Since the early 1990s, the so called “troubled teen industry” has profited billions of dollars from the institutionalized torture of minors. On March 5th, a disturbing docuseries exposed one of these facilities. The Program raged to the top of Netflix, becoming the #1 trending show in a matter of hours.  Celebrities like Paris Hilton and Drew Barrymore have attempted to blow the lid off these sordid money machines, but only recently when non-celebrity survivors began to emerge by the thousands, has this movement earned solid footing. Countless viral videos on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok have captured the attention of millions of viewers.

       To date, only US based behavior modification schools and wilderness therapy programs have gained media coverage, and though their stories are nothing short of devastating, the four schools that operated abroad were entirely unregulated, with far worse living conditions. US teens and preteens were abducted by the thousands and transported against their will to these lockdown facilities. Casa by the Sea (Mexico), Tranquility Bay (Jamaica), High Impact (Mexico) and Paradise Cove (Samoa) were owned by WWASP, the World Wide Association of Specialty Programs, the same company that owned Ivy Ridge, the facility covered in The Program series. A staggering number of children have perished in these hell camps while others have endured unimaginable torture at the hands of staff. Students were subjected to extreme weather conditions, denied medical care, restrained and hogtied, shut inside a military ‘hot box’, placed in isolation without food and water, forced to lay on the ground face down for days on end or locked in dog kennels in the blistering heat. Social media videos feature survivors sharing stories of abuse, starvation, cult practices, brainwashing, sexual assault and death. 

      In this harrowing personal account, social media influencer, award winning singer-songwriter and addiction counselor Talon Majors opens her heart and her dark past to share her terrifying experience during her 13 months stay at the behavior modification facility “Casa by the Sea”, near Ensenada, Mexico.

       "I have had the honor of reconnecting with friends I made during my 13 months at Casa By the Sea. Those who were willing and emotionally able, gifted me with gut-wrenching stories including the shutdown of Casa By The Sea by the United States FBI. During this raid, students were guarded by the Mexican Federale Police with machine guns, and forced to sit on the exposed ground until each minor was safely extradited back to the states. I have included snippets of these accounts in my novel along with my story, in hopes that we raise awareness and stop these torture camps once and for all."

(This piece is set to be published in 2026)

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Special thanks to all survivors who were interviewed and to Rachelle Gardner of Gardner Literary Agency for making this project possible.