How the country’s biggest psychiatric hospital chain is profiting off kids trapped in a broken child welfare system.

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** THE WEEKLY REVEAL
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Saturday, March 30, 2024

Hello! In this issue:
* How the country’s biggest psychiatric hospital chain is profiting off kids trapped in a broken child welfare system.
* We trace the footsteps of a correctional officer-turned-whistleblower in one of the most dangerous prisons in California.


** THIS WEEK’S PODCAST
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** Cashing in on Troubled Teens
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Photos of Trina Edwards taken on admission to North Star Behavioral Health in Anchorage, Alaska. She spent more than two years at the facility between 2012 and 2017.

The first time Trina Edwards was locked in a psychiatric hospital for children, she was 12 years old. She was sure a foster parent would pick her up the next day. But instead, Trina would end up spending years cycling in and out of North Star Behavioral Health in Anchorage, Alaska.

At times, she was ready to be discharged, but Alaska’s Office of Children’s Services couldn’t find anywhere else to put her – so Trina would stay locked in at North Star, where she would experience violent restraints and 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 week on Reveal, in an episode that first ran last year, Mother Jones reporter Julia Lurie exposes how Universal Health Services is profiting off foster kids who get admitted to its facilities, despite government and media investigations raising alarming allegations 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.


** One Number to Know
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40%

Staffers at California’s New Folsom prison use force against the people incarcerated there at a rate that’s 40% higher than any other prison in the state, according to an analysis going back to 2009. New Folsom is where correctional officer Valentino Rodriguez worked before he reported misconduct – and he was dead of an overdose within a week.
Listen: A Whistleblower in New Folsom Prison ([link removed])


** In Case You Missed It
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🎧 America Goes Psychedelic, Again ([link removed])

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🎧 Blue State Barriers and the Messy Map of Abortion Access ([link removed])
This issue of The Weekly Reveal was written by Kate Howard and edited by Nikki Frick. 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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