Hephzibah House

Disclaimer: The text below can be considered biased by some because the author lives in a country, which have ratified the UN Conventions on the Rights of a child.

Hephzibah House

1971

Hephzibah House is a behavior modification facility located on 508 School Street, Winona Lake, Indiana 46590.

It offers spiritual treatment and confinement to girls, who have problems with temptations of teenage lives in general [1]. Statement from their homepage:

Opposing Parents Is Opposing God's Authority

Survivors has compared the conditions at the facility as being of the standard characterizing the Roloff homes.

The program was established in 1971 by Dr. Ronald L. Williams.

The program last about 18 months. They can detain 15 - 25 girls at a time.

Program structure

The girls are detained at an address couple of miles from the head office [2].

Admission process

The admission process include a strip search, which is almost mandatory in the behavior modification industry. A male person claiming which should be have some kind of degree from health services perform a physical exam on the new girls. The webpage does unlike most professional programs in the industry not state what kind of a degree such a person have. The exam is done at the dresser room in the facility.

Emotional growth

The girls are instructed to work on their on relationship with God. Social interacting with peers are not a part of the agenda. They operate with a talking list. The detained girls have to earn a place on the talking list. Otherwise the girls are not allowed to talk.

There is only designated talking time and only about approved subjects. girls are never to exchange personal info.

Eye contact is not allowed as the staff sees this is a form of communication.

Communication

	Letters: All incoming and outgoing letters are read and screened. Letters are to and from parents, sibling, and pastor only.
	Phone: There is one monthly phone call to the parents of the detained girls. (NO Incoming calls are ever allowed). The monthly call is monitored at all times and it lasts 10 minutes. The staff will terminate the call, if any conversation is deemed inappropriate.
	Visitation: The detained girls will receive one visit from the their parents after about 3 months. There will be 2 to 3 other visits with parents and siblings after that. There are no off-campus visits during the entire program. During these visits a staff person is present at all time and the visit will end if the detained girl will bring up subjects about the character of the program.

Communication

The nick-name for the paddle is called the "Rod of God" according to a statement on Fornits Webforum [4].

Meals can held back until chores assigned to the individual girl has been done properly.

References

1)	Article on the homepage of the program
2)	The building - in fact a kind of church where the girls are detained. The garden seems to be fenced.
3)	Accelerated Christian Education
4)	hephzibah house/indiana, a thread on Fornits Webforum

External Links

Info:	Program homepage
Info:	HEAL-online about the facility
Info:	International survivor action committee about the facility
Info:	The Correction and Salvation of Children, By Ronald E. Williams (Founder)
Info:	Former Hephzibah Girls - website for girls, who were detained at the facility
Forum:	Hephzibah House, a thread about the facility on Fornits Webforum
Forum:	Tread mentioning the facility on The Fighting Fundamental Forums
Forum:	My friends mother is sending her to the hephzibah house,they abuse kids. what can i do to get her out?, Question on Yahoo Answers
Forum:	Students from hephzibah house from1989-1991? want to talk about it?, Question on Yahoo Answer
Forum:	Hephzibah House vandalizing the Wiki page about themselves ?, a thread on Fornits webforum

Watch organization status

This facility is on the watch list by the following watch organizations

Comments can be sent to hh(a)secretprisonsforteens.dk