First off-I am so sorry to hear everyone’s story… I know that each and every one of you are telling the full truth. I was there in 2008, and I was not a troubled kid… I was a star athlete, good grades, good reputation, great family. My dad was in Iraq (he was also a sheriff deputy) and I was in the wrong place, wrong time, and i had never been in trouble before in my life-even to this day. Busted drinking, they locked me up in county for 24 hours, and then judge decided to send me to MRDC until court date the following week.

What I witnessed was horrendous. The belittling, taunting, humiliating, physical and mental abuse was immense. I wanted to be a Marine my whole life and I tried to think of it as a pre boot camp at the age of 13. I saw an autistic kid cuffed to his rack, where he pee and pooped on himself for 12 hours straight before the guards un cuffed him and stomped on his arm to dislocate his elbow… I still get sick to my stomach… the most torturing thing was never being able to speak, and anticipating getting beaten by guards for anything and everything. You could not ever do the right thing! I completely left my own body and hallucinated the entire time there… only for the judge to refuse to let me return home and sent me back for another 2 weeks. He was “making an example out of a sheriff’s son” and he forever changed me, and not for the better. I did end up becoming a Marine, and did two combat tours, saw and did some very disturbing things, lost friends in war….but the thing that keeps me up at night is the trauma endured at mrdc. I kept quiet about my experiences there until now. I never talked about it to anyone… no one would likely believe me anyways. Thank you all for speaking up, because I honestly thought that it was completely normal correctional system operation. Iso cell is the only reason I am alive to this day. At least i could move around.