For years, Mennonite and Amish women have quietly spoken about "the facilities" — residential programs where church members are sent for restoration, discipline, or mental health support.
But what exactly are these places?
In this episode of The Plain People's Podcast, Jasper Hoffman begins unpacking one of the most complex and hidden barriers facing Amish and Anabaptist survivors: a network of unlicensed and unregistered residential treatment facilities operating across multiple states.
This series features Amish women speaking in their own words about their experiences inside these programs and the pressure they faced when being sent away.
Drawing on years of investigation, survivor interviews, and newly obtained documents — including an updated Mental Health Facility Research Guide issued by the Amish Steering Committee — Jasper explores how these facilities are organized, how they avoid oversight, and how families are guided to select programs based on theology, obedience to ministry leadership, and views on reporting abuse.
Many women who enter these facilities are described as "choosing" to go.
But as one Amish woman told Jasper:
"If no is not an option, then yes is not a choice."
Over the next several weeks, we will examine the role these facilities play within a larger system involving ministry leadership, restoration teams, tourism economies, and community power structures.
Before crimes can be solved, they first have to be seen.
Topics discussed in this episode: Amish communities, Amish women, Amish abuse, Amish mental health, residential treatment facilities, unlicensed treatment centers, religious trauma, Anabaptist communities, cult recovery, investigative journalism, and survivor advocacy.
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