HEY, TEENS! WANT TO VISIT SUNNY JAMAICA? If you score 18 or higher on this little quiz, you’re in luck–it is “strongly recommended” that you enter a “residential center, treatment program or specialty school.” Maybe you should be rushed immediately to a “behavior modification center” like Tranquility Bay, Jamaica. You can befriend your guards–uh, once you’ve earned the privilege of moving and speaking without permission.

I scored my high-school self on the quiz and got a 17. Seriously.

Quotes from the Observer piece: When most children first arrive they find it difficult to believe that they have no alternative but to submit. In shock, frightened and angry, many simply refuse to obey. This is when they discover the alternative. Guards take them (if necessary by force) to a small bare room and make them (again by force if necessary) lie flat on their face, arms by their sides, on the tiled floor. Watched by a guard, they must remain lying face down, forbidden to speak or move a muscle except for 10 minutes every hour, when they may sit up and stretch before resuming the position. Modest meals are brought to them, and at night they sleep on the floor of the corridor outside under electric light and the gaze of a guard. At dawn they resume the position.

This is known officially as being ‘in OP’ – Observation Placement – and more casually as ‘lying on your face’. Any level student can be sent to OP, and it automatically demotes them to level 1 and zero points. Every 24 hours, students in OP are reviewed by staff, and only sincere and unconditional contrition will earn their release. If they are unrepentant? ‘Well, they get another 24 hours.’

One boy told me he’d spent six months in OP.

I didn’t think this could be true, but it transpired this was not even exceptional. ‘Oh no,’ says Kay. ‘The record is actually held by a female.’ On and off, she spent 18 months lying on her face.

From part two: …’Oh, my relationship with my family was pretty bad. I just went to my room and avoided my parents. There was always arguments and stuff,’ offers Pete. ‘I was very angry with my parents, their divorce had a big influence on me. I’m not angry with them now, though. Not at all. I mean, I look at this as a punishment, obviously, but I deserved it. How I acted towards my parents.’

…Why would students want to stand up and share, or give this kind of feedback? Scott Burkett, a student who left two years ago, explains: ‘You can only move forward in the programme if you share intimate details of your life. If you don’t share, you’re not “working the programme”, and they’ll take away your points. In a meeting, your rep will suddenly pick on you and say, “Right, I want to hear something private, right now. Come on. Or do you want to go to OP?” And I’m going through this inventory in my head real fast, thinking what will hurt least to say? Because you tell her secrets and then she uses them against you later. Like, say a guy mentions problems with his girlfriend, a month later she’ll have him up, and she’s saying, “You don’t think she’s waiting, do you?” She’s laughing at you behind your back. “How many of your friends do you think she’s sleeping with right now?” So I start telling her something, and she just says, “I’m not listening to that, that’s not deep,” and she calls for the guard to take me to OP. And I’ve got until he gets in the room to give her something better, or he’s taking me.’

Eve again: There are kids as young as 12 there.

Links via Hit & Run–I know I said this a while ago, but I’ll be writing more about this next week.