[lbo-talk] Re-education Camps

[Wojtek Sokolowski]

> The last resort 
> 
> "Were you to glance up from the deserted beach below, you
> might mistake Tranquility Bay for a rather exclusive hotel.
> The statuesque white property stands all alone on a sandy
> curve of southern Jamaica, feathered by palm trees, gazing
> out across the Caribbean Sea. You would have to look closer
> to see the guards at the wall. Inside, 250 foreign children
> are locked up. Almost all are American, but though kept 
> prisoner, they were not sent here by a court of law. Their 
> parents paid to have them kidnapped and flown here against 
> their will, to be incarcerated for up to three years, 
> sometimes even longer. They will not be released until they 
> are judged to be respectful, polite and obedient enough to 
> rejoin their families.
> 
> Parents sign a legal contract with Tranquility Bay granting
> 49 per cent custody rights. It permits the Jamaican staff, 
> whose qualifications are not required to exceed a high-school 
> education, to use whatever physical force they feel necessary 
> to control their child. The contract also waives 
> Tranquility's liability for harm that should befall a child 
> in its care. The cost of sending a child here ranges from 
> $25,000 to $40,000 a year."
> Full: 
> http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/story/0,11913,987172,0
0.html

A somewhat similar program exists in Baltimore, where trouble students
are sent to the Baraka school in Kenya.
http://citypaper.com/2003-01-15/pf/feature_pf.html

Not a bad idea - especially that is is conceived as an educational
institution rather than a penal colony.

Wojtek