Juvenile Justice read “ Make no mistake about it , the actions taken at St . Johns Youth Academy were reprehensible , unacceptable , and have no place in Florida . We have removed all youth from this program ….” Florida had contracted to pay the operator of St . Johns , Sequel , $ 41.5 million over the course of 2022 for activities across the state .
Shell Games To Dodge Accountability
Some of the owners of these facilities have made great efforts to hide corporate structure and ownership since a rash of press has affected their public image . In fact , name changes are so common that some employees are unaware of the current ownership and will answer telephone calls simply as “ facility ”. Behind the corporate fog is also Wall Street money : shareholder presentations promise investors consistent program revenue and a growing market with significant barriers to entry . To better understand the “ consistent program revenue ” promised in the marketing material , one must better understand how a child comes to be in one of these facilities .
Voluntary Placements Meet With Equal Mistreatments
There are two primary ways in which a child may come to be in an exploited teen facility : 1 ) a parent or guardian puts them there , or 2 ) a state actor puts them there . For the purposes of this article , children who are committed by a parent or guardian will be called “ voluntary ,” and those put in a facility by a state actor will be called “ involuntary .”
Paris Hilton Celebrity Paris Hilton was a voluntary placement at four different facilities as a child . She learned she was going to a facility when she was awakened one night by two men with handcuffs and told she could go “ the easy way or the hard way .” Ms . Hilton has publicly detailed the abuses that she suffered , including sexual assault masquerading as gynecological exams in the middle of the night by staff . The cost of one of the facilities , Provo Canyon , is reported to be over $ 12,500 per month and an average length of stay between 8 and 12 months .
Naomi Wood A more recent example of a voluntarily admitted child in Florida can be illustrated in the tragic story of Naomi Wood . In early 2020 , Naomi Wood was brought from Vermont to the Lakeland Girls Academy , also known as Teen Challenge , in Lakeland , Florida .
Over the course of her time at the facility , Naomi would be administered Pepto-Bismol approximately 20 times to address stomach issues , but never taken to a doctor . In fact , the facility had no protocol to address medical care and is unclear whether the facility ever informed Naomi ’ s family as to her condition . Naomi began vomiting on the evening of May 18 and continued to be ill throughout the night and following day .
Staff did not seek any medical attention , but got her up and fed her soup , until she was found unresponsive in her room . Naomi died en route to the medical center .
A medical consultation by Dr . Carol Lily , CPT Medical Director , found Naomi suffered from medical neglect and expressed additional concerns about Naomi ’ s mental health issues while at the facility . A mother of a former resident of Lakeland Girls Academy , stated that the program charged about $ 5,000 a month .
Exploitive Marketing Tactics
An additional aspect for analysis within the class of voluntarily admitted children class is the marketing provided by the industry . The facility that neglected Naomi to the point of death promised on their website “ help for girls who are struggling .” The website for Lakeland claimed to address issues of “ low self-esteem , depression and suicidal thoughts , academic problems , promiscuity and anger / defiance .” The program stated it accepted “ many girls who were adopted and ‘ have become filled with anger ’ as teenagers and ‘ have taken for granted all that has been sacrificed and provided them .’”
Made-up diagnoses Lakeland ’ s claims are not out of the ordinary for the industry or these facilities nor are they new . “ The thing is , there ’ s no diagnosis for ‘ troubled teen ’. It ’ s a thing made up to sell these programs ,” said former Time magazine health reporter , Maia Szalavitz . Marketing material promises “ immediate and longlasting solutions for parents whose teens are making poor choices and engaged in risky behaviors .”
Discounts for parental promoting To bootstrap the believability of these claims , some programs have gone as far as providing tuition discounts for parents to promote the program . One mother recounted that she would get approximately $ 5,000 off her son ’ s tuition every time someone would click the page of her testimonial and enroll for the program .
Fake accreditation Facilities have also claimed accreditation through nonexistent inspections or used referral services to ‘ evaluate ’ a child ’ s need , when in reality all children are referred to the same program . Simply put , the industry marketing promises concrete cures to a nebulous host of real and imagined problems ; concerned parents are lured in and assured by false testimonials , misleading statements or outright lies until the child suffers the reality .
Placement By State Actors
The involuntary children are placed in the industry by state actors . These actors can be juvenile courts , state juvenile