It’s a common tactic in the so-called “troubled-teen” industry: With a parent’s consent, two people are sent to surprise their child while they are asleep to forcefully take them to a wilderness program or residential treatment center. sentawaypod
This story was produced as part of “Sent Away,” an investigative podcast from The Salt Lake Tribune, KUER and APM Reports that examines Utah’s teen treatment industry. You can listen to Episodes 1 and 2Katey Handel still remembers the fear she felt more than a decade ago when — at 17 — she awoke to a scruffy man towering over her.
“I felt like I had no choice,” she said. “So I went with him. I knew at that point I was pregnant. So I didn’t want to go the hard way, whichever way that meant.” The way Handel ended up in Utah is a common tactic in the so-called “troubled-teen” industry. With a parent’s consent, two people are sent to surprise their child while they are asleep to forcefully take them to a wilderness program or residential treatment center.
Some are smaller group homes, tucked into suburban neighborhoods — like Integrity House, where Handel was sent. Others are sprawling horse ranches, or big boarding schools. There are also wilderness therapy programs, which require teenagers to hike through Utah’s sprawling deserts and public lands. On average, Utah receives nearly 3,000 kids annually. Virginia and Texas, the next two most popular destinations where troubled teens are sent for treatment, receive between 1,200 and 1,300 kids per year.
Daniel Taylor is pictured here in his Cedar City home on Feb. 4, 2022. Taylor founded Integrity House, a small youth residential treatment center for struggling girls, in 2001 and worked there until 2013. That memory haunts Balderston in her waking hours, too. She sees men who look similar to Taylor at a store, and she’s hit with a wave of fear.
“I don’t think the way we transport kids is appropriate,” he said. “I’m convinced that if you start a treatment program with extreme trauma, common sense says that can’t be good for kids. And I just think it should be banned entirely.”