Further reading for The Troubled Teen Industry
Help at Any Cost: How the Troubled-Teen Industry Cons Parents and Hurts Kids by Maia Szalavitz
Duck in a Raincoat by Maura Curley
The Rise and Fall of Synanon by Rod Janzen
Beginning in the 1960’s, taking flight in the 1970’s and getting completely out of control in the 1980’s was an industry of horror and abuse that continues to this day. The Troubled-Teen Industry is a term that describes an entire sector of commerce that seeks to change the behavior of teenagers who are experiencing problems at school, problems with drugs, or problems with the law. You’ve seen it on TV and in movies, for sure. A kid is grabbed by two big dudes in white coats and is thrown into an SUV.
This series covers a broad range of experiences but focuses primarily on three of the most terrible offenders: Elan School, a notorious house of horrors based out of Poland, Maine that is well-known for employing the same sort of torture techniques that the US government subjects political prisoners at Gauntanamo Bay to. Children have been removed from their care on numerous occasions. It’s a shit show.
The second part covers Synanon, which used to be a drug rehabilitation program in California that took no time at all to turn into a violent cult which is now all-but-gone in the United States but continues to this day in Germany.
The final part looks at Joe Ricci, who was in charge of Elan School in Maine and his connection to Michael Skakel, the Kennedy relative who murdered Martha Moxley. He was an absolute monster who used the teachings of Synanon and twisted them to be somehow even worse than Synanon. Ricci died of lung cancer, eventually, but even that was too good a fate for him. Fuck that guy.
Episodes: 517-519
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