Found at www.heal-online.org
Survivor
Report #2: Three Springs of
Paint Rock Valley
By
Jay (You may contact through jay@heal-online.org)
Everything
in my statement is true. I give HEAL permission to use my statement. I would like to start by saying that this is in no way
reflective of the Three Springs program as a whole. I transfered
to Three Springs of North Carolina during my stay and was blessed to
find a much more productive program. While strict and tough, the
North Carolina program was a true treament center and children should
consider themselves lucky to be helped there. The Paint Rock
Valley program, however, is no more a treatment center than Alcatraz.
Make no mistake about it, Three Springs of Paint Rock Valley, Alabama is
a prison.
This
starts by a client base that is well over 50% committed by the state and
the court system. Many were there as a stop between youth
detention centers. Many were waiting until they turned 18 to be
transfered to a maximum security prison. This meant that a
confused or troubled 14 year old boy was incarcerated with a whole
lot of hardened criminals by the wishes of his own family. That
itself is enough to drive a young mind to mild insanity, but there is so
much more.
Now,
I still see the value in the creative punishments. For example, a
runaway risk may have to hold the beltloop of a fellow group member
wherever he goes. This is mainly used as a humiliation tactic,
which to be honest, tends to work. The work detail, while
vigorous, was pretty fair. I still have a hard time understanding
the starvation methods. I found myself collapsing pretty regularly
from dizzy spells caused by lack of nutrition. Also, the
counselors, in my days there, weren't very abusive themselves, even the
ex military ones. The ones that were became quickly reprimanded
and were terminated. As a whole, I think the front office had
decent intentions, but it was after they went home for the night and the
campus got quiet that things got scary.
Even
during the day sometimes, you could see a group "punishing" a
trouble maker with a disturbing mob mentallity. They would mix
creative punishments (thought up by the group) and enforce them in bulk
to the point where it was nothing more than torture. Making
someone run laps while following them and "aggressively
re-enforcing" them, while a boot camp tactic, is hardly torture or
abuse. However, when you add shoving, tripping, tackling, and
punching, it crosses the line. I would watch the group surround
someone and antagonize them physically until they tried to squirm out.
At this point, any movement by the person at all was considered "spazzing"
and would require the group to restrain them. Restraining meant
that the entire group of about fifteen to twenty able bodied teenage
boys, many of whom were lifelong criminals, would hold the perp down and
sneak one punch after another, hold their face in the dirt so as to keep
them from breathing, and inflict large amounts of pain. Reports of
sexual abuse were normal. An attempt from a large group member who
had a lot of respect in the group to assault me sexually ended in a
physical confrontation (fight). As a newer member, I was heavily
reprimanded and called a liar. I was put on "primitive
campsite" restriction, which put me in the woods for a week by
myself. Again, a relatively creative punishment, but wrongly
enforced. Three months later, I was still denied letter writing
privileges due to my "outburst". Basically, they wanted
to keep me quiet. Luckily, I was blessed with a decent amount of
smarts, so I was eventually able to manipulate my way into a respectable
position and didn't suffer much abuse. I'll never be able to
forget what I saw done and did myself to those considered weaker.
Watching a child who hasn't even had time hit puberty being tortured to
the brink of insanity sticks with you, believe me. I hated being
this way toward people, but it was truly a mob mentality, and if you weren't
with the group, you were against them. Thank goodness I was
offered the chance to finish the last half of my two year term in the
North Carolina program before I completely turned into an abusive,
emotionless danger to society that I was beggining to become. You
either took the torture and hoped for some kind of outside salvation or
you joined the group and hardened yourself like an inmate, killing off
your innocence at 14-16 years old when you've never truly committed a
crime in your life.
So,
Three Springs is no different than any prison system. The clients
bully, beat, rape, and torture each other while the counselors turn a
blind eye to it. Assaults are kept quiet from the public.
Clients are starved, kept on work detail, and forced to basically join
gangs to survive. The front office assures the parents that their
kids are making progress, so the parents sit comfortably without the
distraction of little junior. All the while, this innocent,
potentially brillaint child is being stripped of his sanity and turned
into a shell of a human being. His mind will become so troubled,
that his once bright future will be dampered by visions of violence and
horror. At this point, the best thing he can hope for is to keep
his sanity enough to get by in life, constantly struggling and quite
possibly battling drug or alcohol addiction with no empathy from his
family who gave up on him when Three Springs didn't "help".
I
am 31 years old and have been clean from a terrible heroin addiction for
almost a year. I can't keep a relationship together,
including an attempt at marriage. I can't hold a job or just be a
good man. My self confidence has been a problem since the TS
experience. Lately, I seem to be getting my life back together
little by little. I managed to muster a high school diploma and
associates college degree and work on computers these days. My
father and stepmother, the ones who gave me that wonderful trip to
Alabama, haven't spoken to me in a long time, I don't make them proud.
I am beginning to make myself proud, however. I certainly don't
blame TS for all my problems, most of them stemmed from poor decision
making on my part, but the trauma never left my head. I shut it
out for years, but now that I'm out of a drug haze and ready to face my
demons, I feel like I can talk about this. This was a very vague
description, it just gives an idea. Thank you for reading.
===========================================================
By
Anonymous (Contact Through HEAL at heal@heal-online.org)
===================================================================
Former Counselor of Wayne Country reports:
FORMER EMPLOYEE REPORT #1
Please keep me Anonymous.
Everything
in my statement is true. I give HEAL permission to use my statement.
The
following is a true statement of my experience at Three Springs as an
EX-Counselor for their Georgia Girls program.
The programs in Georgia, both for girls and boys, have been shut
down by Three Springs due to withdrawal of state funding for the
programs in 2006. Other
Three Springs programs remain open and are equally as abusive and
dangerous as the ones in Georgia. The
Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) funded the Georgia programs.
Other Three Springs programs are privately owned and operated.
All
the children who attended the Georgia programs were legally in the
custody of the state for a period of 2 years. Three Springs had two
separate programs, Short Term and Long Term.
The Short Term program was dubbed the “emergency shelter”.
This program usually lasted between 1 and 90 days and usually had
residents who were awaiting placement in a Long Term program either at
Three Springs or elsewhere in the state.
A small percentage of the residents who attended the Short Term
program were actually sentenced for a period of 60-90 days in
confinement. We were used
to alleviate the overcrowding in Youth Detention Centers (YDC).
The Long Term program was usually 6 months to 2 years, with the
average stay being 1.5 years. The
Long Term program had different expectations of residents than the Short
Term program but similar goals for rehabilitation.
Average group size of the Short Term program was 10-15 residents
and of the Long Term program 8-12 residents.
Typical number of counselors on duty in the Short Term program
was 2 at a time with occasional days of 1 counselor on duty at a time.
The Long Term program found counselors alone with the residents
most of the time with occasional days of 2 counselors at a time.
Most of the girls were in the programs due to truancy from
school, stealing, drug, and alcohol use.
The age range was 11-18 yrs old.
I
worked for Three Springs from May of 2004 to September 2004.
Initially I was taken in by their website.
It was appealing and looked to be a good program.
I agreed to relocate and work for them after college graduation.
I did not know it would be emotionally and psychologically as
well as physically damaging.
I
worked for the Georgia Girls in their Short Term program.
Training lasted 1-2 weeks (I really don’t remember much as
I’ve blocked most of it out.) During
training, we were taught how to de-escalate a situation and restrain
residents. As counselors,
we were required to stay overnight on campus during the length of our
shifts. Our shifts usually
lasted from 2-4 days with some exceptions being 5 days or more.
The days began at 5:45am and ended whenever the residents would
decide to quiet down and go to sleep, usually anywhere from 10:30pm
until 1:00am on some nights. Average
amount of sleep obtained on any given shift after paperwork was done
every night was approximately 2-3 hours.
Counselors were not allowed breaks during the day and had to be
with their group of residents at all times.
Calls for supervisors to relieve counselors for short
bathroom/sanity breaks often went unheeded.
The
everyday schedule included meals, school, therapy, vocational, and
recreational time. The
meals consisted of pre-packaged easy to prepare things like hamburger
helper, tuna helper, or other simple foods.
Usually calories were high to meet the state standards, but the
quality of the food was poor with very little fresh vegetables and fruit
to supplement the diets of the residents.
Counselors were expected to cook for the residents.
Occasionally residents earned the right to cook for the group,
but that was rare. Qualified
teachers did school on campus. It
was mostly an independent study and the residents were expected to
complete material on their own. The
supervisors or counselors, most of whom did not have psychology degrees,
usually oversaw therapy. Actual
face time with a qualified psychiatrist averaged 30 minutes per month
and it was usually an adjustment of the medications residents were
placed on. Therapy at Three
Springs usually consisted of watching a couple movies (28 days and some
Lifetime movie on rape) and discussing the movies.
Vocational time was where a majority of the focus was spent.
“Voc time” as it was called by many of the counselors usually
consisted of manual labor done by the residents and counselors.
Mowing lawns, picking up trash, cleaning the cabins, weeding, and
raking were just a few of the activities performed by residents.
Counselors typically supervised and assisted occasionally.
Recreational time was usually limited to 30 minutes to an hour
and was a sport such as basketball or kickball, although most of the
time our time was limited. Most
of the time, the recreational activity was an exercise tape that played
while the counselor supervised and made a meal, usually lunch or dinner.
Some
of the common interventions included:
Run
Risk: A consequence and intervention implemented when a resident
decided to make a break for it and run. Usually involved wearing
an orange reflective construction vest and remaining within 10 feet of
staff at all times. On rare occasions, or when there were no more
vests available, the resident would be required to wear an orange prison
jumpsuit. Due to the nature of the jumpsuit, the resident was
denied pants or shorts during the period of time they dressed in the
jumpsuit. The jumpsuit was usually only worn by the highest risk
offender (any resident who had been on run risk and had decided to take
off a second time). Usually if they were placed in the jumpsuit,
they would also have to be on “Contact Buddy.”
Contact
Buddy: A popular intervention that included the resident wearing
the orange jumpsuit. The resident would be denied their privilege
of free movement. They, or a piece of their clothing that was
attached to their bodies, had to be held by staff at all times.
This was usually implemented with staff holding the tee-shirt the
resident wore at all times.
Suicide
Precaution: A safety measure taken for when residents are
threatening to harm themselves or others. Bathroom protocol
included making them strip to their underwear, making them keep one hand
visible to staff at all times, and the resident having to sing or keep
talking to ensure the resident wasn’t doing something that would harm
themselves. This procedure was done in front of another resident
for safety of the counselor on duty. The resident on suicide
precaution would also have to run their fingers under their
undergarments in order to ensure nothing had been hidden there.
During showers, the residents on suicide precaution had to shower with a
counselor watching. The shower curtain covered them, but the
middle loops had been taken down so the counselor could observe their
face and neck while in the shower. The counselor also had to hand
the resident their soap and shampoo.
Many
of the residents admitted to the Three Springs program were violent and
aggressive towards counselors and each other.
I left Three Springs shifts with bruises on my arms from
attempting to restrain a resident due to violent outbursts.
The residents had threatened me.
There were days where I had to continually watch my back.
The
administration of the facility was equally as unresponsive.
The administration refused to look out for the safety and health
of ANY of the counselors employed at the facility. Most of the feedback
given to counselors was in the form of negative criticism with the
threat of termination. The
administration also failed to look at possible alternatives for poor
program performance. When
I went to them with concerns and solutions, I was shot down with “We
can’t do that because” or “That’s not a good idea because”.
A
fellow counselor for the Long Term program had been beaten up by one of
the residents. The resident
kicked, punched, hit, and bit her. The resident also used a broomstick
or metal pole to strike the counselor.
The counselor had to be removed by other counselors and she
promptly fell into unconsciousness.
The administration refused to let her go to the hospital and she
had to continue working her entire shift.
Prior
to my employment, there had been a riot at the school on campus.
It resulted in a cabin getting shut down and residents shuffling
to other cabins as well as leaving the facility.
It ended up overburdening counselors and overcrowding cabin
rooms.
There
were other things that occurred too.
A counselor locked herself in the bathroom because she didn’t
want to be with the residents. She was scared to be with them. She was
having panic attacks due to the stress of the job and being around the
children. Additionally, two
counselors walked out mid-shift. Both counselors walked out while I
worked at the facility.
I
once sat for 26 hours with 2 kids refusing to do anything with no
instructions on how to deal with them and approximately 4 – 5 minute
bathroom breaks. I did
receive a break when night staff came in to watch the residents
overnight, but the next morning, I was right back in the same room.
After being employed for one month, I began having panic attacks. They progressively worsened and I ended up crying for 6-8 hours at a time. I could not bring myself to stop crying at times. When I would get it under control, I would be good for about 1 or 2 hours then go back to crying. I couldn’t mentally function or physically bring myself to function. I was so tired and exhausted mentally and physically that eventually I just shut myself off from everything and everyone. I became a zombie. The stress finally got to me and I quit September 10th 2004 and it’s a decision I DO NOT regret. I am ashamed that I worked for a place such as Three Springs and allowed my safety and common sense to be overruled for so long.
