In the News: JLC Partner Kelly Guagenty on "troubled teen industry" protests

Photo Credit: Arielle Domb/The Guardian

JLC partner Kelly Guagenty and former associate Martha Carol were interviewed by The Guardian for a feature story about former residents of Arizona-based Re-Creation Retreat (RCR), advertised as teen rehab facility. Attorneys at Justice Law Collaborative are representing “survivors of abuse” at RCR however no legal action had been filed against the facility as of yet.

Similar to a multitude of programs based across the United States, RCR has been outed as a "troubled teen" facility, defined as a network of therapeutic boarding schools, religious academies, wilderness programs and rehabilitation centers that purport to provide therapy for teenagers experiencing addiction, mental illness, and behavioral challenges. However, nearly all of these programs have been accused of abusive practices which, in some cases, have led to a resident's death.

Across the US, between 120,000 and 200,000 young people live in these types of programs where residents are stripped of their basic human rights. Fortunately, through ongoing advocacy from a variety of human rights organizations and troubled teen program survivors including celebrity Paris Hilton, monumental legislation has recently been signed into law with the hope of denting, if not beginning to dismantle, the egregious wrongdoings associated with the industry as a whole.

The Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act was signed into law by Joseph R. Biden on December 24, 2024. Since then, additional legislation has been winding its way through state legislatures including the Preventing Abduction in Youth Transport Act (HB497; Maryland), brought forward by Maryland Delegate Vaughn Stewart. As initially outlined, the bill would prohibit “youth transport companies” from restraining and transporting young adults to troubled teen programs; and to create a path for civil penalties to be filed against these companies should they not comply. The reason for this new bill is the cooperation between facilities and transportation companies hired to "kidnap" teenagers and young adults from their homes, restrain and bind them, and transport them across the country in the darkness of night.

For The Guardian, writer Arielle Domb narrates the story of two former RCR residents and how they arrived at, endured, and were eventually released from RCR. Her story outlines how the shared trauma they together suffered brought them closer together and became a lifelong thread. Her story can be read here.

Source: The Guardian/ Author: Arielle Domb