By now, most of us may have heard about the Trump administration's policy of separating immigrant children from their parents and ruthlessly holding them in cages like animals. Facilities contracted under the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) are currently under extreme scrutiny as a recent investigation from Reveal News exposed the horrifying news. Shiloh Treatment Center near Houston, Texas, is getting significant backlash for allegedly drugging detained children without parental permission. Yes, you read right–drugging.
Although specific cases of drugging have been reported from Shiloh, Holly Cooper, an attorney who is part of the investigation says, “It’s not specific to Shiloh,” because apparently, other centers are acting heartlessly against innocent babies.
This is a ten-year-old I've been spending time with. He arrived to the US in October. His mom was already here. Staff noted he really wanted to leave; he even tried to run away. So they put him a "medical treatment center" called Shiloh in a tiny town called Manvel, Texas. pic.twitter.com/PpyGdI81rl— Aura Bogado (@aurabogado) June 20, 2018
Mark Mills, a practicing forensic psychiatrist, told Reveal News, “You don’t have to be a rocket scientist here; it looks like they’re trying to control agitation and aggressive behavior with antipsychotic drugs."
As a result of their trauma, some children could end up in residential treatment centers due to both behavioral and mental health problems, reports HuffPost. This almost appears strategic.
In a memo, the attorneys involved in this case acknowledged the positive effect the drugs could potentially have for children suffering from the trauma of separation and abuse, but also draw attention to the violation of Texas law as these substances are distributed without parental notice.
HuffPost reports a child identified in court documents as Julio Z. said staff at Shiloh told him if he did not take medication he would not be released. “That the only way I could get out of Shiloh was if I took the pills.”
Lorilei Williams, an attorney who worked with quite a few children held in Shiloh, said her clients "appeared subdued and suffered immense weight gain in a very short period of time.”
Julio Z. said he gained 45 pounds from the medication.
Luis Zayas, dean of social work at the University of Texas, interviewed many children in family detention centers and said he doubted most kids would need medication but also said the drugs could be necessary based on thorough assessments and, of course, consent from parents. He informed HuffPost, "Prisons and residential treatment centers have historically used psychotropics to control people’s behavior."
The ORR has not provided any explanation on the case.
