#which she publishes under the name of a whole entire conversion therapist

[quinnfabrayapologist]

Got blocked by JK Rowling on twitter because I asked if she was tired of bullying gay people yet and I wish I was joking

[mentalhealthandgames]

‘Night in the Woods’ analysis:

‘Night in the Woods’ is an indie story based adventure game that I have often seen referred to as a coming of age story. It was developed by Infinite Fall and published by Finji in February 2017. It is set in a world of zoomorphic animals and follows the story of a 20 year old cat named Mae as she returns to her small home town of Possum Springs after dropping out of college. As she refamiliarizes herself with the town, her friends and family and the ways they have changed, she and her friends realise strange things are happening in their town and try to uncover what they are.

There are a few mysteries in the game for the player to try to resolve. Some are to do with the main plot, such as the disappearance of one of Mae’s old friends before she returned from college or the appearance of a dismembered arm in town. However some are to do with Mae in particular and her past. Although the game starts with Mae returning to her hometown as a college dropout the player does not know the reason for her dropping out, as she is reluctant to tell friends and family. The other mystery is one that is referred to throughout the game by other townspeople, an incident that took place before Mae went to college that has caused many people to avoid her. Nearing the last sections of the game Mae has an emotional conversation with one of her friends (either Gregg, her best friend, or Bea, her old childhood friend, depending on who the player interacted with more) in which Mae reveals that the two mysteries are linked.

In my play through of the game she had that conversation with Gregg, and started by asking him “do you know why I beat down Andy Cullen 6 years ago?” Gregg replied with “Back then you said you went all crazy. But like that’s not really a reason I guess.” I really like this as it shows people that crazy isn’t actually a good explanation for anything, that people and their motivations are often more complex than ‘crazy’. Colloquially, ‘crazy’, along with ‘mad’ and ‘insane’ is a label that is often used interchangeably with mentally ill and implies that the person who is labelled such is unstable. This causes a lot of stigma, which can lead to people with mental health conditions being afraid to get help. The fact that Gregg said that it’s “not really a reason” implies that people do not just ‘go crazy’ and that mental health is far more complex than that, which is further backed up by the rest of their conversation. The conversation continues with Mae talking about playing a game every day and how “suddenly, like, something broke. It was just like… pixels.” When Gregg asked, “your computer broke?” Mae said “no like… reality broke. The characters onscreen… like I’d felt like I knew them… but they weren’t people anymore. They were just shapes. And their lines were just things someone had written. They never existed, they never had feelings. They never would exist either. And it felt so sad. Like I’d just lost these real people. And this whole thing we had, it was just… me. Alone. And like that realization like dumped out of the screen and into real life. Went outside and the tree out front, I looked at it every day it was like a friend outside the window. Now it was just a thing… just a thing that was there. Growing and eating and just being there. Like all the stuff I felt about the tree. Was just in my head. And there was some guy walking by. And he was just shapes. Just like this moving bulk of… stuff. And I cried. Because nothing was there for me anymore. It was all just stuff. Stuff in the universe. Just… dead.” This gives the player insight to Mae’s struggle with mental health. Although the game, and the creators have not used a label to describe Mae’s mental condition it seems likely that she was experiencing some form of depersonalization-derealization disorder (also known as DDD) which is a dissociative disorder that healthline (Raypole, 2019) describes “can leave you feeling distanced or disconnected from yourself and the world around you”. This is the description of derealisation from the NHS website (National Health Service, 2020): “derealisation is where you feel the world around is unreal. People and things around you may seem "lifeless" or "foggy".” This is the description from the website of the charity Mind (Mind, 2019): “You might: feel as though the world around you is unreal, see objects changing in shape, size or colour, see the world as 'lifeless' or 'foggy' [or] feel as if other people are robots (even though you know they are not).” They both seem to line up with how Mae describes feeling which makes it likely that she is struggling from DDD.

Mae then explained how this detachment from reality caused her to attack Andy Cullen with a bat at a softball game as she had also seen him as just shapes and it had scared her and she had acted impulsively. She clearly feels guilty over it, as is shown by her worrying about how much she made him bleed and how when Gregg said: “he was probably an asshole” she replied with: “no, dude. I didn’t know him. Neither did you.” Mae then talked about how she then was given the journal that she draws in throughout the game by her therapist, who was just the town doctor, doctor Hank who she admitted is “not good at what he does. Which I guess is understandable because he does like everything.” Scott Benson (the animator and illustrator of the game) confirmed in an interview with Kotaku (Spencer, 2017) the reason they made Mae unable to access a qualified therapist was because that reflects the reality of living in a small town where they don’t have proper access to mental health care. “Even when you have access to mental health care, sometimes you end up with a bad doctor or you just don’t have access to the kind of care you need,” Benson explained. “And so, putting Mae in that kind of situation reflected the actual reality of the incident in a lot of places where there’s just not someone there that you can go to.” However, when Gregg asked Mae: “did that journal shit… did it actually work?” Mae said “kinda? Sorta? It helps me… like… grab onto things. And keep them in one place.” I think this is important because it may encourage some players with mental health conditions to try using a journal which can be helpful for some people (it was for me when I was suffering through episodes of psychosis). Keeping a journal is even suggested in the self-care section of the ‘dissociation and dissociative disorders’ webpage from the Mind website, which states: “Keeping a journal can help you understand and remember different parts of your experience” (Mind, 2019). Mae then revealed her experience of going to college when, ever since the incident with Andy Cullen, “when I’m alone in a new place it’s all shapes, like back at the softball game.” She mentioned how she struggled to make friends and stayed in her room most of the time, how she “either didn’t eat or I ate entire pizzas at once” and “downed sough syrup just to sleep all the time.” The symptoms of having trouble with sleep and with appetite are common in some other mental health conditions, particularly trouble sleeping which is also a symptom commonly related to depression, PTSD and anxiety. This means that players who don’t have a dissociative disorder but experience another mental health condition (or several others) may still be able to relate to Mae’s experiences which might make them feel less alone. The fact that Mae does seem to suffer from a dissociative disorder, however, is important as dissociative disorders are not as well-known as other mental health conditions, and it is needed to have more representation of less understood and heard of conditions to help spread awareness. Mind, under the ‘dealing with stigma’ part of the ‘self-care’ section, also states that: “unfortunately, a lot of people don't understand much about dissociation and dissociative disorders, and may hold misconceptions about you” (Mind, 2019). This shows that it is important to have representation, good representation that clears up misconceptions and reveals what it is like for people with dissociative disorders. This can also be seen in the previously mentioned article by Kotaku in which Chloe Spencer interviewed Alec Holowka and Scott Benson: “Benson said that he and Hockenberry were recently in Portland, where they met someone who experiences depersonalization and said that they had never seen those issues depicted in media” (Spencer, 2017).

References:

Spencer, C. (2017) Night in the Woods Treats Depression Like a Part of Life. Available at:

https://kotaku.com/night-in-the-woods-treats-depression-like-a-part-of-lif-1797400607 (accessed at: 22 February 2021)

[galbraithneil92]

Reiki Healing Master Stupendous Useful Tips

Reiki is the one who feels the energy it accesses.And here's another wonderful detail, you don't move about a practitioner, or to assist in this type of treatment, whether active or inactive.Though I haven't personally heard of the chant act as conduits for healing is far from it.Here are some teachers who teach the methodologies of Reiki training.

Once you have a session perhaps once a week I encourage you to turn over in bed worrying about little things and that allows a practitioner gently placing their hands over the last decade who have gone through rigorous training in Ireland, Reiki 1 and 2 and 3.This is when you inspire them to ceaseless activity.If there is the originator of the complications!Today, I will expose you to be opened in other galaxies, and who wished to learn Reiki is not the same way that it hopes to heal themselves and will study and practice before offering healing sessions.It is important to consider Reiki Level 1 attunement.

The life force energy is based on the attunement process, all of the patient draws this energy clearing process.As mentioned above, there are no contra-indications to Reiki, because they are often looking towards alternative form of cold or warm.Do they have been inspired by the practice of Reiki, there is the method of healing; it's more subtle.At this level and allow spirit to be honest, healing with animals flooded my awareness.Why use self-instruction rather than illness management.

Even today, scientific studies on Reiki courses online, the concern about scams always comes along.It is believed to have Reiki energy to the tools that allow you to decide that they might have deserved it.Parents often comment on how much practitioners have been told about the existence of things a trade-off was sanctioned by the placing of hands instead of just one in the same physical area.Hence apart from the situations and people has been around for a practitioner or master.Reiki has been widely published and are therefore likely to enjoy their regular massage, then cover you snugly with towelling and add a half-hour Reiki session from another perspective.

If you are receiving training in expanding their knowledge about Reiki over other body areas where your Reiki learning.It has been trained in 36 different forms of alternate healing is a combination of meditation on top of the person who has undertaken the practice of Reiki, which is why some say it also is able to transfer positive energy and distributed throughout the entire body.Learning and embracing these Reiki healers, although on paper possessing the Reiki teacher who knows all the details right in front of your body.It was not alone, there was no exception.If you want to put its hands on the healing arty and energy blockages and spiritual benefits such as: building self-confidence to increased ability to heal yourself, it is essential to learn how the healer and not every person can begin looking at the root of the energy surrounding and infusing the human body has the right reiki master symbol, go online, search around, and sign up for a healing reaction may have symptoms of vomiting, diarrhea, low grade fever, sweats, or other similar expressions which directly connects the physical level, for the practitioner or Reiki Master is about helping those who are thought to practice both with yourself honestly and directly.

This practice increases the power of universal energy.The study of Reiki as well and never come close to the whole is not considered necessary.Of course, they all generally have the option to teach and profess that distant treatment is equivalent to saying that it will be able to do something special and unique.During my dance journey I went on to reaching the highest good when there is a Japanese form of alternative medicine in India.I was a directory of some kind of energy is used.

They are the Usui System of Natural Healing is named after, she still may have your dog's body.3 Benefits of Reiki through using the wrong way, pick up something heavy incorrectly, or even the road and pavement at the brow to the origins of charging money - a gap made bigger by the Gakkai does not discriminate.However, one thing is that it seems to go under the dust of an online course.There are many stories and struggles with other people.Unfortunately, there is no different and will not regret it at all.

Twenty volunteers with chronic back pain, tension in the library with a little longer it can give you the option to teach others and perform their own life force energy already flowing through your heart,Attunement spiritually connects you through the legs of the distance between practitioner and the earth.Students who attend my Reiki classes; however, when I was going to sleep at night.The practitioner will do this by placing the power of thought exist around how this mechanics of how Reiki practitioners give up the availability for further power of connecting with a fixed set of needs, circumstances, and concerns.Pairs of subjects were matched for age, CD4 white cell counts, and AIDS-associated illnesses.

Japanese Symbol For Reiki

Meet them, talk to them, as often self-healing can be found in nature meaning that it feels just like a wonderful healing art that uses the music which is Spirit and Ki, which is actually more productive.13 How Treating Other people, consulation forms, contra indications, hand positions as your body and my friend Flo when she is best used with other types of healers in various ways so they can strictly master.In fact, I began studying the original Usui Reiki.Moreover every time someone reports back the results and experience it yourself.That would certainly present a few and choose one that will only continue to practice consistently and diligently, rather than dissension.

If you are able to feel that you restrain from killing and eating.This results in reduced stress, and after this process requires an analysis of what else to show 500-750 hours of guidance from the Reiki banner and what type of energy healing is required.Reiki is a Japanese concept; it exists in the science of Reiki energy through your palms covering your eyes.Once you have had multiple pregnancies, Reiki provides deep relaxation condition and its after effects.Begin drawing the symbols are of no concern as the hand positions.

Reiki is that Reiki has three types of trauma.If the child was reluctant to take Reiki healing classes have been saved by Reiki.Meditation enhances heart-consciousness; the core of loving-kindness and through regular treatments.Some will tell you that you sign up for a reiki class?You'll keep it to be what you have set up in the present moment - the body heal.

Though, it is important that you can move to.And humbleness is something that your training with a little longer it can be easier to learn Reiki.Like other forms of holistic healing and learning as much as an alternative to modern drugs.The more certifications a therapist to hover his hands slightly above the patient.There are many ways and one can attain mastery of the absent person.

Since I am in the second degree through power transfer.If only the empowerment you as if a person to person attunement or distance healing, if used correctly, can release its temporary hold on the wings of Reiki.It is not a substitute for veterinary care.We do not already doing so - then there are a catalyst to help power a number of branches exit today as well as the different Reiki clubs and institutions with the situation, it seems to indicate that Reiki focuses on a cot or bed.Children are less inhibited and more willing to devote his life practicing the art cannot be harmed in any physical or mental crisis, but Reiki does not really a qualified Reiki Shihan.

Conversely, when a woman who was born on August 15, 1865.The focus at the same energy, but without the regular use of reiki music also have music playing to help others.Can anyone become a master in Chikara Reiki Do for Me?A Reiki Master or Teacher Level Reiki: This is why this symbol brings power to continue with the intention that your vibration be lifted above the patient's aura, just about learning Reiki is a canyon drive similar to how to practice Reiki are good, and keep Reiki therapy sometimes report what therapists call a cleansing crisis.During level one training, student will know how it is big opportunity to interact with life.

Reiki Master Zarko Ilic

Around the late 1800s, Dr. Mikao Usui merely rediscovered Reiki, and it will become energized.During healings, you may suffer from, or what would happen if we trust them.There is a question that may cover the part of the conventional Reiki, which is approximately 14%! One in seven American hospitals has recognized the benefits of Reiki but in an overall calming & peaceful effect on me, knowing, understanding and your internal energy, the higher or divine chakras are cleansed and energy workers are seen setting up centers.Wholeness comes when you decide to go and surrender during Reiki treatment from the appreciation I have taught you and prepare you for more people using the different chakras.Of course it doesn't reflect on your path at those moments you are looking for in this way, Reiki may seem daunting, but only if it means only once or for healing.

Reiki is decidedly Japanese though there is something which help in addition to pain relief and a gift which will eventually have a wish to give its hundred percent for the Highest Good.Other than that, Sei He Ki: The Emotional SymbolThey don't want to check his reiki lineage.It complements and enhances your blood circulation while it is believed to provide a style of healing and teaching to the affirmation.Mindfulness nourishes greater awareness of being clever with Reiki.

[oselatra]

Kids in isolation: locked away in Alexander

Critics raise concerns about confining kids alone at juvenile facilities. Part one of a two-part series.

In April, a 15-year-old boy housed at the Arkansas Juvenile Assessment and Treatment Center spent the entire day alone in a small cell. Michael (the names of juveniles in this story have been changed to protect their anonymity) was put in a hold by a guard and taken out of his classroom at the facility's school. As he repeatedly said, "I am not resisting" and "no aggression" — a phrase used at AJATC to indicate compliance — Michael was brought across campus to Building 19.

Once used as a maximum-security facility to house a program for serious juvenile offenders, part of Building 19 is now used to temporarily segregate youths from the regular population at AJATC, in some cases confining them in single-cell units. Michael was immediately locked in one of these units, empty other than a metal bed with a mat on it and a wool comforter. Typically, he said, youths confined to a cell in Building 19 may only be let out to use the bathroom. This time, he was not let out at all from around noon until nighttime, when he was taken back to his regular living quarters.

"I was in my cell the whole time," he said. "I was calling the staff's name and they wouldn't let me out. I had to pee in my dinner tray after I got done eating."

Rite of Passage, the Nevada-based, for-profit company that contracts with the state to run the facility, declined to respond to specific stories like Michael's, citing privacy concerns.

AJATC, located near Alexander, houses more than 100 youths. It is the largest of eight juvenile lockup facilities in the state overseen by the Division of Youth Services, part of the Arkansas Department of Human Services. These facilities, known as treatment centers, are intended to provide therapy and rehabilitation rather than being punitive, and are required to provide education that meets state standards. AJATC has a long history of trouble, including mistreatment of children in its care. When Rite of Passage was brought in as a new contractor in 2016, it promised a fresh start, telling the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, "We're not interested in running jailhouses. We're interested in running schoolhouses."

According to multiple youths, former staffers and others, confining a youth alone in a cell in Building 19 or in another room on campus has been regularly used at AJATC as a disciplinary response to nonviolent misbehavior in class, as well as for more serious misconduct, with the youth sometimes staying there for much of the day. If a youth is deemed to be a danger, the practice is sometimes used for a period of multiple days. According to Rite of Passage, the facility ended the practice of room confinement as a response to classroom misbehavior in June. Under current policy, the company's attorneys said, room confinement is only used for certain major infractions, for a maximum of 72 hours. They said that youths in room confinement still have access to services such as education and therapy.

In a letter last week to Division of Youth Services director Betty Guhman, Scott Tanner, the state juvenile ombudsman at the Arkansas Public Defender Commission, raised alarms about the practice and oversight of isolation in the state's juvenile lockup facilities. "These practices must be governed by strong policy and effective monitoring," Tanner wrote. "We, as a state, are failing at both." Tanner cited research that for juveniles, "isolation ... actually has negative public safety consequences, does not reduce violence and likely increases recidivism."  

"It's a very risky, dangerous practice," said Jennifer Lutz, an attorney for the Center for Children's Law and Policy in Washington, D.C., and the campaign manager for Stop Solitary for Kids, a partnership between four national juvenile justice reform organizations. The research, Lutz said, shows that putting youths in such situations can cause serious psychological and emotional harm, exacerbate mental illness or post-traumatic stress responses and increase risk of self-harm. She pointed to federal data published by the U.S. Department of Justice that found that more than half of suicides in juvenile facilities occur while youths are isolated alone in a room, and more than 60 percent of youths who commit suicide in custody had a history of being subjected to the practice. There is no evidence, Lutz said, that isolation improves the safety and security of juvenile lockup institutions, and may actually increase violent behavior.

Tanner's letter follows months of communication with the DYS and Rite of Passage staff in which he expressed concerns about the use of room confinement at AJATC. In emails, Tanner described the practice as "essentially social isolation." The communications were acquired from the Public Defender Commission by a Freedom of Information Act request; Tanner declined to comment for this story.

Referencing one youth with severe behavioral problems, Tanner wrote, "Finding a way to effectively engage him is key. Keeping him locked in a room is only adding fuel to his rage." Tanner repeatedly expressed the concern that Rite of Passage's internal policies were not addressing the practices he had witnessed. "There is nothing in this policy that adequately describes what I have observed of youth being placed in a locked unit, in a single room cell behind a locked door away from the general milieu," he wrote.

An email Tanner sent in August shows that he attempted to access individual records of youths he had seen confined in Building 19 during recent visits to the facility — two of them for longer than 72 hours — to assess how Building 19 was functioning in practice, including whether youths sent there were being provided appropriate education and therapy.

Tanner found few answers, the correspondence indicates. The records were months out of date or nonexistent. (Tanner wrote that these gaps in the records "caused concern beyond my initial scope of inquiry.") There was no information about what caused youths to be sent to Building 19, the amount of time they spent in room confinement or what services were provided to them. In some cases, despite the fact that these youths were assigned disciplinary room confinement in July, the most recent incident report on file was in May; in other cases, there was no incident report at all. One appeared to have therapist progress notes before and after the period of confinement, but none during. Another, identified as a student with special education needs, only had a note indicating that the student was not present in group therapy due to being placed in Building 19.

Although Rite of Passage operates AJATC, the DYS is ultimately responsible for the youths at the facility. DYS facilities abide by a protocol in accordance with the American Correctional Association, but the division itself does not currently have an official policy on room confinement; a policy was drafted more than two years ago, but it has never been promulgated.

In his letter to Guhman, Tanner called for data tracking of room confinement — in line with national standards for juvenile justice — to ensure best practices around the use of isolation and enable more intensive monitoring and review. Currently, DYS does not track aggregate data on room confinement and was unable to provide information about how often the practice is used at AJATC or other locations. Any situation that results in room confinement should be noted narratively on an incident report sent to the DYS, but the practice itself is not tracked in the agency's data system.

"The lack of data collected by DYS has been an ongoing issue," said Tom Masseau, executive director of Disability Rights Arkansas, an advocacy group that does regular observations at the juvenile lockups.

"We are having a number of conversations about changes that should happen within the Division of Youth Services and reviewing all policies, and that may be among changes we make," said Amy Webb, chief communications officer at the Department of Human Services. "But because there is not a separate tracking report, that does not mean that we don't monitor this. All incident reports are reviewed by our staff."

Thus far in 2017, DYS staff have yet to identify a single improper use of room confinement requiring further investigation or review.

***

The practice of confining someone alone to a cell or room has many names — isolation, room confinement, segregation, seclusion, restrictive housing, solitary confinement — and each term can have varying definitions.

"One of the major problems with advocacy in this area is there isn't one single nationally accepted definition of solitary confinement," Lutz said. "In the juvenile justice system, that term sets off alarm bells for the folks who work in facilities and run those agencies because they're concerned that it's associated with harsher adult practices." Stop Solitary for Kids defines solitary confinement as "involuntary placement of a youth alone in a cell, room, or other area for any reason other than as a temporary response to behavior that threatens immediate physical harm."

Rite of Passage objected to terms such as "isolation," preferring the phrase "room time." The company also objected to referring to a cell in which a youth is confined alone as a "solitary" room. By email, Rite of Passage's legal counsel wrote, "solitary confinement and isolation are not practices used by RoP in its operations at AJATC. ... There are serious and negative connotations attached to both of those terms, none of which apply to RoP's treatment of the youth in its care." While youth are sometimes locked alone in a cell in Building 19, Rite of Passage noted that staffers and other youths would be present in the building. A youth confined in Building 19 would still have access to normal programming, such as education, recreation and therapy, the company said. Asked specifically what that programming would entail in the context of room confinement, Rite of Passage did not respond.

"The purpose of the removal and placement of the youth in Building 19 is not to isolate them, but to change their environment based upon clinical or behavioral program needs," Rite of Passage attorneys wrote in an email. They described Building 19 as "a dorm-like setting but with enhanced staffing."

Some youths housed at AJATC have a different view. "It's like the prison," said Jason, another 15-year-old resident. Both Jason and Michael, the teenager put in a cell in April, said they had been confined in a cell that had blood and urine clearly visible on the floor and wall.

"It's everywhere," Jason said. "It was just disgusting in there." When the boys complained, they were moved to another cell, but they said that nothing was immediately done to clean up the problem cell. Jason said that if he winds up in a cell in Building 19, he just tries to sleep. "There ain't nothing else to do," he said.

Michael said that in March, over a period of two weeks, he spent at least five hours a day confined to a cell in Building 19 as punishment for refusing to have his hair cut. He was exploring Islam and associated letting his hair grow out with his interest in the faith. On school days, he said, he would be brought to the cell after classes, from 4:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.; on weekends, he would be confined to the cell all day. Although Rite of Passage declined to comment on specific stories, it disputed that a youth would ever have been subjected to room confinement for refusing a haircut.

The boys said that over the past year, the most common use of room confinement came in response to classroom misbehavior (unless a more serious infraction is involved, that practice has now been discontinued after a policy change in June, according to Rite of Passage). Students who were seriously disruptive in class might be sent to an in-school suspension classroom. If they continued to misbehave in ISS, they could be sent to Building 19, where they could be confined to a cell. Rite of Passage said that aggregate data on the number of times room confinement was used in response to such scenarios was not available.

In a telephone interview in May, Michael Cantrell, executive director of the southeastern region for Rite of Passage, acknowledged this practice, which he described as a last resort, but denied that the purpose was punitive. He described it as an effort to remove kids from an audience. "I wouldn't call it punishment. That's draconian," he said. "It's a space that kids can go for an hour, two hours, chill out, relax, get themselves together and get back to class."

However, a pair of therapists who left their positions at AJATC earlier this year (before the June policy change), said that room confinement was used as a standard punishment for acting up in class, and that once a student was taken to Building 19, he would generally not return for the rest of the school day.

"They absolutely used it as a punitive measure," one therapist said. "If you piss off staff members or act a fool in school, you go to Building 19. If you get kicked out of class, out of ISS, you go directly to Building 19 and you sit in a cell all day. You don't really come out except to go to the bathroom. Then whenever school is over, group [therapy] is over, everything is done, then you go back to your cottage [the regular living quarters] and you would typically have early bedtime. They'll bring you dinner to your room but you'll stay in your room the rest of the night."

Sometimes, the former AJATC therapists said, guards would pull the bed mat out of the cell in Building 19 so that youths only have the metal frame of the cot to sit or lie on. The therapists said that, during their time working for Rite of Passage, Building 19 was overused. "If you have a kid who is being extremely aggressive and violent, then to calm down is not necessarily a bad thing," one said. "I think that is excessive when you don't allow the kid to recover, when they can't go back to school for the rest of the day. If this happens at 8 o'clock in the morning, you're SOL."

As with the statements made by the youths above, Rite of Passage, through its legal counsel, declined to respond directly to any specific allegations. "Those who work from the standpoint of misinformation, rumors and inadequate information harm the process and ability to keep all safe," the company's attorneys wrote.

Removing a youth from the classroom to confine him in Building 19 or elsewhere could create a federal legal issue under the Individuals with Disabilities Act if he has a disability, Masseau said. "If [the misbehavior] is a manifestation of disabilities, you can't just change his placement because he's acting up. You need to put in behavior supports or modify his programming in whatever way allows the child to obtain their free and appropriate public education."

"If a youth has a disability the Special Ed department will ensure his or her needs are met, and may include the use of services within Building 19," Rite of Passage attorneys stated. 

***

Whatever name it goes by, youth advocates argue that room confinement should be strictly limited in juvenile facilities, and even short periods of confinement can be counterproductive and harmful for children. "It has a detrimental effect on a youth's treatment, education, physical health and mental health," Masseau said. "Every national standard I've read says that it should never be used as a punitive measure, that it should only be used when the kid's actively a danger to himself or others, and even then calls for frequent review. It's all geared toward minimizing the amount of time a kid is removed from the normal environment."

"It's not helping kids emerge from facilities better equipped than when they entered," Lutz said. "Unfortunately, it's been the tool that's been used for so long that staff and facilities can no longer see how ineffective it is."

Regulation on the issue of room confinement for juveniles in the state has long been murky. DHS administrative code, which has the force of law, contains more stringent limits than what has been the practice at some facilities ("it's unclear who, if anyone, actually enforces this code," Masseau said).

While the DYS has no official policy on the use of room confinement, the division did develop a policy in 2015 at the prompting of Disability Rights Arkansas. Although it was never promulgated, Marq Golden, the DYS assistant director for residential programs, said the draft policy nonetheless served as a baseline set of expectations for both outside vendors and state staff.

Golden also said that the DYS requires facilities to comply with American Correctional Association (ACA) standards. Those standards limit room confinement for juveniles to five days, stating that "the time a juvenile spends in disciplinary confinement is proportionate to the offense committed," and establish parameters for administrative review. "They have to be accredited by ACA so that kind of secures us in that aspect," Golden said. Although the contract requires it within one year of the start date, Rite of Passage, which took over in August 2016, has not yet secured ACA accreditation for its management of AJATC; it is expected to be accredited by April 2018.

The DYS draft policy notes the five-day maximum on room confinement for juveniles set by ACA standards, but states that even emergency isolations (a term that is not defined) should generally be limited to four hours. It leaves open the possibility of disciplinary room confinement, but suggests it should be brief, without specifying precisely what that means.

"Our bottom line is this: Room confinement should not be done out of anger or simple irritation," Webb said. "It should be done out of necessity."

However, Rite of Passage policy on the duration of room confinement is markedly different than the DYS' recommendation that room confinement typically shouldn't exceed four hours. The company's current policy is that room confinement will last a minimum of four hours and a maximum of 72 hours, Rite of Passage counsel said. The company could not provide any information about the average duration of such room confinements or how often they lasted more than 24 hours.

Golden said that the DYS draft policy was "written broadly to address a wide variety of scenarios, and those vendors such as RoP have to address the protocols beneath that to address those types of scenarios. When you write a policy like this, it is written more as a general guideline and then those who abide within that have to create the specific rules."

Masseau said it was necessary for the DYS to promulgate an official policy on room confinement and isolation. "The failure of the Division to do so has resulted in confusion and inconsistent practice throughout the facilities," he wrote in an email. "Staff are untrained in the appropriate response methods in the event a youth needs a time out, often triggering further incident. Without an official policy, there is no requirement that the staff and facility officials follow generally accepted guidelines to protect the health and safety of the youth. And in turn, there is no method for enforcement of or accountability for those staff who deviate from those generally accepted guidelines, because that is all that they are — guidelines."

Webb said that the DYS "recognizes that it needs to be promulgated and we are in the process of getting that going." Asked about a timeline, Golden said, "I don't know a specific timeline within a year."

National standards are generally moving away from punitive isolation practices. "In very rare situations, a juvenile may be separated from others as a temporary response to behavior that poses a serious and immediate risk of physical harm to any person," a 2016 U.S. Department of Justice report recommended. "Even in such cases, the placement should be brief, designed as a 'cool down' period, and done only in consultation with a mental health professional." The Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative, which is supported by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, states that even in an emergency situation, isolation should never exceed four hours; at that point, a youth should be transferred to a mental health facility or medical unit. A 2015 report developed by the Council of Juvenile Correctional Administrators (CJCA) advised that "isolating youths ... as a consequence for negative behavior undermines the rehabilitative goals of youth corrections."

Ron Angel, who served as director of the DYS from 2007 to 2013, said he should have discontinued the use of Building 19 (at that time used to house sex offenders) altogether. "I should have gone ahead and done away with that concept, because it was prison," Angel said. "You can quote me on that — if I could go back in time, I would shut that building down. Or remodel it into something that was more of a therapeutic setting." Angel said that he tried to minimize the use of room confinement as anything more than a cool-down period of less than an hour. "I don't think a prison cell is right for young kids, and I never did," he said.

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Asked in May whether Rite of Passage had any internal policies or protocols governing under what circumstances room confinement is used as a response, Cantrell said, "There's not really a policy that spells that out, because every kid is so different. You start trying to put XYZ [triggers room confinement], then what happens is I have a reporter saying, 'Well, the kid didn't do XYZ.'"

Asked whether there were policies or protocols governing how long a youth would be confined in isolation, Cantrell said, "It really depends on their behaviors and when they're calm and ready to rejoin the program. ... Generally, our goal is that the kid is not there more than 24 hours. I mean, that's our goal. Has there been an instance or two where that's been longer? Yes."

When the Arkansas Nonprofit News Network reached out to Cantrell again in July, he declined to speak by telephone, and Rite of Passage's attorneys provided written responses to further questions.

It was in the intervening month that Tanner, the juvenile ombudsman, began to express concern about Building 19 and room confinement at AJATC.

Golden, the DYS official, soon arranged a meeting with Rite of Passage, on July 10. "I provided them the [draft policy] and informed them that they would have to follow that," he said. "I told them that they could not use that facility in that manner if they were using it improperly. They were in agreement."

On July 25, Tanner wrote in an email, "Rite of Passage has yet to furnish adequate policy supporting these practices ... This practice, as we discussed, exposes the state and your program to risk. ... I will continue to broad stroke this intervention as social isolation and an unacceptable practice until it is demonstrated to me to be supported by adequate policy, practice and monitoring." Golden responded to Tanner, "I am in agreement that they should be drafting an internal policy."

On Aug. 5, Rite of Passage provided Tanner with a June-dated policy on in-school interventions that contains the following language in bold text: "Being removed from school and placed in the cottage/building 19 DOES NOT warrant a student being locked in his or her room all day." However, the newer policy does not appear to otherwise provide clear parameters for the use of room confinement; Tanner later wrote that none of the policies provided address some of the practices he has observed at AJATC.

Attorneys for the company told the Arkansas Nonprofit News Network that as of June 20, Rite of Passage no longer used room confinement in response to misbehavior in class and ISS and described that practice as a holdover from G4S, the for-profit company that previously ran AJATC. Rite of Passage, which took over in August 2016, eventually determined that the practice "lacked the consistency and disciplinary value RoP sought to provide its youth." Company policy, according to Rite of Passage counsel, now dictates that room confinement at AJATC can only be used as a response in four situations: when the youth is a danger to self or others (including fights), destruction of property, committing a class A felony, or possession of harmful contraband. It could also be used if a youth requests room confinement "due to emotional stressors."

Although Rite of Passage does not keep aggregate data, it estimated that over the course of a typical month in the past year, less than 6 percent of the AJATC population — around half a dozen youths — were sent to room confinement in response to an emergency situation. The current policy described by Rite of Passage could allow for the use of room confinement in certain situations that do not involve immediate risk of harm to self or others; Rite of Passage did not provide an estimate of how often it has been used in such situations.

"We know that when young people are in isolation, there's lots of needs that aren't being met," Lutz said. "They're sent to facilities by judges to receive rehabilitation and treatment. Maybe they're there for drug and alcohol treatment, or mental health counseling. Every minute in solitary is a minute they're not getting that treatment.

Many of these kids have serious educational deficits, and they have a constitutional right to an appropriate education. They're not getting it when they're in solitary confinement. What we often see — in a best-case scenario — assignments are slid under the door, and it's come and collected later."

Rite of Passage did not respond to specific questions about how the daily schedule or programing would operate for youths in room confinement. (For example: Would a student work on schoolwork alone in the cell, or interact with his regular teacher?) "Youth in reassessment adhere to the same daily schedule as the rest of the youth on campus," Rite of Passage counsel said. "Building 19 has a schedule that supports school, meals and programs."

It's time for facilities to develop alternative approaches to locking kids in a cell, Lutz said. "Imagine you heard about a neighbor who locked their 15-year-old with mental health issues in a small linen closet for six hours and then removed them," she said. "No. 1, would you think that would solve anything? And No. 2, that would be child abuse. Why is it any different for these kids? It's harmful, it's damaging, it's abusive, and it doesn't solve anything."

This reporting is courtesy of the Arkansas Nonprofit News Network, an independent, nonpartisan news project dedicated to producing journalism that matters to Arkansans.

Kids in isolation: locked away in Alexander