Diamond Ranch Academy's $20-Million Campus Sits Unused?
Utah and City of Hurricane Report No New License Applications For D.R.A.'s Former Address
HURRICANE, UTAH–No new local business license has been sought for the $20-million grounds of the former Diamond Ranch Academy (D.R.A.) in the months since an earlier effort to reopen the site failed, according to a public-records response by the city recorder’s office.
D.R.A. was one of the most lucrative—and controversial—members of the “troubled-teen industry,” a loose group of youth residential and wilderness programs known for deceptive marketing, counterproductive therapeutic practices, cultishness, neglect, torture and deaths. D.R.A. charged upwards of $12,000 per child per month and sat atop 23 acres valued at $20.495 million. It featured a full-size American-football field and baseball diamond.
Three children died at D.R.A. before Utah effectively forced it to close last summer.
Months later, some of D.R.A.’s staffers tried to reopen the property under the name RAFA Academy. That effort ran into difficulties, including with credibility.
RAFA’s intended “Clinical Director” arguably shared the responsibility for D.R.A.’s last fatality. A purported image of RAFA’s “Treatment Team” on its website was really a stock image that had previously appeared elsewhere on the web. And a Reddit Troubled Teens moderator noticed that, when launched, RAFA’s website listed D.R.A.’s former phone numbers as its own.
Ultimately, RAFA Academy threw in the towel.
MartyG Reports then filed a public-records request with the city of Hurricane for any new business-license applications pertaining to D.R.A.’s former address. This morning the city answered that request. The only business application returned was RAFA Academy’s, below.
Likewise, the Utah Department of Health and Human Services said earlier that it has received no new license application for a youth residential program in Hurricane in the months since RAFA Academy folded.
Nor has D.R.A.’s former premises changed hands since RAFA Academy’s failure to launch, according to the Washington County recorder’s office.
The prospect that D.R.A.’s $20.495-million former grounds will remain unused seems unlikely, especially in the city of Hurricane.
Last year, Hurricane officials named a public gymnasium for the Lichfield family, the controversial former owner-operators of multiple “troubled-teen industry” programs under the World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools (WWASPS), a defunct industry umbrella. One of the Lichfields’ programs was the Academy at Ivy Ridge, which was the subject of the recent Netflix docuseries The Program: Cons, Cults and Kidnapping. The docuseries draws on participants’ child-abuse allegations—which patriarch Robert Lichfield denies—and footage recorded by Ivy Ridge’s security cameras.
A Change.org petition for Hurricane to reconsider its choice of names collected thousands of signatures. Hurricane nonetheless went ahead with the groundbreaking.
Whether a new “troubled-teen industry” facility will be opened in association with D.R.A.’s former staffers on D.R.A.’s former grounds remains to be seen. But the prospect of a new industry program run there by others presents a separate question.
This remains a developing story. Subscribe, below, for updates.
Beautiful work. Keeping the public aware of the tragedies and murders that happened on that advocacy by the evil owners needs to be headline news all over the country.
Thanks for being a stand-up person who doesn't shy away from this important work.
It's terrible that these places are still open all over the country. There are tremendous hills to climb to change this practice.
We are making strives and both of us are going to make sure children don't suffer endlessly anymore. We will make it happen.
I'm happy you found this newsletter platform and can make money on your passion for writing, advocacy, and bringing forth awareness to the cause of child abuse and corruption. Happy to have you back, it's sweet and beautiful.
Kim Chaffee
This is so well written