Jersey Girl wrote:FYI: harmony needs to weigh in on this thread.
My contribution will likely be minimal. Professionally, this kind of unethical behavior would result in a loss of certification and license for any counselor or PhD associated with this facility. Even private facilities are subject to at least a dozen random inspections every year so it would be very difficult to fly under the radar or trade on a former reputation.
I have a boys' ranch type of facility less than 5 miles from my home, and a friend of mine is their bookkeeper. Another friend of mine is on their board of directors. They are not connected to any particular denomination, although they have a chapel on their grounds. The youth are mainstreamed in the school system on all grade levels (we even had them on our Little League teams back in the days when we were coaching). The house parents are also the counselors, and they sign a legal contract and can only work at the facility for a year. Most of the boys had no criminal record, but were often the victim of bad parenting, poor choices of friends, and living in a bad environment. Poor choices were met with some innovative disciplines (one 5th grader was kicked off the school bus for some infraction for a week. He and his house parent walked the 4 miles to the school every morning, and again home every night for the week. He didn't ever get kicked off the bus again.)
Another facility, run by the state under a military boot camp type of regimen, is about 20 miles from my home. They are very successful with that type of regimen (very structured, a lot of physical activity--marching, obstacle course, etc.--mandatory individual and group counseling, mandatory state-provided school classes). Their residents (they're co-ed) are court-ordered but the residents choose the facility rather than a juvenile detention center. The convictions are not for violent crimes. When the youth leave, they often gravitate to careers in the military, because they are so used to that kind of regimen.
Another boys ranch type of facility is a school and ranch combination. It's about 60 miles from me. They are a religious organization. The waiting list to get into that facility is very long. It's 30 miles from the nearest town and they have their own school, but it is definitely a well designed, well run facility. They have a full range of counselors and access to psychological treament if needed. A friend of mine taught music there for a year and was very impressed with the quality of their system. Any boy who does not want to participate (they even offer after school sports, something many of their residents have never had an opportunity to participate in prior to arriving at the facility) is not forced to stay; however, when they leave, they are put on a plane back to their parents, not just allowed to walk away.
I cannot imagine the state allowing a facility like GoodK describes to exist in my state. There are simply too many checks and balances for that to happen. Too many inspections by too many separate county and state agencies for abuse like this to be allowed to continue. We don't have the wide open spaces that Utah has, so maybe that's why we are able to keep closer track of these types of facilities (not that we don't hear stories in the media about similiar facilities, but not to the extreme GoodK discusses, nor over that long a period of time.)
(Nevo, Jan 23) And the Melchizedek Priesthood may not have been restored until the summer of 1830, several months after the organization of the Church.