According to parent and child testimony, countless news articles and reports, documentaries, and more , each year thousands of children are incarcerated, are not given due process, lose their basic human rights, lose contact with the outside world, are humiliated, are abused, some have died.

How does this happen?

Some parents and their teens or pre-teens agreed an experience away from home would be fun and educational. Some were straight A students who had never been in trouble and who were happy and well-adjusted. Others needed help with self-esteem issues. They found programs that promised horse back riding, hiking, skiing, and more.

Some were distraught parents of troubled teens and pre-teens involved in gangs, sex, drugs, and alcohol. Some children struggled with ADD, ADHD, oppositional defiance, gay issues, depression, bulimia, and more. Many parents felt they had no where to turn.

Parents were lured by convincing websites, smooth-talking businessmen, glossy brochures, and marketing teams to send their child to their programs. In their haste and desperation, parents relinquished their children to strangers and sometimes unknowingly signed away their parental rights. Parents were defrauded by people who promised to cure their child and to provide their child with the education and therapy they needed. They were convinced that if they did not put their child in a program, their child would most likely die.

While children slept they were abducted from their beds by teen escort services hired by their parents. Many parents are convinced by program staff they should hire "teen escort" services to transport their children - some as young as seven - to their facilities located in remote rural areas. Some people refer to these as "private abductions."

Though some transport services are licensed and hire caring staff, most are not licensed or regulated. Many youth are unjustifiably hand-cuffed, restrained, or pepper-sprayed in the process. The trauma of such abductions can last a lifetime.

Parents were duped by glossy brochures, an endless number of convincing websites, smooth-talking businessmen or their agents who preyed on their desperation.

Parents were talked into refinancing their homes, drawing from their retirement, spending their child's college money, and taking out long-term loans.

Parents are convinced to give strangers Power of Attorney over their teens and pre-teens. Some children are as young as seven.

Where did children end up? In the hands of people who convinced parents they would save their child … in reality many of these children have been abused and neglected.

There have been allegations of dangerous and unfair forms of punishments by untrained staff who perform dangerous restraints resulting in physical harm and all too often in the death of a child.

Many programs operate on a points-based system. The youth lose hard-earned points for small infractions such as dropping a fork on the floor or belching. In some facilities, children are severely punished for looking out the window, as they are considered a runaway threat. Over the years, thousands of children have ended up at WWASP's Tranquility Bay Facility in Jamaica where reports and articles have shown, and victims have alleged abuse and neglect.

There are no laws to protect the children. Most facilities are not licensed and there is no governmental oversight. Children lose their basic human rights. Many have no privacy to use the restroom or shower. Children lose contact with the outside world. Once phone calls with parents are finally allowed, usually at least 3-6 months after the child enters the program, they are censored; children lose all other verbal contact with the outside world. Children's letters to extended family and friends are usually not delivered, and mail is censored. Many have spent months on their faces in isolation.

The Hobbit is a small structure at WWASPS's Spring Creek Lodge facility in Montana. John France, an Educational and Forensic Psychologist, testified about his son's stay at WWASP facility Spring Creek Lodge in Utah. He stated his son spent nearly nine months in "The Hobbit", a small structure that was no more than two shelves on top of one another, his body barely able to fit. It was hot in the summer and cold in the winter. So cold, his orange he stored away at night was frozen by morning. He was forced to sleep on a small shelf and to urinate in his drinking cup during the night. He etched the words "Let Freedom Ring" on one of the shelves.

In a Press Release "Sue Scheff and PURE Defeat WWASP: Utah Jury Sends Message to WWASPS, dated August, 6, 2004:

• Some of the jurors cried as they watched video clips of the "Box," where American children were reportedly hog-tied, hand-cuffed, duct-taped, starved, and slugged by staff.

• Video clips were shown of children who were locked in dog cages in the hot Mexican sun at WWASPS's High Impact program in Mexico, sometimes for days at a time.

• High Impact was shut down by the Mexican government for allegations of child neglect and abuse. Although Robert Lichfield, Ken Kay, and Karr Farnsworth will claim High Impact is not a WWASP program, former employees and parents testified they were.

• Employees testified they were asked not to divulge the program's association with WWASP - one employee testified she traveled to High Impact with Ken Kay, president of WWASP, who specifically warned her against divulging its association with WWASP.

• One WWASP victim who had been trafficked by WWASP through 5 of their programs sobbed in court as video clips of children in dog cages were shown.

• A picture of a child whose hands were tied to the corners of the cage, in the scorching Mexico sun, was shown during trial.

• One boy went down to 80 pounds during his confinement at WWASP's Paradise Cove.

• He was hidden from television reporters.

• His confinement within the WWASP Empire of children's programs ended 4 ½ years later with his removal from the cages at High Impact.

• WWASP, the largest corporation in the industry, continues to keep thousands of children from all over the United States in its programs each year.

• President Ken Kay and founder Robert Lichfield say their numbers are growing with today's social problems.

• They deny all allegations of fraud, child abuse and neglect.

• The company admitted to annual revenue in excess of $90,000,000 from all its corporate shells - that was in 2004 and the numbers continue to grow.

Four separate countries, all with limited child protection laws, have shut WWASP facilities down for suspected child abuse and neglect.

Casa by the Sea in Mexico

Dundee Ranch in Costa Rica

Morava in Czech Republic

Paradise Cove in Western Samoa

Sunrise Beach, Mexico

High Impact, Mexico

Something to ask ourselves … Can we believe all of these allegations are false? Coming from poverty-stricken nations who would normally welcome American money?

© 2006 Permission for this article to be reproduced for educational purposes only