Is this anywhere to send your Jewish child? Or any child for that matter.
Guardian June 2003
When you have a teenager on the rampage, who are you going to turn to? In America, parents send their troubled offspring to Jamaica's Tranquility Bay - a 'behaviour-modification centre' which charges $40,000 a year to 'cure' them. Decca Aitkenhead, the first journalist to gain access to the centre in five years, wonders if there isn't too high a price to pay.
Were you to glance up from the deserted beach below, you might mistake Tranquility Bay for a rather exclusive hotel. The statuesque white property stands all alone on a sandy curve of southern Jamaica, feathered by palm trees, gazing out across the Caribbean Sea. You would have to look closer to see the guards at the wall. Inside, 250 foreign children are locked up. Almost all are American, but though kept prisoner, they were not sent here by a court of law. Their parents paid to have them kidnapped and flown here against their will, to be incarcerated for up to three years, sometimes even longer. They will not be released until they are judged to be respectful, polite and obedient enough to rejoin their families. [...]
Guardian June 2003
When you have a teenager on the rampage, who are you going to turn to? In America, parents send their troubled offspring to Jamaica's Tranquility Bay - a 'behaviour-modification centre' which charges $40,000 a year to 'cure' them. Decca Aitkenhead, the first journalist to gain access to the centre in five years, wonders if there isn't too high a price to pay.
Were you to glance up from the deserted beach below, you might mistake Tranquility Bay for a rather exclusive hotel. The statuesque white property stands all alone on a sandy curve of southern Jamaica, feathered by palm trees, gazing out across the Caribbean Sea. You would have to look closer to see the guards at the wall. Inside, 250 foreign children are locked up. Almost all are American, but though kept prisoner, they were not sent here by a court of law. Their parents paid to have them kidnapped and flown here against their will, to be incarcerated for up to three years, sometimes even longer. They will not be released until they are judged to be respectful, polite and obedient enough to rejoin their families. [...]
Sounds pretty much like Charles Dickens: money-makers charging awful expenses for a "school" (30 000$ to 40 000$ a year) and operating it at minimal cost: no qualified staff, minimal food, no teachers, bad infrastructure).
ReplyDeleteSounds like a pretty good way of making big bucks...
Interesting analogy moche. For the purposes of explaining, I usually use Louis Sachar's Holes.
ReplyDeleteBtw, somebody just sent me this link vis-a-vis a message board:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/28/AR2006012800062.html
ps the author of the WPo article wrote the book, Help at Any Cost: How the Troubled-Teen Industry Cons Parents and Hurts Kids tranquility bay. I've always wanted to read it, haven't had the opportunity yet.
ReplyDeleteI asked a serious question yesterday, in a comment, regarding the opinion of RAS. I see that not only was my comment not answered, but the comment was not even posted.
ReplyDeleteI am a bit surprised that someone who runs a blog called daas torah does not have an answer to my question, as you appear to be taking one of the sides of the Hersh case.
That being apparent, I was sure you would have a response to my questions in a sound way.
TIA