American teens deported from Mexican based treatment centers

There has been a lot of talk on my discussion lists about these rehab centers for young people lately. Basically used as a dumping ground for strong-willed children, parents jumped at the chance to hide these kids in programs that promise (and often delivered) results, with no questions asked. Many veterans of these "scared straight" programs of the past recall with horror the mistreatment they suffered at the hands of "counselors" and the inhumane conditions under which they lived. I might mention as adults they mostly still consume drugs but they survived their "rehab" by going along with the program and pretending to be cured.

These places still exist here in the US but have increasingly come under public scrutiny as the tales of mistreatment surface publicly and one suspects that the reason some programs set up in foreign countries is to avoid US regulations that interfere with their methodology. Apparently this doesn't always work. Three such programs run by Americans in the Baja were shut down this week by the Mexican authorities and hundreds of teens, many of whom were in the country illegally under visitor visas were deported along with the director of Casa La Esperanza who was expelled for conducting activities not authorized by his tourist visa.

Reports of foreigners and complaints that minors were being mistreated led to the raids, according to a statement late yesterday by Mexico's National Migration Institute.

...At Casa by the Sea, four residents showed signs of physical and emotional mistreatment, including one from El Salvador, the Mexican immigration statement said.

At Genesis, youths told immigration authorities that they were physically and emotionally mistreated, the statement said, without offering details.
Meanwhile some parents expressed support for the program's behavior modification of their children.

Carol Rivardi of Orange County had been waiting since the morning to see her 16-year-old daughter. "The staff is absolutely phenomenal. My daughter's behavior has totally changed," she said.

Larry Horn of Agoura Hills said his 15-year-old son had problems with drugs, alcohol, bad grades and disrespect to his parents. "We tried rehab for six weeks, but these kids need a lot more than that," he said.

Sounds to me like pretty typical behavior for a rebellious teenager and one would think if these parents spent 70 minutes a day talking to their kids rather than $70 a day locking them up in a pseudo-prison, they could have achieved the same results without subjecting them to the emotional trauma that will likely scar them for life.