The troubled teen industry is a term used to refer to a broad range of youth residential programs aimed at struggling teenagers. The term encompasses various facilities and programs, including youth residential treatment centers, wilderness programs, boot camps, and therapeutic boarding schools.

These programs claim to rehabilitate and teach troubled teenagers through various practices. Troubled teen facilities are privately run, and the troubled teen industry constitutes a multi-billion dollar industry. They accept young people who are considered to have struggles with learning disabilities, emotional regulation, mental illness, and substance abuse. Young people may be labeled as "troubled teens," delinquents, or other language on their websites and other advertising materials. Sometimes, these therapies are used as a punishment for contravening family expectations.

The troubled teen industry has encountered many scandals due to child abuse, institutional corruption, and deaths, and is highly controversial. Many critics of these facilities point to a lack of local, state, and federal laws in the United States and elsewhere governing them. In addition to their controversial therapeutic practices, many former residents report being forcibly transported to troubled teen facilities by teen escort companies, a practice known among former "troubled teens" as gooning.

History 

The troubled teen industry has a precursor in the drug rehabilitation program called Synanon, founded in 1958 by Charles Dederich. By the late 1970s, Synanon had developed into a cult and adopted a resolution proclaiming the Synanon Religion, with Dederich as the highest spiritual authority, allowing the organization to qualify as tax-exempt under US law. Synanon rejected the use of medication for drug rehabilitation, and instead relied on the "Synanon Game", group sessions of attack therapy where members were encouraged to criticize and humiliate each other. Synanon popularized "tough love" attack therapy as a treatment for addiction, and the idea that confrontation and verbal condemnation could cure adolescent misbehavior. Synanon disbanded in 1991, after its tax-exempt status was revoked by the IRS and it was bankrupted by having to pay US$17 million in back taxes.

Synanon's techniques were highly influential and inspired human potential self-help organizations such as Erhard Seminars Training (est) and Lifespring. 

Synanon-style therapy was also used in Straight, Incorporated and The Seed, two drug rehabilitation programs for youth.

Former Synanon member Mel Wasserman founded CEDU Educational Services in 1967, a company which operated within the troubled teens industry. CEDU owned several for-profit therapeutic boarding schools, group homes, and behavior modification programs. The techniques used by CEDU schools were derived from Synanon's; for example, long, confrontational large-group sessions called "Propheets" took cues from the Synanon Game. CEDU went out of business in 2005, amid lawsuits and state regulatory crackdowns.

Joseph "Joe" Ricci, dropout from a direct Synanon-descendent program, founded a therapeutic boarding school called Élan School in 1970. Élan closed down in 2011 amid persistent allegations of abuse.

Synanon's techniques also inspired the World Wide Association of Specialty Programs (WWASP), an umbrella organization of facilities meant for rehabilitating troubled teenagers. WWASP is no longer in business, due to widespread allegations of physical and psychological abuse.

Practices 

Troubled teen programs have been criticized for failing to offer evidence-based therapies such as cognitive behavioral therapy or trauma- and violence-informed care. Many or most troubled teen programs share a common lineage descending from Synanon, and use some form of "the game," a group attack therapy session. Additionally, some TTI programs use a form of primal therapy, a discredited form of therapy which involves reenacting traumatic and painful moments such as rape.

Many practices used in troubled teen programs, especially punishments, have been singled out as constituting child abuse or neglect. These include but are not limited to: restricting communication with family and peers; use of physical and chemical restraint (i.e., in the form of sedative drugs); use of seclusion as punishment; gay conversion therapy; excessive use of strip search and cavity search; denial of sleep and nutrition; aversion therapy; etc.

In 2007, the Government Accountability Office published a study verifying thousands of reports of abuse and death in TTI facilities dating back to 1990. The National Disability Rights Network published a report in 2021 reporting common issues at troubled teen facilities including the aforementioned forms of abuse as well as chronic staffing shortages, deprivation of education, and unhygienic and unsafe facility conditions.

Transportation 
Many troubled teen institutions offer youth transportation through teen escort companies, in which minors are transported to their facilities against their will. Parents who sign their children up for troubled teen camps will sign over temporary custody to the teen escort company. This transportation is a service offered in the United States and elsewhere, and is a practice that has been criticized on ethical and legal grounds as being akin to kidnapping. Some of the subjects report not realizing they were transported with permission of their parents until days afterward. Clients have reported being ambushed in their own beds at home, or tricked into believing they are going elsewhere. Those who have been in the troubled teen industry call this process "getting gooned."

Regulatory laws 
Utah, California, Oregon, Montana, and Missouri have all enacted laws aimed at increasing oversight of troubled teen facilities. Utah's law was proposed in 2021 after noted celebrity Paris Hilton came out with her story about her experience at Provo Canyon School. Hilton's testimony triggered a state investigation into the facility, and she later advocated for the law when it was in the process of being passed.

In the United States Congress, bills were proposed to regulate troubled teen facilities every year from 2007 to 2018. In 2021, the Stronger Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act was passed by the House of Representatives. , it has not been passed by the Senate.

Timeline 

 1967: CEDU High School is founded by Mel Wasserman, a former Synanon member, in Running Springs, CA.
 May 30, 1970: The Élan School is founded by Joe Ricci, a former resident of Daytop Village, in Naples, ME.
 February 16, 1982: Nancy Reagan visits Straight, Inc. in Florida.
 December 27, 1982 Philip Williams Jr dies in Elan School boxing ring.
 May 26, 1983: A federal jury awards a Straight, Inc. patient $220,000 after finding said patient to have been falsely imprisoned by the foundation.
 November 11, 1985: Princess Diana and Nancy Reagan visit Straight, Inc.
 1987: Scientology's troubled teen program, called Mace-Kingsley Ranch School, opens in California
 January 15, 1995: Aaron Bacon dies from acute peritonitis whilst attending the North Star Wilderness Program in Utah.
 December 21, 1996: Craig Fisher is sentenced over his role in Aaron Bacon's death.
 1998: Robert Lichfield creates World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools.
 1999: National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs is founded.
 Feburary 2001: 14-year-old Ryan Lewis committed suicide whilst enrolled at Alldredge Academy in West Virginia.
 July 2001: 14-year-old Tony Haynes was forced to eat dirt before dying at a desert boot camp for teenagers.
 July 15, 2002: Ian August dies while attending the Skyline Journey Wilderness Program in Utah.
 December 25, 2002: A 17-year-old girl named Kiley Jaquays falls to her death while visiting the Bloomington Caves in Utah with her residential treatment center Integrity House.
 May 23, 2003: Costa Rican government officials shut down the Academy at Dundee Ranch, a behavior modification program run by the US-based company World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools.
 February 8, 2004: 16-year-old Daniel Yeun goes missing from CEDU High School in the state of California.
 October 2004: Karlye Newman committed suicide at Spring Creek Lodge Academy.
 2006: Yang Yongxin establishes an "Internet-addiction camp" inside the Fourth Hospital of Linyi in China and begins practicing electroconvulsive therapy.
 February 8, 2013: The hacking collective group Anonymous launches a campaign against the troubled teen industry calling it #OpTTIabuse.
 November 2015, 10 teenagers arrested due to a riot at Copper Hills Youth Center in Utah.
 July 10, 2019: Red Rock Canyon School in Utah closes after a riot breaks out in April 2019.
 October 9, 2020: American socialite Paris Hilton and other former residents of Provo Canyon School lead a silent protest against the school in Provo, Utah.
 August 31, 2022: Agape Baptist Academy is served an indictment for transporting a California teenager and violating protection order.
 January 11, 2023: Agape Baptist Academy announces plans for permanent closure.

Media 
 Children of Darkness, a 1983 documentary on the Élan School
 Not My Kid, a 1985 TV movie based on the Straight, Inc. program
 Without Consent, a 1994 TV movie about a teenager sent to abusive residential treatment center where clients are drugged and abused.
 Locked in Paradise, a television program on the troubled teen program called Tranquility Bay, aired in December 2004
 Brat Camp, a reality TV show first aired in 2005, where teenagers are sent to wilderness therapy programs in the states of Utah, Idaho, and Arizona.
 In The Simpsons episode We're on the Road to D'ohwhere, Bart is enrolled at upward bound, a behavior modification program. During his time there, he chops firewood.
 Boot Camp, a 2008 film based on the WWASP program Paradise Cove, located in Samoa.
 The Mentalist in the season one episode blood brothers, The team investigate the death of a teen who has been murdered at a school troubled teen. It is revealed the reason the teenager was sent to the program because he spent too much time in his bedroom and was argumentative.
 Kidnapped for Christ, a documentary released in 2014 about a Christian behavior modification program
 The Last Stop, a documentary on the Élan School released in 2017.
 Life Boat, a short film created, written, and directed by Lorriane Nicholson and starring Stephen Dorff, released in 2017.
 This Is Paris, a documentary on Paris Hilton's experience in various troubled-teen programs, released in 2020
''Cruel Instruction, a 2022 TV movie about 16-year-old Kayla Adams who is sent is to a therapeutic boarding school.
Outer Banks (TV series): In the ninth episode of Season Three, the 17-year-old character Kiara is sent to Kitty Hawk, a wilderness therapy program where she is diagnosed with Oppositional defiant disorder.

See also
 Applied behavior analysis
 Attack therapy
 Conversion therapy
 Synanon
 Wilderness therapy
 Oppositional defiant disorder

References

Further reading

Juvenile delinquency
Ethically disputed business practices
Industries (economics)
Human rights abuses
Conversion therapy
Medical controversies
Religion and mental health
Religion and science