This week we're speaking to Jill Kinney. At 14 years old, Jill was forced to attend a Bad Girl Camp in Texas. This was no ordinary summer camp. The beds were actually old prison beds. So you can imagine how the rest of experience was. Listen in to find out! Check out the pictures, and be on the look out for Jill's book at https://badgirlcamp.com
This week we're speaking to Jill Kinney. At 14 years old, Jill was forced to attend a Bad Girl Camp in Texas. This was no ordinary summer camp. The beds were actually old prison beds. So you can imagine how the rest of experience was. Listen in to find out! Check out the pictures, and be on the look out for Jill's book at https://badgirlcamp.com
Hi. Hello. How's it going? Good. How are you? Good, good. Thanks. Where you, where
Bobby:you out of? Jill.
Jill:I am in Texas. I'm in Fort worth,
Bobby:Texas Fort worth, huh? Fort worth, Texas. Wonderful. I was lucky enough to spend, to spend a good nine months stint in west, Texas out in San Angelo. Oh, really? What were you in there? Yeah, when I was in the service there's a training base out there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What a crazy place Texas is.
Jill:Whew. what, what
Bobby:branch? I was in the army, but we were at Goodfellow air force base doing, doing training. Yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah, it was it, Texas was such a crazy place, you know, bento and I we're both in Rhode Island. And so it's like a, it's a whole, like a whole different world.
Jill:Where are you? Rhode Island.
Bobby:Oh, Rhode
Bento:Island. Yeah. Yeah. Little
Jill:state. You have to big flow. I thought you said violin.
Bobby:I know. Sorry about that. It's that? It's that new England thing. That accent. Yeah. Yeah.
Bento:so, yeah. Jill, thanks for coming on and talking to us, um, you know, I had seen your profile on you know, that matchmaker website and it's very intriguing to see this, this camp that, you know, you, you had to, had to stay at like apparently your parents sent you to it, right? Yes. All right. So, um, just tell us a little bit about your yourself. Um, you know, tell us about your childhood and your parents and kinda how, you know, what
Bobby:led to you getting
Bento:brought to this, to this crazy summer camp?
Jill:I mean, no, no, it was no summer camp. yeah, I wish so, I mean, do you want me to start from the beginning here a little bit?
Bento:Yeah. Yeah, sure. I'm I'm just kinda curious as
Bobby:like what kind of kid you were and like, you know,
Bento:why your parents would put you in a place like this?
Jill:Um, well, I, I have two older brothers, seven and five years older than I am. And, um, we lived in like a typical suburban eighties. You know, neighborhood grew up across the street from a country club, but my brothers, they were, you know, kind of into like new ways and dating, and that was not the norm. Mm sure. And so from, yeah, so from, in, in the neighborhood was very, you know, preppy wasy whatever. And, um, so I don't know if it was my brother's influence. I'm sure it was partly, but from a very early age, I was very much like I will do what I want and my mom was not like that. She's very much a rule follower. I was, I started getting into trouble at a pretty early age at school mainly to like talking stuff like that. But in Texas at the time they could paddle kids, you know, mm-hmm, a paddle. Sure. Yeah. Um, and yeah, so my dad actually went to the school before we all started and said, Hey, if you ever need to. Paddle my kids, you have my permission. Wow. So yeah. I, thanks, dad having, yeah, exactly. When the teachers having a bad day, they were like, get one of those kidneys in here.
Bento:Were you guys take it out on them? Was your family very religious?
Jill:No. Oh no. I mean, not really. But then when I was around 10, my, my parents got divorced and so my dad moved out and then my mom and the three of us stayed in that house. Mm-hmm well, they made some weird arrangement where if at like in two years, my dad would move in, fixed up the house and try to sell it. And so my dad, that time came and I was around 12. And meanwhile, I'm hanging out with all my friends in my neighborhood, you know, just doing nothing extremely bad, you know, being a, a kid. So my dad moves in and he's like, Hey, you know, the kids can stay here. Of course I'm not gonna stay with my dad. I'm a girl. I'm gonna go, you know, in my
Bobby:mind. Yeah, no, no, no. Daddy's a little girl there.
Bento:No, my
Jill:dad, no, no, no, no. I mean, he was great, but I think he was, he had this idea of what women should be. Okay. You know, like my brothers would be spitting outside doing Lou contests, see how far they can get the movie. Oh yeah. And I join, join in, you know, and my dad's like, girls don't do that. And I'm like, yeah, they do what? I didn't get that concept of girls don't do that. Cause yes, they sure
Bento:do. All right. Cause you grew up with two older brothers. So like your total influence was older boys growing up. So of course you're gonna, you're gonna be a little tomboyish. Yeah. Right.
Jill:And um, so I moved my mom and we moved into a neighborhood. It was nice, but it wasn't. As nice as the neighborhoods that we were in growing up. And it was a lot of single mothers, um, and a lot of kids and the kids were so different from the kids. I was hanging out with Margaret. Really? Yeah. They were like older and they were drinking wine coolers and smoking and listening to heavy metal. And I loved it. It was awesome.
Bobby:sounds like my childhood. Yeah. So wrapped said metal
Jill:Oh, okay. That would've been fun too. Um, so I did what I always did and I hung out with the neighborhood kids, but you know, this time they were scary looking. They had mullets and missing fingers and, you know, smoking. So I think, you know, with the, with the turmoil of my parents' divorce, my older brother. I had some drug problems. So he went to rehab, so their focus is not on me at all. And I was like, oh, that's, that's awesome. I'm doing that. And then one day they were like, holy shit, can I say shit?
Bobby:Yeah, yeah. You can say
Jill:you, holy shit. Jill's outta control. So I come home from school one day in junior high and my whole family's there and I'm like, oh God, who died? And they're like, sit down. We need to talk to you. Oh, wow. There's, there's a special place. You're going.
Bento:So, yeah. And had you had, had any, had you had any run-ins with the law? Did you get arrested? Like, did you do anything like really bad? No.
Jill:I mean, again, like I was getting in trouble at school, nothing major. I wasn't expelled. Sure. Um, Yeah,
Bento:nothing. Do you think they were just kind of projecting onto you what your brothers did? Because they
Bobby:were like, well,
Bento:we can't lose Jill. You know, like we've we already got problems with these two. Yeah. So like let's try to save Jill kind
Jill:of thing. Absolutely. It was very preemptive,
Bobby:I think. Yeah. I'm super lucky that I didn't have your parents. Woo. I know was way where's the new apparently. And, and so, and so, alright. And so you're 14 years old and they're like, alright, we sending you, excuse me, 13 years, years old. Yeah. Yeah. And they say, Hey, we're sending you this place. What's your immediate reaction? Like, hell no, I'm outta
Jill:here. Yeah. You no, you're right. I, I just turned 14. I just turned 14, but yeah, they all set me down. Um, they were like we think you're outta control. um, and, and my brother, my middle brother, Jason, who's five years older than me. I kept, I don't know why in my memory. I kept looking at him. And he had no idea what the hell was going on. He would just shrug his shoulders and be like, I don't know. They just told me to show up. Oh, wow. And I'm like, I just remember getting on a counter and screening. I'm not going, oh, when I got home, by the way, they were drilling in my room and I didn't know what it was, but turns out they were drilling my, my window shut and they took off my doorknob. Oh
Bobby:yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Bento:And this is like what? Late eighties, early nineties. Right? So you, you can just, you can just pop on the internet and look up this, this place to see what it looked like or what it was, or no
Bobby:idea
Jill:was in 19 92, I had a relative that worked for the camp. Oh, wow. Yeah. Most of the girls and boys, cause boys went there too. Most of the kids that went out there had to go through a psychological evaluation and family counseling and I that oh, like it, you
Bento:get the,
Bobby:oh yeah. Why, why did you get to skip that? Just because you, you were related to the person.
Jill:Yes, yes,
Bobby:exactly. Why your, your, your family didn't feel that you would've benefited from that portion as well.
Jill:Um, it just wasn't, I don't know if it was ever even mentioned. I think it was just like. Hey, we need help. What can you do? And she was, they were probably like, let's put her here. Um, but it was presented to me like as a summer camp, like horseback riding and archery. Oh my God. It, yeah. And the back of that, they I'm thinking that they're breathing. I was like, no way in hell. Are they sending me to this place? Yeah. Um, so, um, they drove me out there for a camp visit. Like just to see if, if, if, if it was something that we'd be interested in. I knew it was bullshit. It was a dog and pony show. I knew they were, had their minds named up. Right. Part of me. And then another part of me is like, I can convince him not to send me. So I get there and some of the campers, they got to ask me questions. And they said why are you being sent here? And I was like, I don't know, mom, why am I being sent here? Mm-hmm I had no idea. Um, which turned out later to backfire on me. I'm getting ahead of myself. But, um, ultimately my, after my first night there, one of the toughest looking girls out there told me she was gonna kick my ass that first night because of how I'd spoken to my mom from that original visit Jesus. And how I'd said, I don't know, mom,
Bento:you know? Wow. So this camp, right? I mean, I've seen, I've seen some pictures of this on your website, you know, like the beds, I mean, you and your mom didn't go here and were these beds there already? Like there's no red flag that came up for your mom to be like, wow, this place is a
Jill:shithole. They don't, they never took the parent. Well, first of all, you know, friends and family did not visit at all mm-hmm and um, when the parents did come with the perspective campers. They did not bring them to the, to the campsite. They brought them to one of the few buildings that were out there. Wow. So
Bobby:yeah. How, how remote was this location? I mean, are we talking like hours upon hours in the woods
Jill:or, yes. Um, so from Dallas it was two and a half hours. Wow. And, and, and back roads and you know, with no street name. Yeah.
Bobby:Deep in the woods. Yeah. Super high. Wow. Yeah. And I know, I know, especially like there are some areas in Texas, like you can literally drive three and a half hours before you even get to a highway. Like there's nothing out in some of those areas. Yeah,
Jill:absolutely. It, it was, and it was designed to be disoriented, you know, at
Bobby:camp,
Bento:how many kids were at this camp with
Bobby:you?
Jill:Um, let's see. Um, okay. Well, I mean, relatively small, like I said, there were boys, they were on the opposite side and there, it was broken in into groups. So there was, I would say the the most you could have in a group is 16, like 16 to 18. And so there was a group of, of girls that were like 11 and 12. And then my group 13, 14, and there was 15 and 16 and 17 year olds. Once you were 17, you could find yourself out. And I saw that happen once and it was bad ass
Bento:Yeah. So how, how long, I mean, did you only go to this camp one summer or was
Bobby:it was nine months continuous?
Jill:Yeah, most of the campers there, the average day was three to six. And I was there nine.
Bento:Wow. Oh, so you, so this is like, this is a permanent, this is almost like a boarding school, like this wasn't yeah. I thought this was just like, you go there for the summer. You go to the bag, go to the bad girl camp, and then you go back to public school or whatever school you go to when the summer's over. Wow. Nine months. It's like being in prison.
Bobby:Yeah. So did you skip school that next year as well? Or a part of it?
Jill:Oh, really fucked me over. So where I live, ninth grade is considered junior high or it was at the time mm-hmm and so I spent my whole ninth grade school year out there and our school was a joke. It was, it was three hours a day for three days a week.
Bento:Ugh. So I wasn't getting, yeah, I would say three days a week. Wow.
Jill:Yeah. Yeah. Um, so I wasn't getting the credits that I needed. So I eventually got back home. I was supposed to start high school. Well, we go, we make an appointment with the principal and he was like, I am. Sorry to tell you this, Jill doesn't have enough credits to come to high school.
Bento:Wow. So you have staying
Jill:back here. Well, I, no, I started, my mom starts freaking out crying. I start crying. He probably just wanted to get us the hell out of there. So he was like, here's what I can do for you. We can, we can say chopping wood was shop and we can say this, but you have to go to special ed. Oh man. So I'm gonna give you an option. You can either go back to junior high or you can come here and you can get a special ed. So I chose special ed.
Bobby:Wow. And, and so you ended up just having to do that for your first year before you were re-enrolled in normal school?
Jill:Well, was it a normal high school, but there was just like a special ed hallway. Oh, okay. Okay. I'd be walking with his friends. They're like, why are you going down the bed hallway? And I'm like, I dropped my pencil. I'll be right. I'll catch up with y'all later.
Bento:oh man. I let him double life. So tell us about the camp. Right? So you get to this camp, um, what was it like? Like what was the first couple days? Like, you know, how, how is your treatment there? Um,
Jill:it's interesting. I, I, when I wrote the book, it's all written in, in first person and my 14 year old perspective. And it was interesting reliving those first conversations. Um, when I was dropped off, I mean, I'm still the whole way to the camp. I'm thinking no way, hell, they're gonna leave me. I got my headphones on. I'm listening to music. No, a and hell, they're gonna leave me. No hell. And they dropped me off. The camp director comes out. He puts his hand on my shoulder, like real firmly. He's expecting me to run and my parents fall as away. And I was like, oh, well, we'll be back in a few hours. Like I was totally did not think they would actually leave me. Right. I don't know.
Bobby:Why did you have, did you have like full bags packed that they just packed for you and dropped off with you or?
Jill:Yeah, no. We, they gave us this giant list of like, um, stuff to get for the whole year, like every, um, season and it was in it trunk. So I had like long had to get long Johns and sunscreen and mosquito. So like I went through all this stuff and still was thinking no way in hell. So yeah, the girls were, or the girl, the campers were eating in the, it was called the Chuck wagon. It looks like a pioneer building. Oh yeah. And yeah. And that's the only, that's the only place that all the campers were together. Like the boys say in the girls. But there was the long picnic style tables, um, that the campers were all set at and the boys were on one side, the girls were on the other and I sat down by this girl and I was like, what the fuck? And she was like, Hey, do not cuts at Chuck wagon. You're gonna get us in trouble. You know, like she was scared. Oh my God. And then she saw that I wasn't eating. And she was like, Hey, you need to eat. It's gonna be a long time before we eat again.
Bobby:So what was, what was on the what was on the menu that night?
Jill:Probably like some mystery meat, you know? Oh, I, I honestly don't remember. I remember it was a meat with some type of a sauce and gravy. Um, and I couldn't eat, I just couldn't eat. Right.
Bobby:Um,
Bento:yeah, I
Jill:bet so. And, and, and I, again, in thinking my parents are gonna come get me. So we finished our dinner. And they lead me back down this long winding trail and the sun's starting to set and I just see those yellow tarts, those tents. And, and one of the counselors was like, welcome home. And I was like, you know what, one, night's fine. I can, I can swing it one night. Mm-hmm the next morning I woke up. And, um, I, I had always kept things in my bra, like, you know, a lighter or whatever. Yeah. And I, I happened to have a, like an eyeliner in my bra. First thing I did when I woke up. Cause I put a fresh eyeliner on I dunno why it just did it made me feel
Bento:just some sort of routine,
Jill:right? Yeah. Yeah. And so we, um, I, I come out of the tent and they had these things called the logs and there were these, it was like in the shape of a square, big, giant logs, basically. Um, and we had to do this thing called huddle up and we met there every morning. So I go to my first huddle up and the counselor's like, Hey, you can't, you need to go wash your island off. And I was like, oh, this is a tattoo. My mom, let me get a tattoo. And she knew I was full shit, but for some reason they let me keep up the charade for nine months. I don't know. I, it, it got to the point where I started to resent my eyeliner mm-hmm you know, like goddamn put this eyeliner on every day, but I, I had to, I had to, I couldn't give in,
Bobby:had to way to lie. Right. Lucky you didn't run out.
Jill:Yeah. Well, yeah.
Bento:so what kinda, what kind of girls were there with you? Like what were their past like, like why, why were they there?
Jill:A lot of them were court ordered there. Um, A lot of them came from, I mean, just unimaginable circumstances. And that's why when they were like, why are you here? I was like, shit. Right. You know, like the worst thing I had done to that point was I, I did steal my mom's car at 13. I drove it around the block. I didn't even do anything. Cool. You know these girls, I mean, they had seen things. They had seen things like, I wanna say one of them had already had a baby. There was something about a baby. Um, it was weird. A lot of them didn't talk about it through the other count campus and that they didn't force'em to. And it was almost like you knew who the new girls, what their deal was when they came in. But the old girls that were already there, you didn't know. Right. And when you asked them, they'd be like, it's none of your damn business.
Bento:Right guys. It sounds, it sounds a lot like jail. Oh, yeah. It's like common.
Bobby:Oh, definitely. Yeah. What was it like after you'd been there for, you know, five months or so, and now you realize you are the only person that's still there and everyone else around you is new. I mean, if you had a relative working at this place, weren't you like, Hey, what the hell? What am I leaving?
Jill:Oh yeah. Um, well, we didn't have contact at all. And oh, one thing I just found this the other day. This is so weird to see after all this time. But, um, so you were allowed to go home after being there months, but in order to go home, you had to write home, stay goals and you had to write, you know, what you will do to be good. Um, but so you write that out and the parent and. The counselor. And I guess the camp director all decide if you're worthy enough to go for a home visit. like parole, like parole. Yeah. Like parole. Well, I skipped over a lot of once I realized that my parents weren't coming back. I said, fuck it. If you think I'm bad, I'm gonna be bad. So I started uprising. I started chasing people with axes, spraying the counselors with fire extinguishers and like having fun. I mean, wild. I was
Bobby:wild.
Bento:That's incredible. So you weren't even that wild to go there in the first place. And then they put you in this camp to try
Bobby:to make you less
Bento:wild. And it actually just has a complete
Bobby:opposite
Bento:effect.
Jill:AB absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, I was just like, I'm just gonna be who they think I'm I am, right. Yeah. Right. But the most screwed up part of this whole thing you just asked about five months after being there. So I, I wrote this home stay goal and it's basically like, I will not cut anymore in front of my parents. Um, so they approved me to come home and you're there for two days and you're on your best behavior and you're begging and pleading. Please don't send me back. They're restraining me. They're, you know, jumping on my back, they're doing this and that. And we eat spam. We shouldn't pot, like, you know chamber pots, and then have to clean them. And you don't get your own chamber pot. You have to poop on every other people's suit. Oh my God. Yeah, it's awful. And so my mom sent me back. They would drive everyone to this, the Dallas office in Oak cliff. And from there you would board a bus and the bus would take you back. Well, the buses, the camp's policy was once you were on that bus, they cannot, they will not pull over for you to use the bathroom. Nothing. Well, um, about 30 minutes into that drive, I had to pee really bad. I mean, real bad and made a big, giant stain. They pull the bus over to have a huddle up to talk about why I'm so upset. And I took that opportunity to jump out the window down the little ravine. So I finish and I'm walking back up to the bus. I see these three other girls who are in the younger girls group come down laughing, and they gotta pee. They smoke, we finish smoking. I'm like, let's go back up. We go back up and the bus was gone and, um,
Bobby:sweet. You were like, I'm free right at that point. You're like,
I'm
Bobby:outta here. Well, you're probably out in the middle of
Jill:nowhere. We were in the middle of nowhere, no cell phones, winter time, and we didn't have anything on us. And once those didn't even have shoes on.
Bento:Well, it's winter, Texas. Right? So what is it like 65
Bobby:yeah. That's cool to
Bento:us. Yeah, sure. No, that's crazy though. Me, you can't just like, it's like, you could pull your phone out and get an Uber and be like, all right, I'm outta here. You know, like, yeah. So what'd
Bobby:you guys do? I don't know. I think I would. I think I would walk anywhere else besides there,
Jill:besides back to the camp. Yeah. I mean, I mean, oh hell no, we're not. We're go back to that camp.
Bento:No. Right. So what'd you where'd you guys go what'd you guys do
Jill:well, we stood on the side of the highway for about an hour and the sun was starting to go down and we, I, I didn't know these people, we did not know each other. But they knew I was older. So they were like, Jill, what do we do? And I was like, I dunno, I'm
Bento:14.
Bobby:Right, right, right.
Jill:I was like, all right, we gotta get off the side of the highway. We gotta, we gotta go find like a barn or something like the box car children, you know? Mm. So we do, we start. And we're giving this girl piggyback ride, cuz she didn't have shoes on. She didn't have shoes. Yeah. Um, and so that was our plan. I was gonna go get a job the next day. And they were like, Joel, you're 14. No one's gonna hire you. And I was right. Y'all the nineties. No one gives the shit
Bobby:what we do exactly. Back in the good old days.
Jill:where you can work
Bobby:14, miss those nineties.
Bento:So how often, how often did you get to go home throughout this whole experience? I
Jill:probably went home not including Christmas and Thanksgiving. Probably three times.
Bobby:Wow. Over nine months. Yeah. So I take it then. So I take it then your, your letter request for once a month were denied at some point. Even though you had a relative, you couldn't play the relative card and be like, come on, go let get outta or, well,
Bento:I think when you're chasing people around with access, it's probably, or no, you're probably screwed
Jill:Yeah, exactly. I work with my family now and I think they're harder on these.
Bento:So do you think you got anything out of this experience in a positive way? A positive way?
Jill:I, I got to meet a lot of people. I don't think I would've gotten to meet
Bobby:you still keep, you still keep in touch with any of those folks that you were in this place with, or no.
Jill:No. I'm looking for him. I'd love to find him. Yeah. Um, one girl I talked to maybe 13 years ago and um, we just fell out of touch. I would love to see any of them again. Mm, absolutely. I went back out to the camp though, and I saw my old counselors and the old camp director. That was weird.
Bobby:Is that camp still in
Bento:operation? Um,
Jill:the, they still own the land and they still have that camp tied up. But no, no, it's not say
Bobby:it's probably very illegal these days. I know.
Jill:Yeah. It's
Bobby:very
Bento:illegal. Yeah. I mean, back back in Texas, in the early nineties, you could pretty much get away with anything, but
Bobby:these days, if I'm surprised one Facebook post and that'd be, it they'd all be sued.
Jill:those beds that you saw? Those were actually donated prison beds and ironically, I mean, prisoners don't even, they have AC they're not
Bobby:sleeping out. Yeah. They're inside.
Bento:Yeah. Right. And those are donated prison beds. So like they're used prison beds. so they're not even good enough for prisoners. Like the prisoners have better beds than that. That's insane. Exactly. Yeah. Do you still, do you still talk to your mom? Yep. This day and age? Yeah. It's not there's no, I think it's not like that. You might Harbor a lot of resentment
Bobby:towards her.
Jill:Um, we, the past year, when I started writing the book, you know, I called her up and I was like, Hey mom I got, we gotta have some hard conversations. And she was like, well, I don't want anyone reading this. I, you know, thing, but she's been cool. Other people in my family have not been cool. I'm not sure why. I, I don't. Do you think anything
Bobby:negative? Do you think that your mom, do you think that your mom regrets sending
Jill:you? Absolutely. Absolutely. My mom and dad both apologize.
Bento:Oh yeah. That's
Bobby:good.
Jill:And Thanksgiving and every Christmas since then, you know, I've, I've been like, Hey everybody, I have an announcement to make. Um, I'm still mad about camp. So, you know, it's turned into like a joke. Like everyone's like, God, get over it. A
Bobby:very cruel nine month joke.
Bento:It's like, right. And just the relative that worked there too, like, I can't believe they would work there for so long or however long they worked there for seeing the conditions in these kids. Like it's,
Bobby:it's crazy. Yeah. So in those, in those pictures that you have on your Instagram of the camp too, like those camp, like those tents are not exactly like insulated very well either. No. They're like lean twos. Yeah, exactly. Lean twos. Thank you. That's a better way to quote it. Yeah. It's not a 10, a tent would be an upgrade. Yeah.
Jill:10.
Bobby:Exactly.
Bento:Right. It looks like something looks like something
Bobby:my dad would build in the
Bento:backyard to like cover
Bobby:his oil tank. Exactly. Like
Bento:it's, it's like, it's not meant for a human to live in, you know, maybe a couple squirrels or something. That's about it. Yeah.
Bobby:And that's
Jill:wild. What's crazy. Oh, this is weird. That by and on a head count, we're there and not pulling up fierce, you know, like single night we all tried to stay awake so we could see her. She would never show us her face. Never once, you know? Cause there was blocked out there. She had the flashlight. We didn't
Bobby:right. Yeah. When shining out. Yeah. You can't see. Yeah. Right.
Bento:Yeah. Weird man. How long, how long this, when did the camp shut down? Do you.
Jill:It shut down in, I believe 97 97.
Bento:Yeah. Just the time for the
Jill:internet. yes. Yeah. Some lawmakers went out there to visit and they, they were like, what the hell?
Bobby:Oh really? Yeah.
Bento:You know, if you know, if Texas lawmakers are saying that it must have been bad. No shit. no shit.
Bobby:Oh, that's incredible. And so that's, that's finally the, the straw that broke the camel's back and had the place shut down. It was eventually got word to politicians and they went and checked it out.
Jill:Yeah. I think there was a death at one of the other Texas camps. And so there was an investigation law wow. Into these types of wilderness, you know, programs.
Bento:Do you know if they have like a suit or anything like that?
Jill:I don't know. I need to look
Bobby:into that. Oh yeah, you should.
Bento:Yeah. I wonder what kind of like
Bobby:documents the parents, some sort class, some, some sort of class action there.
Jill:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I mean, I, I wrote it when I wrote about, you know, my relatives. I, I use, you know, different names. I don't mention the camps names. So I feel like I've been pretty respectful just because of just relative and.
Bento:Oh,
Bobby:that's crazy. I can't believe that you're, you're respectful of that. Like, if, if the experience was as traumatic as you're, you're saying it is like, I would, I would hold that, right? Like I'd still be mad to this day. I'd still be mad to this day. I'd be, I'd be coming at them guns, a bla
Bento:I'd be spitting their coffee when they come over.
Bobby:Thanksgiving's what I'm saying. I wouldn't even see with
Bento:Thanksgiving. See if, to listen. If they listen to this podcast, check your coffee, this Christmas,
Jill:listening to
Bobby:check in the mail. Nobody fucking listen to this podcast. So
Bento:yeah.
Jill:Yeah, listen. Wow. There's still time. There's time to glitter bomber or whatever.
Bobby:Oh, man. Put that on. Put that up on Instagram. I'd love to see that.
Bento:That's good though. I mean, you're the big, you're the bigger person in the end for, you know, for not relieved in those names and cuz you could easily do so.
Jill:Honestly I didn't this narrative my whole life. So we thought you outta control. We thought that that, and it wasn't until the last year that I really examined that and no that's bullshit. I don't accept that anymore.
Bento:Mm. I just don't what was that process like? What was like, what led you from, you know, leaving that camp, becoming an adult to deciding like, Hey, I'm gonna write a book about my experience.
Jill:I've always wanted to because honestly, people don't want to hear it. I mean like on this type of platform. Yeah, sure. It's interesting. But like day to day, how the hell do you bring that up? Right? Yeah, sure. I mean, you know, like, listen in my bullshit, my bullshit kinda either therapists they're like OK. But um, yeah, I don't know. I, I have two boys and one just turned 14, so that could have been it. Are you gonna send'em to camp? Oh my God. I showed them my hand so long. I was like, I'll never send you to camp.
Bento:That's good. I, I shoulda at least if they're being bad, you can screw them and drive'em out. They be like, I'm gonna leave you here. If you don't behave.
Jill:Laugh. I know. I'm so forced to,
Bobby:funny. It's funny too. Cause I remember when I was a kid that, that, you know, there were the, there were those threats from the occasional parent or a friend of, you know, a friend's parents who would, you know, threaten the, the military you know, boarding schools, whatever they were. Um, you know, that was, that was kind of the big fear, but I had never heard about like these, these essentially internment camps for teenage. Yeah. Right. For kids. Yeah.
Jill:Yeah. Really? There's nothing
Bento:like that up there. No. I never heard of anything like that. It's called. I mean, we, in Rhode Island, we had it's, it's actually like a beautiful shopping mall now. But prior to that, it was called the bad boy school. Yeah. And you would drive by these buildings and they were just like these really old
Bobby:dingy
Bento:buildings with like bars in the windows. Like it looked like a jail. And when you were little, you, you would drive by that. And my parents always say, if you don't behave, you
Bobby:may end up there you be there. It's basically just like, it's basically, it was basically juvie. You know what I mean? Yeah. Right in Cranson that's what it is. It's a juvenile detention facility. But on that land, that's owned by the city. Um, there are like two, there were two or three, four more buildings that were just abandoned at that point. And they sat there for, I don't know what been until decades. Oh yeah. For a
Jill:long time. Do you think there actually cause there, do you think it was a proxy? Like we're gonna use this to share the use. You know? Oh,
Bento:no, they would definitely. Yeah, no, they were definitely bad boy schools, for sure. Like, yeah, but that, like, it was, it was for kids that like, you know, went to court, had a trial and were just too young to go to jail, you know? So was jail for minors, you know? Cause you at eight, they wouldn't charge you if you were, you know, as an adult, if you weren't 18. So these were like legit criminals. Yeah. There was never, I mean, I went to camp when I was a kid, but it was like you said, it was the archery and you know, the basketball and it was, it was the fun stuff. And you know, I, I pissed and moaned the whole way through it. And now hearing your story, it's like, God, it's like, took, took up for granted how fun it was. I could
Bobby:have been in a, in a prison camp, you know, or like body called an intermittent
Bento:camp for teenagers. Yeah. That's crazy. Yeah. Yeah. Cause I had is
Jill:wild to a normal camp before, like, and it was actually fun. Yeah. I didn't really wanna go, but once I was there I had fun and we swam and yeah. Went horseback riding. So that's why was a shock to the system.
Bento:Um, Yeah, but yeah, so I, thanks for coming on Jill and, and teach us about this, this crazy story. Um, tell us about your book. Um, when do you think it's gonna release and where can we get it?
Jill:Well, I am actually looking speaking representation right now. Um, so it's not out yet. Um, I'm hoping it comes out in the next year. Okay, perfect. I'll have any release date from my website bad com also Instagram bad social media platform is bad.
Bobby:Perfect. Yeah. Terrific. Thanks a lot, Jill, we appreciate you coming on so much for teaching us about this. Um, I, again, I cannot even believe that you are the bigger person in this situation. right. But good for you. And,
Bento:and I mean, good for you too, cuz like you seem to be, you know, I, I didn't think this was gonna be such a fun podcast, but like you you're in good spirits about it. You, you kind of laugh at some of the things. So like you've, you know, you've obviously taken it well and, and kind of, you know, evolved over the years of this, which is, which is really nice to see.
Jill:And then I get off camera and you. Oh,
Bento:fantastic. All right, Jill. Well, thanks again. And have a great night. All
Jill:right. Thank you guys. Hey, take care. You too. Ooh, I shouldn't have said that. all right.
Bento:I can cut that out if you want. Yeah. You can oh yeah. Yeah. I can cut. I can cut anything out. Yeah. Okay. Don't worry about it. I'll cut. I'll cut Bobby outta this whole podcast.
Bobby:Yeah. no big deal. I'll still show up next week.