I was taken to the school at age 16, around three in the morning, with no warning and very little indication of where I was going.
While I was there, I witnessed daily beatings and drugging of the students. This usually involved five grown, muscle-bound men tackling one student to the ground, shoving the kid’s face into the ground until he bled, and then injecting him in the buttocks until he passed out.
I witnessed verbal abuse, such as the staff telling kids they were less than human, that they did not deserve to be alive. I witnessed a staff member make a kid bark like a dog to receive his prescribed meds. I had staff insult me and call me crazy for needing to be on antihistamines for a cold.
There was also gaslighting, making me confess to being a drug addict, (I had never tried drugs). There was also sexual abuse. I was forced to take nude showers in front of the staff and was told I would be punished if I faced away or did not face them at all times.
There was other stuff, like controlled starvation, keeping young kids in solitary for prolonged periods, censoring letters, punishing kids for using first names, etc., but I fear there is too much to fit in only 800 words.