I have a hard time still talking about what I went through in Spring Creek and Majestic Ranch. the abuse is real, and last for a long time. I council other survivors, and the first thing i always hear is ” I am so glad to talk to someone that finally understands and believes me.” no one should ever feel what we do that unless you were a victim, no one will believe you, but until now It has been the case.
I got to Spring Creek back in 1998 when I was 14 years old. these Teen Escorts woke me out of my bed, hog tied me, bagged my head, shot me full of sedative, and one minute I was in my bed, the next, I was waking up in a facility where I knew no one, had no idea where I was. I had been stripped of everything I owned, later to lose even my own clothing. my mail was read, and if it wasn’t approved I did not get it, or it was not sent out. no visits from the outside, no phone calls, no contact with the outside world at all.
I remember later when 9/11 happened and Gitmo, thinking to myself well, at least terrorist can see the red cross, we however saw no one. at all.
I personally witnessed and was subjected to multiple abuses, the use of cattle prods on children, the hell that was ” the gravel pit”.
one of the worst in spring creek involved someone I had become close to, well close as you can get only having contact at seminars. I was leaving the foul portable toilet to go back to my hobbit cell, when I guess the staff escorting me felt I was going to run. he picked me up and dropped me head first on a rock. I guess this person saw it, and being as close as we were, they attempted to stand up and protect me from future beatings, that part i blacked out for. when I woke up I was held down and forced to watch as the staff that this person had protected me from, as well as 4 others that she had to break through to get to me, took turns assaulting her. a lesson for me that when others stand for you, they only stand to get hurt. I have remembered that lesson since. no one gets close to me, no one protects me, I have to be reminded by my wife that I shouldn’t be holding things back, because I am constantly trying to deal with everything myself.
Majestic Ranch was no better. my first day there, they made a lesson out of me by having me fight one of the staff in a fenced in area. I felt like a dog fighting. I had been informed that spring creek had told majestic ranch i was “trouble” and they said they wanted to show that they could break me. instead of playing their game, I just took the punches and refused to fight back, which cost me food for three days for refusing to entertain them.
you were forced to shovel dead lamb carcasses into a flatbed. no protective gear was given to deal with the possibility of disease, just a shovel and the clothes you would wear the rest of the day.
staff brought their own food and drinks, they knew what we had for water and food was prone to make you sick as often the sewage would back up into the tap water line.
if an animal refused to work, or was injured, like a dog, you either had to watch as they killed it, or were told to kill it for them.
the favorite punishment was to sit you on the log. in the summer this meant in your boxers in long grass, where the mosquitos bred and fed. in the winter you were still in your boxers, but in the deepest part of the snow they could find. the shortest time for sitting the log was about 2 hours, sometimes it would go as long as 8. many times I would lose feeling in my arms and legs, and in the summer the only thing you could do to pass the time on that log and not think about it was swat the mosquitoes as they would land. after 2 hours your covered in your own blood, since many would feed before you could crush them.

this is not at all everything, but it is where I am able to speak at this time. i am still not able to open up about most of it, which is why I support this campaign. if even a few of us can open up at all, maybe we will stop this abuse from happening to others.

#BreakingCodeSilence #UnitedwithOneVoice #EndInstitutionalAbuse