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Individual states begin looking into and regulating the 'troubled teen industry' but advocates say more is needed on the federal level.
Five days after Utah Gov. Spencer Cox signed a law meant to provide stronger oversight of the more than 100 residential youth treatment programs operating in the state, a 12-year-old boy arrived at one of them, Provo Canyon School. Before long, he was forced into seclusion, denied communication with his family and given antipsychotic medication without parental permission, according to relatives.
No federal laws govern these private, for-profit residential treatment programs, boot camps, and wilderness programs. That’s left regulation largely to the states, with mixed results.
Advocates say new state laws in Utah, Montana and elsewhere aren’t enough to effectively regulate programs for troubled teens.