Thread by @GalvinAlmanza

I know we're all tied up with national stuff right now, but is anyone paying attention to what's happening with that juvenile jail NSI in Wyoming, where kids are fleeing and terrified and the state decided that "the market would decide" if their "therapeutic" techniques are good?

This is a facility that was nearly shut down in Michigan for causing the death of a young man. A chain of kid jails that is currently being investigated. And the state of Wyoming thinks the market will decide if this is a problem?

I'm sorry... kids are not widgets. They're not for sale and their treatment and care should not be decided by whether or not people *purchase the services* of a child prison.

It's easy to lose sight of the issues destroying individual lives locally when we're in crisis. But we can't. People-- in this case kids-- are depending on it.

I heard about this on @WYPublicRadio this morning, and if they could send a link to their very thorough story that would be great. In the mean time...

Here is local coverage of the runaways. Because everything is awful this is treated as a nuisance rather than a crisis in how we are treating traumatized children. So here is some really bad local coverage for starts. thesheridanpress.com/news/local/nei…

The public radio story discussed the national investigation beginning in Michigan, and I'm wondering if that's the same investigation as the Lakeside Academy? Whether these institutions and share a parent organization?

That was what @WYPublicRadio reported and I'd also be v happy for a link

Ah, here we go

invw.org/2019/02/05/wa-…

Here's how insidious this is: this chain of juvenile jails across the country with abuse reports everywhere.

apmreports.org/story/2020/09/…

Here is the Michigan death referenced above.

apmreports.org/story/2020/06/…

So to summarize, a chain of juvenile jails across the country is harming kids, and the kids in the WY facility had been found running away, and the adults who are supposedly in charge think this is a nuisance rather than a serious sign that we are putting children's lives at risk

Adding to the thread-- @WYPublicRadio just published the story I heard. Check it out. wyomingpublicmedia.org/post/wyoming-j…

I think the part that hit me the hardest was that there was this kind of moving story about a rancher finding a scared kid on his land and bringing him home for a hot breakfast, and...the takeaway wasn't that this kid had run from something bad...(cont)

The takeaway seemed to be that the rancher, like many people in Wyoming, carries a gun, and if the kid had not been compliant the rancher would have shot him, and that would have been sad.

So to b clear: concern is *not* a nationally-investigated abusive nightmare factory (cont)

It's that locals will be sad if they feel compelled to shoot the runaway children.