KIDS of El Paso was a long term inpatient substance abuse treatment facility that broke ground in El Paso, Texas in 1985 and opened with a provisional license in early 1986. Known in El Paso as 'The Program,' KIDS of El Paso was heavily marketed to desperate parents of troubled teens. KIDS of El Paso used the Therapeutic Community approach in the addictive and behavioral rehabilitation of adolescents with substance abuse, eating, and behavioral related disorders. The KIDS of El Paso program was controversial for the use of confrontative group therapy, physical restraint, sexual humiliation, and long term social deprivation. There were also allegations by former program participants of mind control, false imprisonment, coercion, neglect, and torturous physical abuse of children. Many called KIDS of El Paso a 'rehabilitation cult' that used clinically unethical and grossly unsupervised methods at fostering conformity and compliance in KIDS of El Paso group therapy members. Others defended KIDS of El Paso and claimed that they would be dead, insane, or in jail without the intervention of "The Program." KIDS of El Paso eventually closed in 1989 after filing for bankruptcy due to mounting legal defense fees. Many of those formerly associated with the program report modern day adjustment related difficulties they attribute to the time they were involved with the controversial methods of treatment used at KIDS of El Paso almost 20 years ago.
There was often a waiting list of teens for admission to the KIDS of El Paso program. For those that were admitted, the KIDS experience began with the admission intake. After the intake, the teen was introduced the KIDS of El Paso group.
Treatment was provided at the KIDS of El Paso building located at 6900 Boeing in El Paso, Texas for 13 hours per day. Sunday and Wednesday were usually shorter days. Friday and Monday were longer days that required teens to be at the building a minimum of 16 hours. When at the building, KIDS teens participated in rap sessions where they discussed how their drug use, eating, or behavioral related disorder impacted their lives before being admitted to the program. Between rap sessions, the group sang songs. At the conclusion of the day, those on the first phase of treatment went home and lived temporarily with higher phasers where KIDS' therapy continued. Teens wrote moral inventories nightly. Moral inventories were designed to document the application of the program principals to a problem that the teen experienced earlier in the day. Teens also continued to cathartically discuss their life before the program and look introspectively at what to change in their lives to stay off of drugs, or to manage their eating/behavioral related disorder.
The structure of the program consisted of a hierarchy of five phases of treatment prior to program graduation.
On the first phase of treatment, the admit lived full time with a teenager that was more advanced in the program. On second phase, the admit was able to return home to live with their parents. On second and higher phases, the admit took first phase 'newcomers' into the family 'host home.' On third phase the admit was able to return to school and/or work for a portion of the day. On the fourth phase of treatment the focus was on building healthy friendships. A fourth phaser was able to take time away from group for a portion of the day to socialize with other fourth or higher phasers. Upon reaching the fifth and final phase of treatment, the focus included social responsibility and being a role model for others. On fifth phase, there was also the option to sign up for staff training.
After successfully completing staff training, one was then eligible to join the peer staff as a trainee. The peer staff hierarchy at KIDS of El Paso consisted of staff trainees, graduate junior staff, and graduate senior staff. Supervising the peer staff were clinical staff members. Unlike peer staff, clinical staff members did not go through the program and had varied backgrounds including education, social work, and the military. Clinical staff consisted of a program coordinator, assistant clinical director, clinical director, and national clinical director that made up the clinical staff team. There was also an auxiliary staff that included parents of teens in the program that worked at the building. KIDS of El Paso had a maintenance man known as the "building dad," a dietary worker known as the "kitchen mom," and an intake coordinator.
Whether one is for or against the program, it is undeniable that the experience was like no other. There were many rules in place that dictated each behavior; consequences were often swift and feared. Every action was analytically scrutinized and procedurally controlled including the number of pieces of toilet paper allowed when using the bathroom to duration and frequency of food and sleep. It is equally undeniable that life itself was interrupted during one's time in the program. Teens were not allowed to be alone, not allowed to watch television nor listen to the radio, not allowed to read, not allowed to think to ones' self, not allowed to talk out of turn, not allowed to interact or talk to members of the opposite sex, not allowed to write, see family, or make phone calls, diet was restricted, and teens were not permitted to leave the building for school or work during the initial phases of the program. Treatment was without respite and continuous during all hours of the day and night lasting for years in most circumstances.
State investigators found the facility responsible for over 50 violations that included sleep and nutritional deprivation, blatant physical abuse, and civil rights violations. Though the findings were conclusive and well documented, the governing body of licensure had difficulty with the revocation of KIDS provisional license to operate. The facility remained opened with little change throughout various probationary periods, appeals, and temporary injunctions. The fight to stay open was a battle waged in a very public arena that became a part of El Paso history. There was involvement of state government, senators, private detectives, prominent attorneys, an heiress, the mayor, Geraldo, and even the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Circumstances of child abuse, multiple suicides, auto theft rings,,false imprisonment, escapes, incest, and brainwashing added to the controversy surrounding the program. KIDS of El Paso closed after having to file for bankruptcy in late 1989 as many assets were exhausted on legal costs and associated expenditures involved with defending the program.
