I Spent 8 Months in a Teen Behavior Modification Boot Camp | Part 2

So where we left off after the last post was I had just been transported from Chicago to Minnesota, on to Spokane, Washington, and then driven into Montana. After pulling off a rural road and onto a dark gravel road and driving another half hour or so we had pulled up to a clearing in the forest, from a distance I could see the yellow glow of high pressure sodium lights. We pulled up next to a trailer and in the distance I could see some cabins that looked more like a cell block than a friendly log cabin.

They told me to get into the car and walked me into a rundown trailer. At this point it was probably something like 7 or 8 in the evening. Being winter in Montana it had been pitched black for hours. At the time I didn't know where the hell I was, what this place was, or how long I would be here for.

That said looking back it was around shift change, not many of the staff were there and I had arrived after most new kids probably check-in.

The guy who was there to check me in was a guy named Culkin. At the time I didn't know much about him, not much more than my initial reaction was he was a mean backward ass hillybilly asshole, that was my initial impression. He briefly and curtly told me I'm gonna be there for a while. Don't think about trying to run away because it's 50 miles to the nearest street light and 150 miles to the nearest town. He went on to tell me there's wildcats and bears out there and I better stay put. They also had a 2,00 pound magnet on the doors and would be locking our shoes up before we went to sleep. The overall message was your not escaping.

Later on during my time there I would see this guy show up to work drunk on numerous occasions. I saw him get in fist fights and physical altercations with students, and about 6 months into my stay there I learned he was let go for having inappropriate relationships with underage female students.

Anyhow, he got on his radio and called for someone to come get me. It was late and I hadn't eaten since breakfast so they took me to the kitchen. The kitchen was a log cabin. When I entered I was told it was almost lights out time so eat quick. The kitchen was run by one of the few decent people at this facility. An older women who had kind of a grandmotherly vibe. Students, I know I keep saying students, not sure if I should refer to us as teens or inmates or what so for lack of a better word I'll refer to those of us housed there as students. Students help out in the kitchen and prepare meals.

They had already begun cleaning up but managed to get me sold cold crusty mac and cheese and I think a blueberry muffin that was leftover from breakfast. I wasn't hungry but managed to scarf down some food to stop my stomach from rumbling and was then taken to my new home.

The whole facility is basically two story log cabins that are broken down into 4 different units. Somewhat similar to a townhome. My new home was on the second story on the left side of one of these cabins. This photo below is one of the few photos I could find. I was in either the first building on the left or the second one in from the left I don't exactly recall as it's been a number of years.

I was kind of scared at this point. I had no idea what to expect. Was I going to be in with a bunch of true juvenile delinquent kids? Gang members? Real true badasses and not just some smart alec kid from the suburbs like myself? I'd also seen the movie Sleepers years earlier. Was I going to be beatup or raped by guards? I literally had no idea what to expect.

I walked up the stairs to the cabin, and whomever it was transporting me used a key card to open the door. As soon as I got in I saw a small room surrounded by bunk beds on all sides. Around the room were kids laying on their beds writing letters, reading books, playing dominoes and some cleaning up the area.

A guy named Kevin introduced himself as the family leader, he was a burly mountain man looking guy with a beard mustache and goetee. He took my shoes and locked them up in a big box where everyone else's shoes were locked up as well. They did this to keep us from running away. There was also a 2,000 pound magnetic lock on the door. I was told there was maybe 30 minutes before lights out and I could do what I wanted until then.

I would say there were probably between 12 and 20 kids in my new "family". Some ignored me and could care less about me. A few mean mugged me, and a few others were anxious to talk to me, find out what my story is, where I'm from. As a new guy people are always curious to know about "the outside world". What songs are popular, new movies that came out, sports, news, basically what the hell everyone outside of their little cut off world was into.

Two guys I talked to right off the bat was a kid named Fader from the inner city of Baltimore and another kid named Lacey from Tennessee. Fader seemed a bit more confident, pretty streetwise, etc. Lacey was probably a year or two younger than me and was a super nice kid, a bit goofy and maybe a bit immature but a nice kid. I remember he gave me his bible. I still have it to this day. It was a green bible, the type you could clearly tell someone had stolen from a hotel room. He told me I could have it and told me to sign it. He said he gave it to all the new guys and everyone kind of passed it along to the next guy when they came in. I don't recall how I wound up keeping it, I think it was because I left in a bit of a rush without getting to say goodbye to anyone months later when I finally left.

Fader and Lacey kind of briefly filled me in on where the hell I was, what some of the rules were, what the next day would hold, etc. Now by this point I had learned this wasn't going to be some one week long scared straight program. Some of these kids had been here for months, some for several years. It was basically a program you had to graduate. I was 16 years old at the time, almost 17. Fader and Lacey assured me that I was pretty lucky that I was close to 18 as they coudln't keep me beyond that. Now to me spending the next year plus here didn't seem like good luck, but I guess seeing as how there were kids who were 16 who had been there since 13 or 14 years of age, I guess I was lucky.

Shortly after that they called lights out. Kevin, my new family leader, aka the staff member in charge of my group told me my stuff hadn't arrived yet. I was in wet clothes and had no pillows or blankets. As they turned the lights off I lay there on a stained mattress on the upper bunk freezing and uncomfortable. That night I quietly cried myself to sleep.