth World Conference on drug prevention, to be held
in Rome and Pomezia from Sep. 22 to Sep. 26. The Conference, presented
during a press conference at the Don Luigi Sturzo Institute today, is
promoted by the Global Drug Prevention Network, and is organised by the
"Casa Famiglia Rosetta", with the endorsement of the President of the
Republic. Its goal is that of "preventing and informing through the creation
of political, scientific, cultural, social, and religious coalitions." The
President of the Lower House, Pierferdinando Casini, the vice Prime
Minister, Gianfranco Fini, and the U.S. Ambassador in Italy, Mel Sembler,
will attend the inauguration day at the Technology Palace in Rome on Sep.
22. Among others, also the Health Minister, Girolamo Sirchia, the Minister
for Regional affairs, Enrico La Loggia, the Province President, Enrico
Gasbarra, the Interior Undersecretary, Alfredo Manovano, and the government
special Commissioner for anti-drug policies, Pietro Soggiu, will held
speeches....."

More about Sembler:
http://fornits.com/anonanon/articles/200004/20000427-150.htm
SNIP..."By some accounts, the backlash to Straight's treatment philosophy
only fueled Sembler's enthusiasm for conservative causes. Indeed, he speaks
proudly of an ACLU lawsuit filed against Straight's Atlanta affiliate some
years ago. "It just shows that we must have been doing things right," he
says with a grin. And Sembler freely admits to leveraging his reputation
within Republican Party circles to air his drug policy concerns. The story
he likes to tell is of being contacted by five presidential candidates
within 48 hours after Dick Cheney - the former Defense Secretary whom
Sembler had urged to run - withdrew from the 1996 race. The winning suitor
was former Tennessee Governor Lamar Alexander, who knew that Sembler would
back the candidate with the toughest stance on drugs. "Mel's passion is the
drug curse in America," says Alexander, who is weighing his chances for
another run at the White House. "He's very good at raising money, and every
campaign needs people like him, but the reason he does it is simply to make
a difference in his crusade against drugs."

[dreissig]

25. Behavior Modification

After that, they stop plagiarizing high school papers.

[madfloridian]

26. This is a sad, bitter website by the brother of a Straight victim.

http://www.webdiva.org/straight/

"straight inc.
Thanks to the wonderful folks who started and worked at Straight Inc., my brother is dead today. Yes I blame them in part if not completely. Even if my brother was messed up when he went in, they only made him worse, they did NOTHING to help him, he was abused along with many other children.
Straight no longer exists but it's offspring does. They are named: Pathway Family Center, The Seed, SAFE Inc., Kids Helping Kids, Growing Together. Many of these "Wilderness" programs are extremely abusive as well. To top it off George Bush JUST APPOINTED Mel Sembler, founder of Straight Inc., as Ambassador to Italy. This makes want to PUKE! ...."

[Sephirstein]

27. I hate reading things like this...

I am somewhat unstable when things piss me off, and the thoughts that fill my head and my heart whenever I read tales of the Drug War ruining people's lives fill me with thoughts about certain groups (Virtually everyone who's not a libertarian or a progressive) that later make me sick to my stomach.

But I know, that in the end, I am better off for the enlightenment. I was so infused with Drug War propaganda as a teen, that it took some serious libertarian reprogramming 3 years ago (which also, ironically, caused me to swing far to the right in Canadian politics) to set me straight.

[madfloridian]

28. I know what you mean about its being upsetting. This guy is a Bush pal.

I think that is what makes me so angy. He gets rewarded for tormenting so many.

It is sad, but just realize that they were found out and closed down. Even though Nancy Reagan and Diana visited and lauded them, they were found out.

It is sad it took so long. That Sembler is one of the guys I was trying to remember.

Sorry it made you sad. I understand.