In partnership with Mother Jones, we expose how the country’s biggest psychiatric hospital chain is profiting off kids.

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** THE WEEKLY REVEAL
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Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023

Hello! In this issue:
* The country’s biggest psychiatric hospital chain is profiting off kids trapped in a broken child welfare system.
* We’ve got a major development in our investigation into forced labor at Dominican sugar plantations.
* ‘It just didn’t smell right for me’: an expert opinion on a case where an alleged rape victim was accused of false reporting.
* Our documentary has been nominated for a big award!


** THIS WEEK’S PODCAST
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** Cashing In on Troubled Teens
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[link removed]
Photos of Katrina Edwards taken on admission to North Star. She spent more than two years at the facility between 2012 and 2017.

Trina Edwards was 12 years old when she was locked in a psychiatric hospital for children for the first time. She was sure a foster parent would pick her up the next day.

Instead, Trina would end up spending years cycling in and out of North Star Behavioral Health in Anchorage, Alaska.

In several instances, she was ready to be discharged, but Alaska’s Office of Children’s Services couldn’t find anywhere else to put her. Trina would stay locked in at North Star, where she was violently restrained and forced into periods of seclusion. Then, shortly before her 15th birthday, Trina was sent to another facility 3,000 miles away: Copper Hills Youth Center in Utah.

Both North Star and Copper Hills are owned by Universal Health Services, a publicly traded, Fortune 500 company that is the nation’s largest psychiatric hospital chain. Trina’s experience is emblematic of a larger problem: a symbiotic relationship between failing child welfare agencies, which don’t have enough foster homes for all the kids in custody, and large for-profit companies like Universal Health Services, which have beds to fill.

This hour, Mother Jones reporter Julia Lurie shows how Universal Health Services is profiting off foster kids ([link removed]) who get admitted to its facilities, despite government and media investigations raising alarms about patient care that the company denies.
Listen to the episode ([link removed])
🎧 Other places to listen: Apple Podcasts ([link removed]) , Spotify ([link removed]) , Google Podcasts ([link removed]) or wherever you get your podcasts.


READ: Inside the Psychiatric Hospitals Where Foster Kids Are a ‘Gold Mine’ ([link removed])


** NEW
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** Federal Agents Investigating Sugar Exporter Over Allegations of Forced Labor in Its Supply Chain
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By Sandy Tolan and Michael Montgomery

U.S. federal agents have been interviewing Haitian cane cutters to investigate allegations of forced labor at sugar plantations owned by Central Romana.

In dozens of interviews with Reveal and Mother Jones over the last four years, workers and their advocates have described inadequate protective gear, poor medical care, low pay, chronic debt, and intimidation by the company’s armed security force.

If an inquiry by Homeland Security Investigations leads to criminal charges against Central Romana Corp. or company executives, it would be “unprecedented,” one former agent says.
Read our latest ([link removed])

Dig Deeper:

LISTEN: The Bitter Work Behind Sugar ([link removed])

READ: US Bans Sugar Imports From Top Dominican Producer Over Forced Labor Allegations ([link removed])


** A Quote to Remember
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“It just didn't smell right for me, and it's not the way I would've handled it.”

Former Connecticut State Police sergeant Alain Bisson got involved with Nicole Chase’s case after she was arrested and charged with false reporting. The police department sought his opinion on whether the case was properly handled. Bisson told Reveal’s Rachel de Leon ([link removed]) that after looking at the investigation, he felt Chase was “victimized twice.”

Listen: From Victim to Suspect ([link removed])


** In Case You Missed It
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[link removed]
🎧 Alphabet Boys Revealed ([link removed])

[link removed]
🎧 The Spy Inside Your Smartphone ([link removed])


** Ending on a Good Note
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🏆Our documentary, Victim/Suspect, has been nominated for a Critics Choice Documentary Award ([link removed]) .

You can watch it now on Netflix ([link removed]) , or if you prefer, you can read our investigation ([link removed]) .
This issue of The Weekly Reveal was written by Kate Howard and edited by Rosemarie Ho. If you enjoyed this issue, forward it to a friend ([link removed]) . Have some thoughts? Drop us a line (mailto:[email protected]) with feedback or ideas!

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