Facilities for troubled teens operate across America. They're called camps, schools, recreation centers, or youth programs.
“They punished us for even the smallest mistakes. Sometimes we couldn't talk at all, or they locked us in solitary – a completely empty room. We had to sit there in silence. When I started humming, they tied me up. When I tried to move around in the cell, they tied me up again.” Sarah Dooly described in a video report for VICE News the traumas she experienced in a facility for “troubled youth”.
These kinds of institutions operate all over America. They're called camps, schools, retreat centers, or youth programs. Some are religiously oriented, others are located in remote wilderness areas. They're exclusively private operations, and in the US, they've become a billion-dollar industry. Parents send their kids there, hoping to get back a cured, “better” child, but this experience often breaks them even more.
“Girls who survived sexual violence had to reenact these horrific acts as part of therapy. They did it with male therapists, and the rest of us had to shout at the girls, calling them who***”, Sarah Dooly further recalls. According to her, the staff repeatedly told the kids that their parents didn't care about them and wouldn't come for them.
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- How Paris Hilton was forced to spread her legs by school staff under the guise of a “medical examination”.
- Very similar practices experienced by other young girls at these schools.
- Why some parents have their kids “kidnapped” by staff instead of taking them to these facilities themselves.
- Which famous psychologist recommended similar facilities and whether they still operate today.
Survivors speak up after years
Parents send their kids to these programs when they're at their wit's end. Kids who drink alcohol, use drugs, or have psychological issues or behavioral problems. These special schools or camps are advertised as places where kids learn, engage in sports, and live happily in a friendly community. In reality, however, they often enforce nonsensical rules, and the leaders use disciplinary methods that are more like bullying and abuse.
Graduates of these programs were silent about their traumatic experiences for a long time. They were inspired to speak out by documentary films revealing the chilling reality of facilities for “troubled youth”. One of them focuses on Paris Hilton – the billionaire's daughter we all remember as the wild party-goer.
Because of her love for the party life, her parents sent her as a teenager to a boarding school in Provo, Utah. They hoped the staff there would turn their unruly daughter into an orderly heir to the hotel empire. But according to her own words, Paris felt more like she was in prison:
“It was supposed to be a school, but classes weren't the main focus at all. From the moment I woke up in the morning, someone yelled at me all day long, it was terrible torture. They told us horrible things and tried to make us feel the worst about ourselves,” says Paris Hilton in the documentary This Is Paris. She also recalls being physically punished by beatings and being restrained so she couldn't move.
The documentary features three of her classmates who testified similarly, adding that the school's staff even gave them strong sedatives. Moreover, they were completely cut off from the outside world.
Paris Hilton remembers that she could contact her parents once every two to three months, but she didn’t tell them what was happening at the school. She tried once and got into big trouble. She left the school when she turned 18, after spending nearly a year there.
After the documentary was released, Paris Hilton admitted facing sexual harassment at school:
“They woke us up in the middle of the night and took us to a room where we had to lie naked on a table and spread our legs. They then claimed they were doing a medical examination and stuck their fingers inside. They weren't doctors but school employees,” she said in a 2023 interview with Glamour Magazine.
From these experiences, Paris Hilton has developed a phobia of medical examinations and childbirth – this is also the main reason why both of her children were born via surrogate.
Unfortunately, Paris Hilton's case isn't isolated. Marry Collins encountered similar practices at another facility for “troubled youth”.
“When I was 13, they gave me a full gynecological exam. I had to strip naked and spread my legs. Then someone from the staff took me to the shower – it was a man. I had to shower in front of him, which was very traumatizing for me. I remember the water was very cold,” Marry Collins said in a video report for VICE News.
Nonsensical rules and abductions with parental consent
Another documentary series exposing the insane practices of American reform schools came out two years ago on Netflix. In the three-part series The Program: Cons, Cults and Kidnapping, director and former camper Katherine Kubler depicts life in a reform facility. She ended up there because of alcohol issues.
Katherine returns to the now-closed Ivy Ridge Academy with her former classmates. They recall how they weren't allowed to close the bathroom door during bowel movements, couldn't talk or make eye contact with fellow students, and were punished for looking out the window.
The way kids get into these facilities is also traumatic. It's not always the parents who take them there. The cost often includes “transportation” services. Cassia Cilento, signed up for such a facility due to drug dependency issues, will never forget the day of her transfer.
She was fourteen and woke up early to find two strangers in her room: “We're taking you to your new school,”they said. Her parents weren't home, so she complied. They took her to the airport and transported her to a camp in Arizona.
Reform facilities encourage parents to use this method of transportation. Their argument is that it reduces the risk of escape and the element of surprise is important – it paralyzes the kids and prevents them from resisting or negotiating. Teenagers who were taken to camps this way describe it as kidnapping. During transport, they're often restrained and have their phones confiscated.
Reform camps recommended by a famous psychologist
Every year, about 100,000 children are in residential reform programs in the USA. They had their biggest boom roughly 10 to 20 years ago. They were even promoted by famous psychologist Phil McGraw, known as Dr. Phil, who hosted a mental health talk show for over twenty years.
Phil McGraw recommended that the parents of two problematic girls take them to a reform facility in Utah. One of the kids, Hannah Archuleta, was taken there right after filming an episode.
As an adult, Hannah Archuleta sued Phil McGraw and the TV crew because she experienced sexual harassment twice by an employee on the ranch: “Under her underwear, he touched her vagina and buttocks,” the lawsuit stated. However, she was not successful in court.
Some former staff members have started speaking up, too. In a video report for VICE News, one admitted getting the job as a counselor without any education or experience working with kids:
“I had no idea what I was getting into when I took the job. It was far worse than I could have imagined. They locked kids in solitary for days, without the chance to talk to anyone,” he recalls, his voice cracking.
Desperate kids often attempted suicide in these camps – Cassia remembers hearing a terrifying thud one of the first nights. A girl in another room broke a mirror and stabbed herself multiple times. She didn't return to the camp, and the camp leadership prohibited them from talking about it.
Pressure from victims changed legislation
For years, thousands of kids suffered in these reform camps with no one believing them. After documentaries and the publication of dozens of testimonials, activist groups took up the issue. They pressured individual states to tighten laws. Nowadays, it's more challenging for these facilities to get licensed, there are clear rules for communication with parents, and state representatives make unannounced inspections.
Of course, the degree of regulation depends on the specific state, so there are still facilities continuing old practices. At the federal level, a law was passed in 2024 creating a research group. Agents from this group collect data on reported bullying, abuse, or sexual assaults, and also investigate individual cases.
Former camp victims organize on social media. They reconnect with former classmates to whom they shared these horrible experiences. On TikTok or Instagram, they share their stories under the hashtag #breakcodesilence, spreading awareness to prevent such stories from happening again.
