Pennsylvania is sometimes lauded for how it handles its young offenders. But experts told me children are victimized after being sent away to residential programs.
Mental Health
"Ashanti Jones’ story was so overwhelming it made me cry during the interview — a first in my four-decade career," writes broadcast reporter Michael Hill.
Ashley wanted the abuse to stop. But Butch, her adoptive father, was always around.
I met Ashley for the first time in March 2015 at a Noodles & Company in Indianapolis. Her adoptive father Craig Peterson had arranged the meeting. He initially reached out to me about an article I'd written, then shared bits of Ashley's story.
Ashley stepped out of Sandy’s red-and-white van. The 10-year-old didn’t say a word, didn’t glance back at Sandy, her adoptive mother. And she refused to meet the hazel eyes of the man waiting in front of her.
This is Part 2 of a five-part series was produced as a project for the 2017 National Fellowship.
Other stories in this series include:
Ashley would be exploited, abused and, ultimately, abandoned by people who said they cared about her. And her invisible wounds would persist for decades.
This story is part of a series called In Recovery, about opioid addiction and treatment in the San Joaquin Valley.
This is Part 1 of a five-part series was produced as a project for the 2017 National Fellowship, a program of USC Annenberg's Center for Health Journalism....
The data showed that drug and behavioral health treatments are among the greatest needs in the community with the least available services in the Coachella Valley.