Parents' Guide to Teen Torture, Inc.

The slow-moving, but highly disturbing series gives voice to adults who continue to struggle with the trauma they experienced while committed to residential treatment facilities as kids. Interviews with survivors explain why they were sent away, and detail the kind of child abuse they witnessed and experienced at the hands of poorly trained and cruel staff and school administrators. They also discuss the different ways survivors are calling attention to the largely unregulated for-profit industry, which in many cases are faith-based and therefore not subject to government regulations or accredited by well-established academic or mental health associations.

As one would expect, the conversations about, and archive footage of, the abuse of teenagers in these centers is also upsetting. But Teen Torture, Inc. also spends an unexpected amount of time pointing the finger at Dr. Phil McGraw and the role he played in marketing these expensive treatment centers, and making them popular choices for parents looking for professional and religious intervention to assist them with their problematic child (an accusation that he dismisses during a previously recorded interview). This connection to media and popular culture is an interesting one, and creates a larger and more understandable context from which people can understand how these residential treatment facilities have managed to exist for so long. It's not the most exciting of documentaries, but offers interesting historical explanations and contemporary insights into the state of the troubled teen industry today.