HR 911 Please introduce and pass in Senate

Private residential facilities for problem youths have become a lucrative industry in the past few decades. The industry is poorly and unevenly regulated. Some facilities escape regulation by being called boarding schools even though their real focus is behavior modification rather than education. Some are unregulated because they are wilderness camps. Some are unregulated because youths choose to go there “voluntarily” rather than being kidnapped from their homes by hired escorts. And some are unregulated because they are owned and operated by churches.

The 2009 bill, HR911, outlaws many of the abuses that have caused deaths in these programs. It prohibits disciplinary practices that withhold “essential food, water, clothing, shelter, or medical care.”

It sets limits on the use of physical and mechanical restraints and seclusion.

It requires all staff to be familiar with the signs of and appropriate responses to heatstroke, dehydration, and hypothermia. It requires the program to have policies for the provision of emergency medical care. It requires that youths be allowed to make and receive phone calls with “as much privacy as possible” and be allowed to call the state hotline to report abuses.

HR911 does not exempt church-run facilities from its requirements. It will greatly improve protection for young people in residential care, especially in Missouri, which allows church-run facilities to operate without even sanitation or food safety inspections and which has been a giant magnet for operators of abusive programs who get in trouble elsewhere.

Please consider sponsoring or co-sponsoring HR911 in the Senate; we must protect the rights and lives of all our citizens, even those too young to vote.

Sun., Aug. 29, 2010 12:27 AM link Erica D. | Waldwick, NJ
I was put in a "residential treatment center" (a facility for troubled teenagers with dual diagnoses) and then a "therapeutic boarding school" (again, a facility for troubled teenagers with dual diagnoses), despite that I had never once done drugs or even drank alcohol. I was placed there by my parents against my will, simply because I have fibromyalgia and my parents did not know how to deal with it. These facilities spew false promises to the parents of teens. I cannot express how much this residential treatment center and the therapeutic boarding school have damaged me. These facilities are downright sickening and MUST be regulated.
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Thu., Aug. 12, 2010 2:29 AM link Clinton J. | Beaumont, TX
Mon., Jul. 26, 2010 3:40 PM link Jessica S. | Boulder, CO
Fri., Jul. 23, 2010 2:18 AM link Name not displayed | Wilmington, IL
Fri., Jul. 9, 2010 3:09 PM link Christopher D. | Garrettsville, OH
Wed., Jun. 16, 2010 7:23 PM link Julia P. | Corydon, IN
Wed., Jun. 16, 2010 10:13 AM link Carol S. | Panama City, FL
These facilities need to be governed by some entity. When these establishments are allowed to operate ungoverned, it results in the reports of abuses by staff.
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Mon., Jun. 14, 2010 11:40 PM link Nicholas C. | Tempe, AZ
Wed., Jun. 9, 2010 8:45 AM link Jen V. | Hockessin, DE
Tue., Jun. 8, 2010 5:41 AM link Name not displayed | Palos Verdes Peninsula, CA
Mon., Jun. 7, 2010 1:43 AM link Andrew H. | Eastsound, WA
Tue., May. 25, 2010 6:02 PM link Gopiballava F. | Palo Alto, CA
Tue., May. 18, 2010 11:53 AM link Adele H. | Memphis, TN
Please read "Reform at Victory: a Survivor's Story" by Michele Ulriksen for an account of the horrible psychological cruelty and emotional damage caused by places like this. Shockingly, they get away with it simply because they claim to be "helping youth" and because many of them are religious institutions.
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Thu., May. 6, 2010 4:33 PM link Cathy G. | Akron, OH
As a former abused inmate of a youth detention facility, and as one who is aware of the goings on of many others who are similarly incarcerated and abuse, I urge you to pass this measure with firmness and expediency.
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Tue., Apr. 20, 2010 10:48 PM link Morgan-LynnGriggs L. | Blythe, GA
Wed., Apr. 14, 2010 1:00 PM link Heidi M. | Gardner, MA
Wed., Mar. 10, 2010 12:56 AM link Helen M. | Arlington, VA
Tue., Mar. 9, 2010 5:51 PM link Phyliss D. | Jersey City, NJ
There are better ways of dealing with the problems that trouble our youth. Being involved parents is a good start. For ouside help there are many non-abusive counseling and youth activities available. If you abuse, you only teach the young how to abuse. They will either abuse others or themselves. Stop the insanity.
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Tue., Mar. 9, 2010 5:37 PM link Name not displayed | Vallejo, CA
This shouldn't be necessary, but it is.
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Mon., Mar. 8, 2010 2:48 PM link Misty H. | Santa Rosa, CA

HR 911 Please introduce and pass in Senate

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