Tranquility Bay

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Tranquility Bay is a World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools (WWASP) facility, operated on the island nation of Jamaica. It opened in 1997. The director is Jay Kay, son of WWASP president Ken Kay. The cost for one child ranges from $25,000 to $40,000 a year. Tranquility Bay is generally acknowledged as the toughest of the WWASP schools; in fact, many other WWASP schools who are not able to handle their most rebellious students will expel them from their respective schools and enroll them in Tranquility Bay.^{[citation needed]}

Tranquility Bay, photo by Richard Titsch.

Tranquility Bay states that it is dedicated to helping parents who are having difficulty with their children, whether they are doing drugs, breaking the law, disobeying them, or are disrespectful. Jay Kay told a reporter: "If I have kids, and they start giving me a problem, well they are going straight in the program. If I had to, I'd pull the trigger without hesitation." ^[1] Children as young as 12 have been admitted to Tranquility Bay, for reasons ranging from drug use to conflicts with a new stepmother.^{[citation needed]}

Some critics and former enrollees accuse the facility of torture, unsanitary living conditions, inadequate medical care, and other mistreatments and say that the facility employs staff who are not appropriately qualified for work with troubled teenagers. ^[2]