489. Northstar Expeditions

Northstar Expeditions is today mostly known to be the place where Aaron Bacon died. Staff members left the program after his death which resulted in a closure of the program and were hired at a lot of other programs – among them Sagewalk, which also closed years later when another boy died there.

Wildernees therapy is dangerous often resulting in injury or death. It cannot have been fun to be there as a teenager.

Sources:

• A Death in the Desert : Investigators pieced together a horrible tale: Of a boy in agonizing pain taunted and accused of fakery, of freezing nights without food and blankets. (LA Times)
• Torture, starvation and death: how American boot camps abuse boys (Aftermath News)
• “Troubled teen industry” abuse: We can’t pretend it’s over yet (SILENCE BREAKING SOUND)