I was a victim of the troubled teen industry… I turned 13 there and was there for 11 months. Definitely unethical practices, and very physically demanding.
Ran away from home a few months after being released and never went back.
for example, one person was placed in a troubled teen program because her mother found her choice in boyfriends unacceptable
Creepy indeed.
Numerous troubled teen programs have been reported to engage in the practice of compelled labor, wherein program participants are required to perform physically demanding tasks such as wood chopping and horse manure shoveling.
Still waiting to get paid for my labor decades later. They should really call it what it is.
The fact this exists really bothers me, that someone’s abusive parents can just have them abducted to a torture camp legally