Tranquility Bay was a

residential treatment facility A residential treatment center (RTC), sometimes called a rehab, is a live-in health care facility providing therapy for substance use disorders, mental illness, or other behavioral problems. Residential treatment may be considered the "last-ditch" ...

affiliated with

World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools The World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools (WWASPS or WWASP) was an organization based in Utah, in the United States. WWASPS was founded by Robert Lichfield and was incorporated in 1998. WWASPS stated that it was an umbrella org ...

(WWASPS), located in Calabash Bay,

Saint Elizabeth Parish Saint Elizabeth(), one of Jamaica's largest parishes, is located in the southwest of the island, in the county of Cornwall. Its capital, Black River, is located at the mouth of the Black River, the widest on the island. History Saint Elizab ...

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

.Home Page
Tranquility Bay. August 13, 2003. Retrieved on October 2, 2010. "Tranquility Bay, Calabash Bay P.A., St. Elizabeth, Jamaica 876-965-0003." The facility operated from 1997 to 2009 and received notoriety for its harsh and often abusive treatment of its students, eventually shutting down in 2009 after allegations of child abuse came to light through lawsuits and highly publicized student testimonies. The adolescents reported violence to their parents, only to be ignored.

History

The director was Jay Kay, a college dropout with no training in child development who ran a mini-mart in

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,Decca Aitkenhead
"The Last Resort"
''The Guardian'', 29 June 2003."No More Nightmares at Tranquility Bay?"
/ref> and who is son of WWASPS president Ken Kay. The cost for one child ranged from $25,000 to $40,000 a year. Tranquility Bay was generally acknowledged as the toughest of the WWASPS schools. As with other WWASPS facilities, Tranquility Bay has been the subject of much controversy, including allegations of

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons including corporal punishment, punishment, forced confession, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimid ...

, unsanitary living conditions, unqualified employees, and denial of medical care; these claims have been the subject of multiple

lawsuit A lawsuit is a proceeding by one or more parties (the plaintiff or claimant) against one or more parties (the defendant) in a civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today ...

s from former Tranquility Bay residents. In 1998 was the focus of a legal case after neighbors of a family reported parents to police for kidnapping and false imprisonment by sending him to Tranquility Bay. Judge Ken Kawaichi denied the writ of habeas corpus due to lack of evidence of abuse at Tranquility bay. Tranquility Bay stated that it was dedicated to helping parents who are having difficulty with their children, whether they are doing drugs, breaking the law, or being disobedient or disrespectful. In 2003, Kay said "if I have kids, and they start giving me a problem, well, they are going straight in the program. If I had to, I'd pull the trigger without hesitation"; however, in 1999, Kay (who at that time was not working for WWASPS) said that the Tranquility Bay staff were "untrained", without "credentials of any kind", and that Tranquility Bay "could be leading these kids to long-term problems that we don't have a clue about because we're not going about it in the proper way".Tim Weiner
Parents Divided Over Jamaica Disciplinary Academy
''The New York Times'', June 17, 2003. Children as young as 12 were admitted to Tranquility Bay, for reasons ranging from drug use to conflicts with a new stepmother. From 2002 to 2005 the

Government of the Cayman Islands The Cayman Islands is a parliamentary representative democratic dependency. As a British Overseas Territories, King Charles III is the head of state. The Premier of the Cayman Islands is the head of government. Executive power is exercised by ...

sent some delinquent youth to Tranquility Bay; the government funded the students as they were located in Tranquility Bay. On the 7th of December 2004 the

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aired a program on

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...

called ''Locked in Paradise''. Tranquility Bay was shut down in January 2009, after the case of Isaac Hersh gained national media and political attention and years of alleged abuse and torture came to light. Many politicians, including

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, lawyer and diplomat. She was the 67th United States secretary of state in the administration of Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, a U.S. senator represent ...

, were involved in Isaac's release.

Controversies

Observation Placement

Observation Placement was a punishment that could demote any student to level one and take away all their points. During Observation Placement, people were forced to lay down on their faces. Some people spent 18 months in this punishment.

Transportation

Tranquility bay used teen escort companies to facilitate the transportation of youths from the

United States of America The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguo ...

to their facility in

. This would normally take place in the early hours of the morning and often involved the use of handcuffs.

In popular culture

The "Cassie" episode of the A&E program '' Intervention'', first shown in January 2011, features a young woman addicted to prescription painkillers who had been sent to Tranquility Bay as a child and blamed her father for not rescuing her. In the episode, Cassie alleged that her fellow residents consumed "chemicals" so they would be sent to the hospital and would be able to talk to their parents regarding the abuse they were enduring. However, she alleged that when they vomited in response to the poison, rather than being sent to a hospital, they were restrained by staff face down in their own vomit.

References

External links

*Tranquility Bay website - * {{Schools in Jamaica Buildings and structures in Saint Elizabeth Parish Educational institutions established in 1997 Educational institutions disestablished in 2009 Behavior modification Boarding schools in Jamaica Youth rights Schools in Jamaica 1997 establishments in Jamaica World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools Troubled teen programs Human rights abuses Imprisonment and detention