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Troubled Teen Industry in the USA

August 29, 2024

In the USA, teenagers with behavioral problems often end up in re-education centers. These function like prisons, isolating the young people from the outside world. The harsh educational measures sometimes end in death.

https://p.dw.com/p/4jYiq
Troubled Teen Industry - The School-Prison Scandal
In some facilities, new arrivals have their hair shaved off.Image: Beliane

This documentary sheds light on the extreme methods used in re-education facilities in the USA. These include isolation, torture and humiliation, as well as something called "assault therapy".

Troubled Teen Industry - The School-Prison Scandal
With a market estimated at $50 billion a year, this industry operates without legislation or proper control, leaving teenagers and their families hopelessly trapped and broken.Image: Beliane

These practices, which have little or nothing to do with traditional psychological treatments, aim to "reform" individuals through discipline and suffering. The adolescents sent there by their parents are between 8 and 18 years old. These parents report being overwhelmed by their adolescent children, citing problems from learning difficulties to substance abuse, social media addiction, anxiety disorders, depression or a sexual orientation they find unacceptable. 

Troubled Teen Industry - The School-Prison Scandal
Led by survivors like the famous Paris Hilton, who shares her traumatic experience in her documentary “This Is Paris”, a resistance movement is rising up against these “centers of shame”.Image: Beliane

These private facilities do a lucrative business. In the hope that their children will get better, families spend thousands of dollars every month. Some even mortgage their homes to pay for their children to be part of these programs.

Troubled Teen Industry - The School-Prison Scandal
Image: Beliane

Their children, on the other hand, can suffer lifelong damage there. There have also been cases of suicide. The film features young adults who have managed to escape the school prison system and parents who realized too late how cruel this system is.

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