It was October 2011, and Captain Charles Kennedy, a veteran policeman, was in the main office at the Restoration Youth Academy (RYA), a Christian home for troubled teens in Prichard, Alabama, when he caught a glimpse of something shocking on a closed-circuit monitor: a naked boy crouching in a isolation room as a light bulb shone above him.
GOD AWFUL: Solid Rock Ministries in Mobile, Alabama. Three oicials from the church’s program for troubled teens were convicted in January 2017 of aggravated child abuse.
Kennedy had been waiting for William Knott, the program’s manager, to return with some paperwork, and when he did, Kennedy asked about the boy, whose name he later learned was Robert. He wanted to know what the boy had done to deserve such treatment. Knott, a squat, powerfully built ex-sailor, calmly explained: “He’s got an attitude. He’s only been there for a day, and he’ll be there for another day or two.”