Two New Stories About Teen Treatment

1) Two judges from Pennsylvania, Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan, are alleged to have accepted $2.6 million in kickbacks in exchange for assigning children to juvenile detention facilities PA Child Care and Western PA Child Care. "Ciavarella, the county’s longtime juvenile court judge, helped ensure PA Child Care had a high occupancy rate by, at times, ordering children be detained there even when the juvenile probation department felt it was not necessary (from the Times -Leader of Wilkes-Barre, PA)."
I can't imagine how it would feel to be one of the detained juveniles, or a parent of one of those kids.


2) Maia Szalavitz, author of Help at Any Cost: How the Troubled Teen Industry Cons Parents and Hurts Kids, highlights a positive in our bleak economy---many troubled teen facilities are closing down.
"Troubled teen programs were yet another sign of the bubble economy," states Szalavitz. "Many were financed by mortgage and home equity loans because they cost thousands of dollars a month and because insurers, quite correctly, don't usually pay for programs that aren't proven to help."
"...And those who care about this issue should keep the pressure on so that the wounded programs finally die. After all, there are still teens suffering inside, being "treated" without dignity or respect--some of whom were just transferred from closed programs to other similar, sites."