"The Program Said It Was Therapy": Restraint, Isolation and Forced Labor in Utah Facilities

Why do so many survivors doubt their own memories?

Because you were told, over and over, that what was happening was for your own good. Staff called it a "consequence," a "level," "processing" or "earning trust." Parents were told the same thing in weekly calls.

If part of you still wonders whether it was really that bad, that is common. It is also not the test. The question is whether the program acted reasonably toward a child in its care.

What does Utah law say now about restraint and seclusion?

In 2021, Utah passed S.B. 127, which set new rules for "congregate care programs," including outdoor youth programs, residential treatment programs, residential support programs and therapeutic schools serving children. Those rules now sit at Utah Code 26B-2-123, with the inspection requirement at Utah Code 26B-2-107. In summary, they:

• Bar cruel, severe, unusual or unnecessary practices on children, including inducing pain, peer restraints, humiliating discipline, and denying meals, water, rest or toileting
• Require written policies before any restraint or seclusion is used
• Allow passive physical restraint only when tied to a recognized non-violent intervention and de-escalation curriculum
• Bar chemical and mechanical restraints unless the state Office of Licensing authorizes them
• Limit seclusion to the immediate safety of the child or others, when nothing less restrictive would work, and ban its use for coercion, retaliation, humiliation, short staffing or staff convenience
• Require the program to report restraint or seclusion to the state within one business day
• Require at least quarterly state inspections, with at least two unannounced
• Require weekly confidential contact with family, unless prohibited by law, and bar using family contact as a reward or punishment

In 2025, S.B. 297 added more, including treating restraint and seclusion as "critical incidents" that must be reported to the parent or guardian and the state within one business day, and requiring access to a congregate care ombudsman.

What if this happened before 2021?

The new rules help show what Utah now considers unacceptable. But older conduct can still support a claim.

Programs have long owed children a duty of reasonable care. Restraint that caused injury, isolation for days at a time, or withholding food and sleep can be negligent or worse, regardless of the year.

What about "work therapy" or forced labor?

Some survivors describe hauling rocks, building fences, clearing brush or working a ranch for hours a day, often without pay and sometimes as punishment. At some programs, that work may have benefited the business itself.

Whether that labor supports a legal claim depends on the facts and on which laws apply, which can include state and federal law. At a minimum, it is part of the story of how a program treated the kids it was paid to help.

What other practices come up?

Survivors from programs across Utah, from the Wasatch Front to southern Utah, describe things like:

• Being held face-down by multiple staff
• "Observation" or "time-out" rooms, sometimes for long stretches
• Being made to sit facing a wall or stay silent for days
• Strip searches without a documented reason
• Medication used to control behavior rather than treat a condition
• Letters home read, edited or withheld

You may recognize some of these. You may have experienced something not on this list. Both count.

What evidence might exist?

Restraint logs, incident reports, nursing notes, staffing records, licensing inspection reports and parent updates may all exist, even years later.

Records From a Closed Program: How Survivors Find Them