Episode 75: Not the Fun Kind of Camp—Family Reunification Camps, aka, Legalized Kidnappings, Are Disturbing as Hell

Tina Swithin, survivor, author and family court advocate, joins Amanda and Jenna in today’s episode to talk about the confounding decision some family court judges are making to force traumatized and abused children to see or even live with their abusive parents. Utilizing something called Family Reunification Camps, these judges order already terrified children to be forcibly removed from a protective parent’s home and sent to a facility where they’re isolated, abused and gaslighted into believing the abuse they just recently escaped from never happened at all and that the parent they saw beat their mom is real sorry about that. Sweet!

It recently happened to the children of Josh Homme, accused abuser of his wife Brody Dalle. Homme, vocalist/guitarist of Queens of the Stone Age and drummer for Eagles of Death Metal. Though he threatned to kill his wife, among other atrocities, and despite Dalle testifying that Homme had hit the children, drove drunk with them and that they were scared to be with him, his two young sons were forcibly removed from their home and haven't seen their mom in over a year.

Not shockingly, abusers who insist on having custody of their kids who are terrified of them is a power move by abusers to punish and control their partners, and not about these a-holes being any kind of decent parent. And since our criminal justice system was largely built by men to benefit men, these legalized kidnappings track. But that doesn’t mean they have to continue. Thanks to the efforts of tireless advocates like Swithin, we’re hoping these so-called “camps” will disappear into the ether very soon.  

Find Swithin at One Mom’s Battle or @OneMomsBattle on Instagram or TikTok. Visit the National Safe Parents Organization to get involved or learn more. 

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