Kids sent to Deprogramming Camps
(AKA Boarding Schools, Wilderness Camps, Boot Camps, Residential Treatment Centers)
See article on the Dangers of Deprogramming
Here are a few examples of children who were sent to camps to coerce them into recanting abuse, break their will to live with their mom and get them to submit to their abuser. They are behavior modification programs, many of which use POW tactics, like withholding food and water, isolation, threats, coercion, cruel punishments, humiliation, physical exhaustion, maternal deprivation, etc. Many children have died in these camps. They are illegal in some states now, including California, which is why Judge Alksne suggested sending Damon out of state. Damon to Camp?
See "Help At Any Cost" for more details about the horrific treatment of children in these camps.
"Reunification Therapy" is often tried before children are sent to a camp. A handful of known local psychologists use the stealth method of "deprogramming" kids, which is often very effective, as the kids don't realize their heads are slowly being filled with lies and distortions, i.e. brainwashed. There is much father exalting and mother blaming and denigrating. They are encouraged to distance themselves from mom, forget about the abuse, and accept living with the abuser. Bribery often seals the deal. They are sucked into the cover up and many won't have a relationship with mom unless she agrees to stay quiet about the abuse and go along with them living with the abuser. This is what happened to Damon's brothers, Evan and Ryan. It did not work on Damon, who is amazingly strong, so if he is caught, he is likely to be sent to a camp to finish off the job. See: Brainwashing Damon, in his own Words
WARNING TO PROTECTIVE MOMS:
Do NOT agree to "Reunification Therapy" or camps/boarding schools under any circumstances. They severely damage your children and your relationship with them.
It is extremely unethical practice to send children to these camps and should be illegal, but the abusers just pay everyone off....
Alanna's Story:
Alanna Krause, an honor student, was institutionalized by her father because she would not submit to his abuse and being forced to live with him. Her full story is at:
Girl Interrupted
Here is an excerpt about her being institutionalized:
Once he had custody, Marshall Krause checked Alanna into a locked residential treatment facility in Utah for five months, though she had no criminal history or evidence of mental health problems.
....Krause had used independent psychologists to refer Alanna to Island View Treatment Center. Krause says he checked Alanna, then 11, in to the $6,000-a-month institution because Lana Clark and two other psychologists recommended it. Clark had diagnosed Alanna with Parental Alienation Syndrome; Krause says she was "going out of control."
Alanna says she was traumatized by her time at Island View. "I had never had sex, tried drugs, or been arrested," Alanna says. "I was an almost straight-A student. Everyone else was 16 or 17 years old. They were prostitutes, gangbangers, or heroin addicts, teen parents. I'd go to AA and say, 'Hi, my name is Alanna and I've never had alcohol.'"
She says she underwent therapy in which she was forced to say that she loved her father, and that her mother was crazy. "They would tell me, 'Your dad is not a bad father and your mom is crazy.' They would hold me in there until I would say it. I remember staring at the light reflecting against the wall, and those ideas seeping into my brain. I realized what I needed to do was to pretend that it was working. But I had to stay in touch with both realities at once. There was the me that I was inside, and the me that I showed to the outside world. Every night, it was like that movie Memento, and I would remind myself, 'OK, this is real, and this is real.' I remember thinking, 'This is weird. Is this a movie? Is this my life?'"
Dr. Jared Balmer, executive director at Island View, says that many children who enter his facility have similar reactions. "A majority of the children here think that they have no problems," he says. "But they think that everyone else has lots of problems."
Alanna stayed at Island View for five months, with her father visiting every few weekends. When he came, they'd either undergo joint therapy or he'd take her on excursions into town. Simone-Smith, however, was not allowed to visit her daughter; Alanna could only make 10-minute calls to her mother after she'd earned phone privileges -- six weeks into her stay. To maintain contact, they sent each other letters, which were screened by the Island View staff.
Alanna won a million dollar lawsuit.
DM's story:
My son was a great student and was in drama and after school activities. He was very popular and had lots of friends. I was told to bring him in to court one day so he could tell the judge which parent he wanted to live with, which he had already said was me, because his father was abusing him. I brought him in and they had someone there who took him away. I didn't see him for a year and they wouldn't tell me where he was. He was sent to three different camps and boarding schools. One year later he came back. He had a completely different personality. He was very sad and withdrawn and he did not have a memory of much of his past. I am on supervised visits and his father has full custody, so I don't know exactly what happened, but I think they used electric shock treatments and other forms of torture to erase his memory and silence him about the abuse.
JV's Story:
I was tortured with electroshock therapy treatments in order to get me to stay quiet about the abuse and to make me forget it. It was really painful and took decades to get my memory completely back.
Anonymous girl:
I know of a girl that was handcuffed and put on a plane to I believe northern California to be brainwashed/deprogramed by the state. She was smart and said yes to every thing her her captors threw at her, "Yes I love my Dad, yes I want to be with him" and as soon as they released her back into her father's custody she ran away and lived on the street rather than live with her abuser. It was illegal for her to live within the protection of her mother so she lived on the street. How screwed up is that? It was a nightmare for her, but she finally got back to her mom after about a year on the street!
Anonomous reporter
NOTE: Most children don't speak out about the abuse in the camps because they are beaten down and terrified of retaliation. Thanks to those brave souls like Alanna who have come forward to share their stories and help save children like Damon. Thanks to Maia Szalavitz for exposing the extreme damage done to children in camps.