Ladies who arrive at Re-Creation Retreat (RCR) start at stage one. At stage one, ladies will not be allowed to look out of the window. They don’t seem to be allowed to speak to one another or look one another within the eye. “Your microexpressions had been managed,” stated Carissa Reyes, who joined the programme quickly after it first opened in 2008.
Ladies climb up the ranks with good behaviour, accruing factors and privileges. Ladies who attain larger ranges are capable of put on their very own garments or converse with permission. Finally they attain stage 5, and are allowed to depart.
All contact with the skin world is monitored by employees, so if a woman makes an attempt to speak to her mother and father about what it’s like inside RCR, she dangers being dropped to stage one, and having to start out the programme once more.
Cassia Cilento was coming down from meth and ecstasy when she first arrived at RCR, a therapeutic remedy centre for ladies with “behaviour issues”, in April 2010. She was 14. Earlier that morning, she’d woken as much as two strangers in her childhood bed room in Olympia, Washington. “We’re going to be taking you to your new college,” they stated.
Cassia was in her underwear, so the strangers started throwing garments at her to placed on. Her mother and father had been nowhere in sight so, feeling like she had no alternative, Cassia bought into the automotive with the strangers.
They rode to Seattle–Tacoma worldwide airport, took a flight to Las Vegas, then drove by means of the desert to Arizona, pulling up outdoors RCR, a refurbished motel and restaurant in Fredonia – a sparsely populated city on crimson mountainous terrain.
“I simply bear in mind feeling dehumanised,” stated Cassia, who’s now 29. “Something that makes you a person is gone.” Cassia was instructed to take out all her piercings and alter into an orange T-shirt, gray sweatpants and flip-flops.
“It’s like a jail sentence, however you didn’t commit a criminal offense,” stated Cassia.
Cassia felt lonely and depleted, however one heat reminiscence stands out from her first day at RCR. It was night, and employees had gathered a gaggle of women right into a circle for a mirrored image session. Cassia caught eyes with a woman throughout the circle, who had soiled blond hair and funky blue eyes. Cassia was instantly interested in her. “I may simply inform that we had been on the identical vibes with the best way that we thought. That was earlier than I’d even talked to her.”
The woman’s identify was Ashley Ciciliano. Ashley, who was then 15, remembers seeing Cassia for the primary time too. “I knew she was very particular the second I noticed her,” she stated. After the session, the women came upon that they’d be sharing a room.
That night time, Ashley sat down subsequent to Cassia when nobody else was round and requested her what had introduced her to the centre.
Cassia had been sexually abused when she was six years previous. “I now not felt protected on this world,” she stated. Aged 12, she started taking exhausting medicine to disassociate.
Cassia stated that her mother and father by no means really requested her what was incorrect. Speaking to Ashley felt completely different. “I felt protected along with her and I didn’t really feel protected most of my life.”
The next night time Ashley and Cassia had been mendacity of their bunk beds, once they heard a loud shattering noise. A woman of their dorm had smashed a mirror with a rest room seat and stabbed herself with the shards of glass.
It wasn’t till the next night that employees formally acknowledged what had occurred, Ashley stated. She remembers Randy Soderquist, the proprietor of the ability, calling them right into a room and telling them that they weren’t allowed to speak to anybody about what had occurred – to not the opposite ladies and to not their mother and father.
The ladies had been terrified. However as days, then weeks handed and the woman didn’t return to RCR, Cassia’s thoughts started whirling. It may need taken critically injuring herself to do it, however the woman had managed to flee the ability. Cassia didn’t comprehend it on the time, however she and Ashley would ultimately hatch their very own escape plan from RCR.
Throughout the US, between 120,000 and 200,000 younger folks stay in “troubled teen” services – a community of therapeutic boarding colleges, non secular academies, wilderness programmes and rehabilitation centres. The centres pledge to help youngsters experiencing habit, psychological sickness and behavioural challenges, however many have been accused of abusive practices and stripping residents of their primary human rights.
Martha Carol, a former affiliate legal professional at Justice Legislation Collaborative, stated that whereas “in all 50 states, it’s unlawful to abuse youngsters”, there is no such thing as a nationwide regulation of those services, and the particular legal guidelines that govern them differ from state to state. (The agency is representing “survivors of abuse” at RCR however stated right now “no authorized motion” had been filed in opposition to the centre.)
Lately, the “troubled teen trade” has garnered mainstream consideration, partly as a result of Netflix documentary The Program and Paris Hilton’s advocacy. After years of campaigning, the Cease Institutional Youngster Abuse Act was lastly handed in December 2024, with a plan to develop nationwide suggestions. Whereas the invoice is a “monumental step in direction of accountability”, Kelly Guagenty, a associate at Justice Legislation Collaborative, stated: “The true success of this invoice will rely on the way it’s applied.”
In the meantime, RCR continues to run because it at all times has. Go to its web site right now and also you’ll see a slow-mo video reel of trickling water fountains and smiling ladies enjoying soccer and chatting with the digital camera about their optimistic expertise on the programme. However in interviews with greater than 17 former attendees of RCR over the previous yr, a unique environment was described to me. Many former residents are demanding accountability and reform inside RCR and the “troubled teen trade” as a complete. That is the primary time lots of them are making these allegations publicly, past sharing movies on social media.
RCR was arrange by husband and spouse Randy and Toni Soderquist, who – in accordance with their web site – had been impressed to arrange the ability after serving to one in all their daughters by means of an abusive relationship.
Former residents stated their stays at RCR price tens of 1000’s of {dollars}, however they acquired insufficient remedy and had been made to do guide labour. Carissa stated that when she arrived at RCR, ladies had been compelled to renovate the ability, constructing a walkway and spending “no less than six hours day-after-day for every week” pulling out weeds in 100F (38C) warmth. She stated that ladies had been made to work with out compensation on the neighbouring restaurant.
When requested concerning the allegations on this article, Randy Soderquist stated that “as a consequence of medical privateness laws” he was “unable to debate particular remedy strategies and even to substantiate or deny that any of the folks … interviewed had been really college students in our care”. Nevertheless, he emphasised that “as an organisation we have now at all times been deeply dedicated to the wellbeing and security of our residents” and that “our core values of care, respect and dedication to every scholar’s progress and success have remained unwavering.”
However many of the former residents I spoke with didn’t really feel their wellbeing was prioritised. “We had been herded round like a bunch of sheep,” stated Sophie Olsen, who was launched from RCR in February 2023 after a 17-month keep. “If we had to make use of the lavatory, they may simply ignore our hand for so long as they needed,” she stated. “It’s simply full denial of any kind of humanity.”
Ladies additionally described being topic to violent “restraints” for minor wrongdoings, corresponding to refusing to placed on their socks. Ashley remembers a triple amputee who was “bodily restrained as a way of comfort” till she started “wailing”. But employees uncared for her hygiene wants, that means that the woman’s roommates needed to change her dirty underwear. “Employees didn’t need to take care of it,” Ashley stated.
Soderquist’s 5 youngsters (and later, their spouses) labored at RCR, despite the fact that some had been youthful than the boarders themselves. “Generally Randy would depart us alone and we must ask his 10-year-old daughter Emily permission to speak,” stated Delaney Migues, who attended RCR in 2008.
Ladies described having to participate in humiliating, “bogus” therapeutic practices, like having to put on a “busty crimson gown” and re-enact The Woman in Purple (the well-known Chris de Burgh music a couple of seductive girl wearing crimson) or stand in a gaggle banging a towel on the bottom and saying the phrase “mommy”.
Siobhan Kelly Fogarty, now 32, who boarded at RCR from July 2009 to April 2010, remembers as soon as having to lie on the ground wrapped in a sheet for eight hours, imitating a cocoon, till she broke down crying. She stated it appeared as if the purpose of those workshops was “to make you essentially the most weak and weak you possibly can be in order that they’ll construct you again up and say: ‘See, the programme is right here for you.’”
Ladies describe their our bodies going into overdrive from stress at RCR. One former resident stated that she didn’t get her interval for the whole eight months she was there.
Ladies stated they couldn’t converse their thoughts throughout remedy periods, as no matter they stated might be used in opposition to them, leading to them staying longer. “It’s a whole battle of curiosity,” stated Delaney. “Do you actually suppose I’m going to be trustworthy with my therapist, when you may resolve if I am going residence or not?”
Whereas nearly everybody I spoke with described being negatively affected by RCR, one 18-year-old girl, who spoke to me on the situation of anonymity, instructed me that she cherished her therapist at RCR and that he “helped me and my household greater than phrases can describe”. The girl, who attended RCR final yr, greater than a decade after lots of the different ladies I spoke with, stated that employees would “strive every part” they may earlier than utilizing a bodily restraint. “It’s remedy,” she stated. “It’s not speculated to be enjoyable. It’s not summer season camp.”
For a lot of former residents, nevertheless, one of many worst issues concerning the programme was feeling such as you couldn’t belief anybody – creating an surroundings the place residents had been incentivised to snitch on each other and had been punished for not reporting rule-breaking. “To today, I’ve little question my belief points come from this,” stated Delaney, who has since been recognized with PTSD.
Nonetheless, ladies discovered methods to attach with each other. Throughout music remedy, when the trainer was enjoying the piano, going through away from the category, Ashley and Cassia would have a look at one another and giggle. Or on outings, they might sit subsequent to one another on the coach again. Slowly, they bought to know one another. “She was the one individual that I may belief,” Cassia recalled. “The one individual that I assumed actually noticed what was occurring with me.”
By fall, it was clear that the women had emotions for each other. They nonetheless hadn’t kissed, however typically, once they hugged, they’d maintain one another for just a little longer. In October 2010, Ashley was launched from RCR. Cassia was launched a couple of months later, however spent the subsequent few months yo-yoing between residence and RCR. Any time she tried to speak to her mother and father about RCR, she felt like they didn’t hear: “They had been completely satisfied that it was higher for me to be there.”
Finally, on the finish of 2011, Cassia moved again residence to Washington, the place Ashley was additionally dwelling. The ladies started hanging out extra commonly and their relationship turned official. However, a couple of months later, after Cassia’s mom walked in on her and Ashley sharing a mattress, Cassia feared she could be despatched again to RCR. She suspected that her mother and father had spoken with Soderquist, who her dad extremely revered, “a lot in order that I even thought my dad was in love with him, as a result of he put him on a pedestal like he was his God”.
So Ashley made Cassia a promise. If Cassia was despatched again to RCR, Ashley would do no matter it took to assist her escape.
Not lengthy after, Cassia’s brother requested her if she needed to satisfy up at an area mall. Ashley was suspicious that it was going to be a set-up, however agreed to drive over, ready within the automotive whereas Cassia met him inside. Moments later, Ashley seemed out the window to see Cassia being dragged by a person in direction of an SUV.
Ashley jumped out the automotive. “What’s occurring?” she stated. “Why are you taking her?” She bought again into her automotive, began following the automobile, however overpassed it after a couple of site visitors lights. Ashley drove to the airport, buying a airplane ticket to get previous safety, then checked the gate of each flight to Las Vegas.
Little did she know that Cassia’s abductors had been taking her on a unique route, having most likely anticipated that Ashley would observe her. She was at a unique gate, awaiting a flight to Salt Lake Metropolis.
‘I had no concept what I used to be getting into for, however I knew it’d be higher than the hell I used to be dwelling in’
Again at RCR, Cassia cried for 2 days straight. Being again on the facility felt like jail, however worse, “as a result of with jail, you may have a set date you may get out”.
A brand new dynamic had developed that was making Cassia really feel uncomfortable. A feminine employees member in her 30s known as Helen (not her actual identify) had begun paying further consideration to her – letting Cassia off chores, doing her little favours, even rubbing her toes throughout a film. Helen instructed Cassia that she was additionally homosexual.
“I cherished it at first,” Cassia stated. “Till it began to get bizarre.” Cassia discovered Helen’s behaviour triggering. “It was very conflicting internally,” she stated, reflecting on the trauma of being groomed and sexually abused as a baby. “I knew what it may result in due to what had occurred to me.”
Quite a few former residents describe sexually inappropriate conduct between employees and residents of RCR, corresponding to “footsie” underneath the desk or one staffer writing his quantity in a woman’s Bible.
Helen’s behaviour in direction of Cassia had the added layer of hypocrisy, given RCR’s anti-LGBTQ+ stance. “The people who had been homosexual or bi or no matter had been very afraid to precise that,” stated Siobhan. If ladies had been discovered to be in an “inappropriate” relationship, she stated, “it will be very harshly punished, straight again to stage one.” Some former residents describe being pressured to misgender a trans attendee, having to write down a 1,000-word essay in the event that they known as him by his appropriate pronouns.
Helen’s advances in direction of Cassia ultimately abated when one other woman reported it to a employees member. Cassia stated she acquired the blame: she had factors deducted and needed to write a 1,000-word essay. “I feel their precise phrases had been that I shouldn’t have accepted the favours.”
In the meantime, in Washington, Ashley was desperately attempting to get involved with Cassia. She had labored out the password to her on-line examine portal and was posting cryptic notes on the dialogue board, hoping to get Cassia’s consideration with out alarming employees. For some time, Cassia didn’t appear to register her messages, so Ashley typed out one thing extra specific: she was coming to RCR to assist Cassia escape.
Not lengthy after, in April 2012, Soderquist instructed Cassia that he had intercepted their messages. Cassia remembered him telling her that it was an unhealthy relationship and that if Ashley set foot on property, they might have “rights to shoot her”. Ashley stated Soderquist left her a voicemail relaying an analogous message. She wanted a brand new plan.
Ashley started scouring Fb and noticed that RCR had a swim staff. Her thoughts began racing. Cassia was an enormous swimmer. Ashley seemed up swim meet schedules close to Fredonia and her eyes narrowed in on an upcoming competitors in St George, Utah. It was a chance, however Ashley felt like she was on to one thing. “I used to be prepared to wager that Cassia may discover a solution to persuade them to let her go.”
In June 2012, Ashley and her buddy Cindy (not her actual identify) drove for 15 hours from Washington to the leisure centre in St George. “Even recounting it now, my adrenaline’s by means of the roof,” stated Ashley. They arrived within the early hours of the morning, carrying burner telephones with wire headsets. Ashley sat within the automotive, titling her Yankees hat over her face so she wouldn’t be recognised, her coronary heart pounding, and despatched Cindy inside to search for Cassia. Contained in the altering room, Cindy caught Cassia’s eye.
“Are you able to go?” Cindy stated.
“I didn’t even give it some thought,” Cassia remembers. “I had no concept what I used to be going to be in for, however I knew it was going to be higher than the hell that I used to be dwelling in.”
Cassia adopted Cindy out the again entrance of the altering room however one other RCR woman began following her, asking the place she was going. Cassia shouted at her: “Return! What are you doing? You’re not employees. You don’t have to observe me.”
The woman rotated and Cassia bolted in direction of the automotive park. Ashley was there, sitting behind the steering wheel of her Mazda SUV. Cindy bundled into the passenger seat and Cassia adopted, squishing her physique subsequent to Cindy’s toes.
Ashley hit the fuel.
“Oh my God, Cassia, are you OK?!” stated Ashley, hitting the street in direction of Las Vegas, throwing her sim card out the window, fearful she is perhaps tracked. Cassia, wedged beneath Cindy’s toes, may barely see out the window – simply glimpses of crimson desert, mixing into gray freeways dotted with vehicles. She instructed Ashley that she nearly hadn’t been allowed to go to the swim meet; Soderquist had been fearful she would use it as a chance to run away.
Once they hit Mesquite, 40 miles from the swimming pool, the women started to chill out. Ashley had introduced Cassia her Ed Hardy fragrance, her Juicy Couture bag and her stuffed toy, a skunk known as Alex. “These issues simply made me really feel so cared for,” Cassia stated.
Ashley requested Cassia what she needed to eat. It was nonetheless morning, however Cassia, who had spent a lot time at RCR dreaming about meals, needed cheesecake. They drove to Monte Carlo on line casino on the Las Vegas Strip, the place the women sat in a sales space, surrounded by middle-aged gamblers smoking in entrance of slot machines. Cassia ordered a cheesecake with Graham cracker crust, topped with strawberries and a dollop of vanilla bean ice-cream.
The ladies spent the subsequent few weeks on the street. They drove to Venice Seaside and crammed up their automotive with artwork – dream catchers, a portray of just a little pink home on the seashore – unloading it into their Motel 6 resort room as if it was their very own condominium. “Each second was enriching,” says Cassia. “I used to be experiencing life in a means that I had by no means been capable of do earlier than.” Nonetheless, the dread of being caught and returned to RCR was on each their minds.
Originally, the women would drive round blasting EDM, till they ran out of cash and Ashley offered her automotive sound system to a person from Craigslist (the women subsequently joined him at an underground rave in a sewage tunnel).
In San Francisco, Ashley and Cassia went to their first Delight occasion, ending up at a block celebration. Cops turned on hearth hoses, however folks continued dancing within the water, grooving within the glittering spray till the early hours. “It was very empowering, going from being disadvantaged of something” to a world that was all of the sudden “stuffed with wealthy, colourful, numerous life”, Ashley stated.
However cash was tight. A few weeks into their time on the street, Cindy determined she couldn’t do it anymore. She went again residence, leaving Ashley and Cassia alone. The ladies would ask for cash at fuel stations, explaining that they’d bought misplaced on a college journey in California and needed to get again to Washington. Generally type strangers would refill their tank. They slept in automotive parks or on the seashore, shopping for a loaf of bread and a can of beans to maintain them for the week.
Going again was by no means an possibility. “I might fairly have died in that automotive than return to the programme,” Cassia stated. Nonetheless, the nights had been scary. “Each time I fell asleep, I’d get up as a result of I used to be terrified any individual was going to come back to our door,” Cassia stated.
Then, one morning, in mid-July, they did. Ashley and Cassia had been staying at a Motel 6 in Bellflower, a metropolis close to Los Angeles. The day earlier than, the women had purchased a four-week-old chihuahua-dachshund combine from Craigslist for $20. They named her Cookie Taco. “It was like we had been beginning our own residence,” stated Cassia. “I needed to get a job. I needed to have an condominium, I needed to lift my canine. I simply needed these staple items.”
The subsequent day, the women had deliberate to get up early to go to the seashore for dawn. However they ended up sleeping in. At about 9am, they heard a knock on the door. Cassia felt sick. She began crying and shaking.
“I simply needed to be free,” she stated.
The ladies seemed by means of the peephole and noticed a person standing on the opposite facet of the door. It was a staffer from RCR, who had come to take Cassia again. Just a few days earlier, Ashley had contacted a member of the family to ask her to guide the motel room (Ashley would study later that she known as one other member of the family, who known as Cassia’s mother and father, who in then organized for the staffer to choose her up).
“I used to be ripped away from that pet,” Cassia stated. “That was one of many hardest issues I ever needed to undergo.”
Driving again to RCR, Cassia stated the staffer put his arm round her. “He was saying issues like: ‘You’re actually fairly.’” Cassia didn’t combat again. “Due to the trauma I’ve been by means of,” she stated, her intuition “was simply to take it and never argue, so it doesn’t worsen”.
Again at RCR, Cassia’s world felt darker than ever. She stated that she was made to sleep within the classroom with the lights on so she might be watched always, and stored “on silence” for about two and a half months, which meant she wasn’t allowed to talk to anybody, apart from Soderquist. She wasn’t allowed to journal. “I felt like I didn’t exist,” she stated.
Unable to speak verbally, Cassia wanted to discover a solution to stimulate her thoughts to carry on to actuality. She started counting issues. She would depend the variety of rooms within the constructing. The variety of chairs. The variety of brunettes. “Lots of it was survival mode,” she displays. “Sadly, that’s the trauma that caught with me into maturity. I’ve been on survival mode since I left.”
Just a few weeks after arriving again at RCR, Cassia stated, Soderquist determined to do an train along with her. She remembers him asking her to write down Ashley a letter, “principally saying that I didn’t care about her, I didn’t love her, I didn’t need her in my life.” Cassia complied, not figuring out on the time that the letter was going to be despatched to Ashley.
At residence in Washington, Ashley opened it up. “Pricey Ashley,” the letter started. “I’m sorry that it must be this manner, however I’m finished. I can’t do that anymore.”
Ashley’s first thought was that Cassia had been compelled to write down it, however then she started doubting herself. “I began to get involved, perhaps they’re shifting her opinion on issues,” she stated. “Possibly she actually doesn’t need something to do with me.”
However as she continued studying, Ashley observed a shift in tone. “I simply pray to God that it isn’t the tip perpetually,” Cassia wrote. “Always remember me, for you’ll by no means go away my coronary heart.” The letter felt prefer it was brimming with secret indicators and signatures – “Cassisms”, Ashley known as them. Nonetheless, she couldn’t make certain. “You begin to really feel paranoid,” she stated. “You’re like: ‘Am I studying into this an excessive amount of?’”
Cassia stated she spent months again at RCR earlier than Soderquist allowed her to take a house go to, a couple of days earlier than Christmas 2012. Again at residence, Cassia stated she begged her mother and father to not make her return. “They by no means gave me an opportunity to see if I used to be going to get higher.
“I needed to do it proper,” she stated. “I needed to stay the traditional life. However my dad instructed me: ‘No, you’re going to remain there till you’re 18.’”
Cassia bought involved with Ashley. “Are you prepared to do that once more?” she stated. Ashley drove to Cassia’s mother and father home on Christmas Eve. Her home had an enormous driveway and Ashley parked outdoors it, on the backside of a hill. Cassia walked down and bought contained in the automotive. The preliminary plan was to attend till after Christmas to run away, however the longer Cassia sat within the automotive, the extra she felt they needed to go away there after which. She didn’t even return into the home to get her luggage. They drove away that night time.
They bought married on Valentine’s Day in 2014, 10 days after Cassia turned 18.
‘The spark in my eyes left’
Just a few months in the past, on 12 November, Ashley did one thing she by no means thought she’d do. Twelve years after she helped Cassia escape the programme for the primary time, she drove from Las Vegas to Fredonia, again to RCR.
It was afternoon, and a dozen survivors had traveled from throughout the nation to protest outdoors the ability. The group held up indicators that learn “folks over revenue” and “RCR gave me PTSD”, chanting and livestreaming testimonies by the roadside till the sky turned purple and pink.
“I got here with the hope of getting assist,” Ariana Morales, a former resident, stated right into a shiny megaphone. “The spark in my eyes left and have become part of Arizona’s sparkly, starry night time sky.”
Ashley stated: “After I bought out of this facility in 2010 there was not a discussion board for us to talk. The world didn’t perceive what we had been attempting to speak.”
In response to the allegations on this article, Soderquist stated that RCR had been “licensed by the state of Arizona for the previous 15 years”. He stated: “Annually we have now met and exceeded their guidelines, laws and requirements of care and conduct.” He added that the ability had “acquired accreditation from CARF Worldwide, an impartial, non-profit accreditor of well being and human providers organisations and acquired a three-year accreditation”.
Cassia’s father refused to be interviewed for this story except Soderquist accepted him doing so. After I spoke to Cassia’s mom, Andréa, she instructed me how exhausting it was seeing Cassia utilizing medicine as a young person. “She was dying proper in entrance of us,” she stated. Having spent hours speaking to Cassia about what she described as horrific experiences at RCR, it was jarring to listen to the gulf between her recounting and Andréa’s very completely different model of occasions. “It’s an superior place. It was the perfect place to ship Cassia and Randy is fabulous,” Andréa instructed me over the cellphone. “He was actually was in contact with the women,” she stated. “You can inform how a lot they revered him.”
The regulation agency Justice Legislation Collaborative has since launched an announcement, which states: “RCR must be held accountable for the hurt and accidents they’ve brought on our shoppers and different college students.” Martha Carol, the previous affiliate legal professional, stated that when residential centres are shut down after allegations of abuse, it’s frequent for homeowners to easily open up a brand new facility underneath a unique identify afterwards. “There must be much more community-based help so that children can get assist once they’re at residence,” she stated.
In September 2023, Ashley and Cassia bought divorced. They continue to be on good phrases. This yr, Ashley hopes to go to regulation college and Cassia will do a masters in psychology. Each cite their expertise at RCR as a motivating issue of their careers, galvanizing them to assist adolescents who might face comparable points that they did.
