This World Locked in Paradise

Clips from an investigative report of Tranquility Bay, Jamaica by the BBC

December 7, 2004

Raphael Rowe reporting

Tranquility Bay, Jamaica

“It looked very nice. It looked like Florida; it just seemed like the perfect thing to do.”

- Jane Levy (Parent)

“Level One kids don’t have a lot of privileges. They’re monitored twenty-four hours a day, supervised veryhighly. Our programme is built on responsibility and trust and as they prove themselves to be accountableand operating out of integrity then they’ll advance in level and we give them more responsibility.”

“If they’re refusing the programme, if they’re a danger to themself or others, if they have acted out physically or in a violent manner they will probably find themselves in Observation Placement. And the length of stay that the kids stay in there; we try to get all the kids out within twenty-four hours. However, if a child has acted out physically then they’re going to find themselves in therefor a longer period of time.”

Jay Kay, Director

“I sat down and did some research on the Internet and uh, you know, read all the information at Tranquility Bay or WWASPS was providing and it sounded like a wonderful programme where Winston was going to getlots of professional help and that they would help to, you know, uh straighten out his behaviour. They faxed me an application within the hour and said if I send them a cheque for five thousand dollars that Winstonwould virtually be on his way.”

- Julie Wilkinson (Parent)

“The first six months were just terrifying and horrible. Like, like I said, they shaved my head, they stripped me of like all my personal possessions, they threw youstraight into line. You know, sometimes I mean you’d be having a bad day so they just be nit picking, try, try to drive you off the edge. I mean you’d be thinking offinto space so they’d get you for that, don’t look out of line whatever, oh I’m sorry you talked out of turn when you were apologising and you didn’t call me sir. Youhave a disrespect to staff and talking out of turn and they’d go on and on and on and kids would just freak out and like punch a wall or something.”

-OLIVER BUCOLO

Shannon Levy Rowley:“They lined us up like sardines in there, like feet to head everything. They lined us up, no air, no ventilation, if we had to go to the bathroom we had to leave the door open so they can sit there and watch us and I was there for eight weeks straight.”

Raphael Rowe:“How long have you been in that position?”

Boy: “Five days.”

Raphael Rowe:“Children lie silently on the floor in a guarded room until staff members decide they can leave. They eat, sleep and exercise in the same room. I found ex-students who’d been in there for eight weeks at a time.”

ObservationPlacement(O.P.)

“How long has it been since you’ve seen your son?”

Alan Hadfield:“Fourteen months. I will see him tomorrow for the first time.”

“What happens is every meal the kids listen to a motivational audio tape. They have to write down what they learned and what they heard today, so they actually have to kind of recite from memory what they heard and then how are they going to apply the message that was in the message to their life. We have to maximise all the time that we have with these kids to give them all the information we can so they can choose a better, a better life for themselves.”

-Jay Kay

“If it wasn’t for the God sent gift of this programme youwould be going to the lakeshore of Chicago where myfather is buried, where my sister is buried and puttingflowers on his grave. So, yes, it hurts right now not tosee him for twelve months but it would hurt a heck of alot more not to see him for the rest of his life.”

- MEGAN QUINN (Parent)

“Parents are sold a progressive, tailored education as part of the programme package. There is a computer room but learning is self study with text books. Private tuition is available at an extra cost to parents who also have to pay for pens, pencils and paper on top of fees of almost nineteen thousand pounds.” ($38,000 US)

“Although teachers are on hand to answer questions; speaking to Joe it seems there’s not much traditional teaching going on.”

-Raphael Rowe

“With the book, you’ll read it and you do chapter work, which is notes on a piece of paper and you turn that in and then you take a test.”

-Joe

“Is this school hard? It’s probably, probably one of thehardest schools out there but a youngster who ishaving a tough time in society that’s going down inflames needs something tough to help him get back ontrack. It’s not easy. It’s not fun. It’s tough love.”

- Alan Hadfield (Parent)

“These kids come out with more tools and more selfactualised than most adults we know and I’ve just reallysurrendered to it and I watched him walk away tall,giving me the thumbs up, both of us waving goodbyeknowing that it’s all going to be good and he’s cominghome and I’ll have that boy back.”

- Megan Quinn (Parent)

“We were told that if a parent had a concern or if their child had a concern then we should just tell them that the parent was, or the child was manipulating and lying.I wasn’t given much training as far as how to help the kids. A lot of my training, if you can call it training, was how to manipulate the parents. We were always told that a parent, a child should never leave the programme unless they turned eighteen or graduated.”

- AMBERLY KNIGHT (Former Director of Dundee Ranch)

“US Embassy documents show there were concerns over the use of pepper spray by staff. This was discontinued in nineteen ninety-eight. Jamaican police are unhappy with the way the programme is run. Last year a senior officer voiced some concern that ‘the staff wasn’t sufficiently trained to handle the many types of problems that might arise due to the special needs and situation of the students’.”

- Raphael Rowe

Raphael Rowe“(Police) list an alleged rape in nineteen ninety-nine,an employee being fired for selling drugs and thedismissal of a member of staff for seekinginappropriate contact with a female student.”

“This kind of methods is definitely something which isnot in accordance with the convention of the rights ofthe child and not in accordance with, with other UNrules regulating the status of juveniles deprived ofliberty. There is a high possibility that it falls under thedefinition of child abuse.”

- BERTRAND BAINVEL (Head of UNICEF Jamaica)

“I say that I am totally against violating reasonable rights of children, or abusing them in any fashion; mentally, verbally, physically. I am not always a hundred percent sure that the United Nations is, has the expertise or, or, or the ability to discern the difference.”

- KEN KAY (President of WWASPS)

Raphael Rowe:“We calculate parents pay almost four and a halfmillion pounds a year in fees ($9 million US). We were told a large percentage goes on administration, weekly therapy and character building seminars for students and their families. WWASPS’ facilities as a whole take fifty million pounds a year.” ($100 million U.S.)

JAY KAY:Director of Tranquility Bay“There is, there is profit in the schools and we use that money for improvements but we also have to pay our shareholders as well. Because we are a company, a corporation that has shareholders?”

Raphael Rowe:“And who are the shareholders?”

Jay Kay:“I am one of the primary shareholders. The otherindividuals ask not to be named. But I am the primary shareholder.”

Note: WWASP is a Non-Profit OrganizationAccording to the Utah Department of Commerce, WWASP is listed as a “grant-making and giving service.”