I had a friend who went through this. The day he told me I was completely stunned - we talked about it for three hours and I couldn't do anything else but research this as much as I could. He was put in a specific program when he was I think 16. In the middle of the night, a large man came into his house, bound and gagged him, and carried him to a van. He knew his parents were involved, because that night he said he saw their door was closed, and they never closed their door. He called them for help but they didn't come. The man brought him to the airport and flew with him to Missoula, where they got in a car and drove for hours, to the middle of nowhere. His parents paid for this.
I don't remember how long he was there, but the camp was run by Mormons (he was not Mormon) and it was located near the Montana/Idaho border in the middle of nowhere. You couldn't run away because there was nowhere to run, no one to run to. None of the kids could drive. There was no sexual abuse that he knew of, but he couldn't do some basic things, like he wasn't allowed to sing. The imprisoned children were organized into teams that would earn points for good behavior, but the points and standings were so whimsical and irrational that everyone lost faith in the system - that there was no point to good behavior because whatever perk/standing gained was taken away for any small infraction.
He escaped by staging a suicide attempt - he wasn't actually suicidal but thought if he made it look bad enough he could get out. After his attempt, he was hospitalized. He told the hospital workers what he had gone through, and they were like, yeah there's no way we're sending you back there, we'll call your parents. After he was released, a girl at that camp did kill herself.
This organization ran I think 10-15 camps, including one in Jamaica where there was sexual abuse. Survivors have set up networks and forums that you can find online and read about their experience. One very common takeaway, common to many of the survivors of the camp, is that they now keep themselves within close proximity of a weapon in the event someone attempts to abduct them, and analyze rooms for items they can use to defend themselves. I'll never forget the day he told me because of how chilling and upsetting it was, that it was legal in the first place, that his parents paid for it, that there were no qualifications to run this or any public oversight. Just shepherding kids to fucking western Montana because...?
edit: I hadn't listened to the TrueAnon ep when I posted this. The Jamaica camp I am thinking of was Tranquility Bay, which they discuss.
I had a friend who went through this. The day he told me I was completely stunned - we talked about it for three hours and I couldn't do anything else but research this as much as I could. He was put in a specific program when he was I think 16. In the middle of the night, a large man came into his house, bound and gagged him, and carried him to a van. He knew his parents were involved, because that night he said he saw their door was closed, and they never closed their door. He called them for help but they didn't come. The man brought him to the airport and flew with him to Missoula, where they got in a car and drove for hours, to the middle of nowhere. His parents paid for this.
I don't remember how long he was there, but the camp was run by Mormons (he was not Mormon) and it was located near the Montana/Idaho border in the middle of nowhere. You couldn't run away because there was nowhere to run, no one to run to. None of the kids could drive. There was no sexual abuse that he knew of, but he couldn't do some basic things, like he wasn't allowed to sing. The imprisoned children were organized into teams that would earn points for good behavior, but the points and standings were so whimsical and irrational that everyone lost faith in the system - that there was no point to good behavior because whatever perk/standing gained was taken away for any small infraction.
He escaped by staging a suicide attempt - he wasn't actually suicidal but thought if he made it look bad enough he could get out. After his attempt, he was hospitalized. He told the hospital workers what he had gone through, and they were like, yeah there's no way we're sending you back there, we'll call your parents. After he was released, a girl at that camp did kill herself.
This organization ran I think 10-15 camps, including one in Jamaica where there was sexual abuse. Survivors have set up networks and forums that you can find online and read about their experience. One very common takeaway, common to many of the survivors of the camp, is that they now keep themselves within close proximity of a weapon in the event someone attempts to abduct them, and analyze rooms for items they can use to defend themselves. I'll never forget the day he told me because of how chilling and upsetting it was, that it was legal in the first place, that his parents paid for it, that there were no qualifications to run this or any public oversight. Just shepherding kids to fucking western Montana because...?
edit: I hadn't listened to the TrueAnon ep when I posted this. The Jamaica camp I am thinking of was Tranquility Bay, which they discuss.
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