Channel 4 to explore the world of Extreme Brat Camps in the US

24 September 2014

 

 

Channel 4 has commissioned a documentary from Ten Alps which explores the phenomenon of the child intervention programmes in the United States, observing the families for whom the experience of sending their kids to a ‘brat camp’ is a typical parental decision. ‘Brat’ Camps – an extreme youth disciplinary concept that’s firmly embedded in American culture. In the USA today it’s estimated the child intervention industry is reportedly worth over $2 billion dollars, that sees parents send their kids away to residential programs – often against their will - in an attempt to change their behaviour. Extreme Brat Camps aims to shed light on the world of behavioural modification camps and other child intervention programmes, illuminating the beliefs and ambitions that underpin this controversial industry, many of which contrast starkly with British norms.

 

These programs exist all over America and vary in extremes. Some take the form of military style ‘boot camps’, such as Sarge’s Community Base, a weekend drill camp in California. The camp is run by self-styled military drill-sergeant Keith ‘Sarge’ Gibbs where children as young as five years old are put through their paces, often pushing them to tears. In Jacksonville, Florida, we follow a different residential program, Camp Consequence run by former US Marine Glenn Ellison, who laughingly calls the children ‘Al Kidda’. As is the case with the majority of these programmes, most of the children have been sent by their parents because they feel their children’s behaviour is out of control.

While these programs appear well run and organized with some form of regulation, there are concerns about the standards of other camps and the possibility of abuse, particularly when there is no federal body to regulate and monitor the quality of care in the child intervention industry.

Every year thousands of American children are transported to one of over 1,000 private facilities dotted across the United States, leading to a new type of business for parents who don’t feel able to physically take their kids themselves. Shockingly, many parents employ professional “child transporters”, who can cost over $100 per hour, to remove their child from their home and take them away, often against their will. The film follows Evan ‘Bullet’ James, the CEO of child transport firm Universal Crisis Intervention, who is hired to take 15-year-old David away from home to a strict Christian residential program for a second time. He’s being truant from school and staying up late playing video games. His mother has previously tried counsellors and home-schooling but now believes that her son’s behavioural problems are bigger than she can handle. In order to pay for sending him away she has sold her home, in what she defines as the true definition of tough love.

While David has been sent away from home before, a lot of children are being sent for the first time. At just ten years old, Bryce is put through 30 days of Camp Consequence in Florida by his mother Jennifer for general disobedience and in part because of swearing in a public place. But the child intervention culture in the US means that many parents send their children away to have their behaviour “modified” as a precaution rather than as a consequence of extreme behaviour. Parents often sign contracts that give the programs full legal rights over their child allowing them to restrain, confine, transport and medicate their child, if necessary.

Production Co – Ten Alps, Exec Producer – Dinah Lord, Director – Andrew Parkin

TX 8th October 2014