| "If I can't make a kid puke or piss in his pants on his first day, I'm not doing my job." A youth trainer at a juvenile facility
The near-total absence of governmental regulation and oversight of locked residential "treatment" facilities where children are warehoused closely parallels conditions in the pre-FDA days of the Wild West when itinerant pitchmen peddled fake remedies to the desperate and the gullible. But there is one important distinction. When people became ill as a result of using some homemade brew that proved toxic, the peddler who sold it would have his cart smashed and be lucky to get out of town alive. The "troubled-teen" industry runs no such risk. When their product fails -- as it usually does -- they blame the customer. And there are no refunds. J. Riak Who's Watching The Kids?
There are more than 30 privately run schools for troubled youth operating in the state of Montana. They employ more than 600 people and pump an estimated 4 million into the state income taxes. It's an exploding industry, but strangely, most Montanans have no idea the schools even exist. In this hour-long documentary, MontanaPBS explores a lucrative industry praised for its novel approach to reforming youth, yet shrouded in disturbing allegations of abuse and neglect. |