Adopted and Locked Away: Kids promised ‘forever homes’ instead confined in for-profit institutions
An Associated Press investigation found that adopted children are being sent to for-profit residential treatment centers, often with disturbing track records of abuse and violence. Experts say adoptees, who make up 2% of American children, account for an estimated 25-40% of those in these facilities.
Adopted children are being institutionalized in for-profit residential treatment centers, often with histories of abuse and violence. The facilities, part of the 'troubled teen industry', charge up to $20,000 a month and promise to treat adopted children for reactive attachment disorder. Experts say most teenagers confined in these facilities don't have the disorder, and the treatment offered wouldn't fix it even if they did. Children as young as 9 have experienced or witnessed violence, chaos, self-harm, and sexual abuse inside the facilities. Many are strip-searched, restrained, and punished with manual labor, with limited communication with the outside world. Parents alone usually decide to send their children away and for how long, with some children remaining institutionalized for years.
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