In the town of Douglasville lies what was once the largest medical facility in Georgia. It is here where a largely unknown story began. Remember the name an Awake. It was mostly obscured a few months ago, but in the months ahead it may come to represent everything that's right and wrong with juvenile justice and rehabilitation, not just here in Duglas County, but throughout all of Georgia. Louis Petter began the Inn, a weekie center for emotionally disturbed youth,
in nineteen sixty two. For over two decades, thousands of patients would attend. It was based on what they called wilderness therapy that started out with tents and shovels, and from there he built that massive complex, or his kids built it. By the brochures, I thought I was going to a camp. I didn't realize I was going to be locked up. It was kind of like a outdoor summer camp where you would live in some cabins and do outdoor things. They always seemed to leave out the
slave labor board, as they called it. Vocational therapy aniwaki was meant to break you down. They wanted to make you into a machine. Anna Wiki has come to represent the tip of an iceberg of discovery and to the abuse of children. In addition to years of child labor, was a network of abusers that went from the top of the organization all the way to the patients. He took kids out of the program and brought him into his family. That was what happened to me, and I
knew older guys that had happened to them. It's a system that is built for abuse. Everybody knew, and everybody get their mouth shut. It would take decades for this abuse to come to light, largely in part to Petters many political ties, some even reaching the White House. He was a player. He was a political player. G b I agents have been looking into possible financial improprieties in the Anawaki operation. It was not just treatment of troubled kids.
It was the eloping land and real estate in Florida, real estate in Georgia, and real estate in Mexico. And that made an Awake a gold mine. We brought people back from Mexico. I was transported across state lines. I was trafficing basically. Petda charged with five counts, including sodomy, cruelty to children, and simple battery. Remains in the Douglas County Jail on one million dollars bond. You have to think how many of these people that they didn't find
are still working at these places now. This is the story of an Awake as never told before, from government officials to former councilors and the survivors who withstood the abuse. Thousands of patients passed through an Awake. Some of them received justice, but many are still waiting Camp Hell. An Awake debuts April. Listen and subscribe on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favor it shows.