1
00:00:02,960 --> 00:00:05,640
Speaker 1: In the town of Douglasville lies what was once the

2
00:00:05,720 --> 00:00:09,479
Speaker 1: largest medical facility in Georgia. It is here where a

3
00:00:09,560 --> 00:00:14,280
Speaker 1: largely unknown story began. Remember the name an Awake. It

4
00:00:14,360 --> 00:00:16,599
Speaker 1: was mostly obscured a few months ago, but in the

5
00:00:16,640 --> 00:00:19,239
Speaker 1: months ahead it may come to represent everything that's right

6
00:00:19,320 --> 00:00:23,120
Speaker 1: and wrong with juvenile justice and rehabilitation, not just here

7
00:00:23,120 --> 00:00:27,120
Speaker 1: in Duglas County, but throughout all of Georgia. Louis Petter

8
00:00:27,320 --> 00:00:30,400
Speaker 1: began the Inn, a weekie center for emotionally disturbed youth,

9
00:00:30,560 --> 00:00:34,839
Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty two. For over two decades, thousands of

10
00:00:34,880 --> 00:00:38,280
Speaker 1: patients would attend. It was based on what they called

11
00:00:38,400 --> 00:00:42,519
Speaker 1: wilderness therapy that started out with tents and shovels, and

12
00:00:42,600 --> 00:00:46,720
Speaker 1: from there he built that massive complex, or his kids

13
00:00:46,760 --> 00:00:49,360
Speaker 1: built it. By the brochures, I thought I was going

14
00:00:49,440 --> 00:00:51,440
Speaker 1: to a camp. I didn't realize I was going to

15
00:00:51,560 --> 00:00:55,400
Speaker 1: be locked up. It was kind of like a outdoor

16
00:00:55,440 --> 00:00:58,120
Speaker 1: summer camp where you would live in some cabins and

17
00:00:58,240 --> 00:01:02,240
Speaker 1: do outdoor things. They always seemed to leave out the

18
00:01:02,280 --> 00:01:07,280
Speaker 1: slave labor board, as they called it. Vocational therapy aniwaki

19
00:01:07,360 --> 00:01:10,200
Speaker 1: was meant to break you down. They wanted to make

20
00:01:10,240 --> 00:01:13,759
Speaker 1: you into a machine. Anna Wiki has come to represent

21
00:01:13,840 --> 00:01:16,080
Speaker 1: the tip of an iceberg of discovery and to the

22
00:01:16,080 --> 00:01:19,400
Speaker 1: abuse of children. In addition to years of child labor,

23
00:01:19,600 --> 00:01:22,120
Speaker 1: was a network of abusers that went from the top

24
00:01:22,160 --> 00:01:25,440
Speaker 1: of the organization all the way to the patients. He

25
00:01:25,520 --> 00:01:28,040
Speaker 1: took kids out of the program and brought him into

26
00:01:28,160 --> 00:01:31,160
Speaker 1: his family. That was what happened to me, and I

27
00:01:31,280 --> 00:01:35,080
Speaker 1: knew older guys that had happened to them. It's a

28
00:01:35,160 --> 00:01:39,040
Speaker 1: system that is built for abuse. Everybody knew, and everybody

29
00:01:39,080 --> 00:01:41,840
Speaker 1: get their mouth shut. It would take decades for this

30
00:01:41,880 --> 00:01:45,000
Speaker 1: abuse to come to light, largely in part to Petters

31
00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:49,080
Speaker 1: many political ties, some even reaching the White House. He

32
00:01:49,200 --> 00:01:51,680
Speaker 1: was a player. He was a political player. G b

33
00:01:51,800 --> 00:01:55,320
Speaker 1: I agents have been looking into possible financial improprieties in

34
00:01:55,360 --> 00:01:59,160
Speaker 1: the Anawaki operation. It was not just treatment of troubled kids.

35
00:01:59,240 --> 00:02:02,920
Speaker 1: It was the eloping land and real estate in Florida,

36
00:02:03,040 --> 00:02:06,640
Speaker 1: real estate in Georgia, and real estate in Mexico. And

37
00:02:06,800 --> 00:02:11,040
Speaker 1: that made an Awake a gold mine. We brought people

38
00:02:11,080 --> 00:02:14,919
Speaker 1: back from Mexico. I was transported across state lines. I

39
00:02:15,080 --> 00:02:19,600
Speaker 1: was trafficing basically. Petda charged with five counts, including sodomy,

40
00:02:19,680 --> 00:02:23,320
Speaker 1: cruelty to children, and simple battery. Remains in the Douglas

41
00:02:23,320 --> 00:02:26,400
Speaker 1: County Jail on one million dollars bond. You have to

42
00:02:26,440 --> 00:02:29,040
Speaker 1: think how many of these people that they didn't find

43
00:02:29,600 --> 00:02:33,080
Speaker 1: are still working at these places now. This is the

44
00:02:33,160 --> 00:02:37,600
Speaker 1: story of an Awake as never told before, from government

45
00:02:37,600 --> 00:02:42,040
Speaker 1: officials to former councilors and the survivors who withstood the abuse.

46
00:02:42,680 --> 00:02:46,160
Speaker 1: Thousands of patients passed through an Awake. Some of them

47
00:02:46,200 --> 00:02:51,240
Speaker 1: received justice, but many are still waiting Camp Hell. An

48
00:02:51,400 --> 00:02:56,120
Speaker 1: Awake debuts April. Listen and subscribe on the I Heart

49
00:02:56,200 --> 00:02:59,720
Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your

50
00:02:59,720 --> 00:03:00,480
Speaker 1: favor it shows.