Charles Carroll and his brother, Bobby, had the misfortune of being hard-to-place foster children in New Jersey in the 1950s. So the powers that be simply reclassified them from orphan, to retarded, and exiled them to a state mental institution. There they remained for nearly ten years, deprived of their civil liberties, devoid of their right to an education, and denied any semblance of a humane existence.
Beneath the sanitized facade of the institution's administrative offices and visiting rooms were cramped dormitories and dank basement hellholes. Lazy and inept personnel foisted off supervision of these children to ruthless monitors, children themselves, who maintained order through methods so sadistic and horrific, that child abuse seems a chillingly inadequate label. Charles was a victim of an uncaring, ignorant, and underfunded system, one that was kept just out of the view of polite society.
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Beneath the sanitized facade of the institutions administrative offices and visiting rooms were cramped dormitories and dank basement hellholes. Lazy and inept personnel foisted off supervision of these children to ruthless monitors—children themselves, who maintained order through methods so sadistic and horrific that child abuse seems a chillingly inadequate label.
Charles was a victim of an uncaring, ignorant, and underfunded system, one that was kept just out of the view of polite society. But the differentiating aspect of Charles’s incarceration in this nuthouse is the ironic, cosmic hook in this story: he was not nuts. He was, in fact, a sensitive and perceptive child with a high IQ. Moreover, Charles was consciously and painfully aware of every moment of his own abuse as well as the torment of his mentally defective fellow patients. Enduring their collective plight and clinging to his sanity as one would a tiny glimmer of hope, he vowed to one day write this remarkable story of survival, not for his sake, but for the sake of society’s outcasts and those too helpless to help themselves then and now.
About the Author
Mr. Carroll has devoted much of his life to telling his story in an effort to create public awareness, curb child abuse wherever it may exist, educate the uninformed, and dispel the public myth that these things don't happen anymore. "They do," writes Mr. Carroll. "Only today, such improprieties are better hidden."
REVISED EDITION OF THIS BOOK COMING SOON! NEW PUBLISHER. NEW ISBN
DISTINGUISHED KUDOS HARD CANDY is important and brave, comprehensive, real, and ever so true. It opens us to the real culprits of sexual abuse--the people, the secular authorities, to whom we've entrusted our children. It talks about who does it, how it happens, why it happens, how to recognize it, and what to do. Charles A. Carroll opens the doors on our society's most hidden plague, the sexual abuse of boys. --Chuck Rosenthal Author of the book: Never Let Me Go: Professor of English, Loyola Marymount
Mr. Carroll... It's evident that you are committed to standing up in the face of injustice--may you continue with that depth of commitment in your writing and all that you do. --Elie Wiesel Recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor Nobel Prize Peace Prizes for Literature Author of More Than 40 books
Mr. Carroll... I fully share your view that awareness and education are essential to child abuse prevention... and I do wish you every success with your project. --Henry Waxman Congress of the United States ______________________________________
THE PUBLICIST SPEAKS: Are you an advocate for victims belonging to a group seeking a keynote speaker? Mr. Carroll is an award-winning author---and his book is a genre bestseller. He has spoken on the national, state and local levels, has lectured at colleges, rape centers, child abuse action committees and mental health organizations, advocating a voice for institutionalized victims still being gagged by state bureaucracies who continue to run their operations short of the Stone Age of insanity. Join the author in a memorable one-hour presentation that includes author interviews on NPR, PBS, and ABC television, a PowerPoint presentation, readings from the book, and why he wrote it--with a surprise ending. You won't forget this one. Email the author: hardcandy.2@Netzero.com. NOTE: To learn more about Mr. Carroll's media exposure, go to his website, WWW.HARDCANDYBLOG.COM. ______________________________________
MY TRUE STORY IS AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY Until you heal your past... you will continue to bleed, bleed, bleed
When I set out to write HARD CANDY I wanted to believe in the system. I wanted to believe things had changed, and I wanted to believe the public myth that is doesn't happen anymore, and had this been true, I would not have written the book, for with my story alone the reader would have concluded, Oh, well, that was more than 40 years ago, it doesn't happen anymore. Ladies and gentlemen, after working undercover and doing extensive research on the subject of state institutional abuse, the evidence is clear; the atrocities are current, ongoing and tragically appalling--and this was the sour elixir that injected iron into my backbone and sulfur into my blood, to be the voice for victims who, today, are still trembling behind closed doors awaiting redemption from their abusive reign of terror at the hands of trusted civil servants.
HARD CANDY is a human portrayal of an uncommon nature. No one thing contributes more to its value than its authenticity, but be forewarned, you will not find literary frills, polite language, soft corners of prose, soothing seams of dialogue, happy jingles or joyful songs, but you will find a thread of love that weaves together the entire story--a story about a special devotion shared between my brother and me; how we cared for each other when no one else would; how we understood each other when no one else did; and how we desperately clung to the needed components of love and friendship to survive together the horrific reality.
HARD CANDY will give you a glimpse into the bleak world of institutional "bad guys"; administrators, trusted civil servants, and resident monitors that stood side by side with idiots and madmen who deliberately committed atrocities against these children, causing many to flee into an unconventional brand of protection, which was a futile attempt to gain refuge because there was no legitimate protection for them. At the age of sixteen, after suffering a decade of abuse, I was released from the mental health system carrying the scars from having been denied my civil liberties, a right to an education, and any semblance of a humane existence--and because there was no habilitation, I felt lost and floundered for a number of years within the broad spectrum of human progress.
Though I was released from the state system with barely a third grade education, but gifted with an insatiable appetite for learning, I became a frequent resident of public libraries, reading every academic book I could get my hands on. After acquiring a bit of confidence, I entered adult night classes at Hollywood High School and quickly earned a diploma. To make sense out of the social system that failed Bobby and me, I transferred to Los Angeles City College and eventually earned an Associate Degree in Sociology. Unsatisfied, I transferred to California State University at Los Angeles maintaining a major in sociology, a minor in psychology, with an emphasis in Corrections. Then, while attending the final quarter of my senior year I received a formal letter from college administrators announcing cap and gown arrangements for graduation. Uninterested in an upper division degree, it gave me pause.
Having solved the riddle how the social system worked and failed, and now better equipped to one day write a book that would give a voice for victims, I left college, took the State Electrical License exam, passed, opened a successful contracting business in Los Angeles, and I subsisted on that business for the next 25 years--but not without the daily reminders of the tormenting screams of yesteryear's children still pounding on the walls of my soul, pleading that I one day redeem them. Finally, in 1989, I heeded their calling, closed my business, and began a six-year journey investigating New Lisbon and other state institutions like it across the country. And as part of my research project, I worked undercover at two residential mental health facilities to see if patients were being treated well. What I witnessed left me appalled. On the last leg of my journey, I went to the Star-Ledger, told them my story, and asked if they would go with me to New Lisbon unannounced. They agreed. There, I sat the CEO down for a serious talk. He was evasive, coy, untruthful, and not appreciative of my visit. The Star-Ledger ran the story. The front page headline read: MAN REVISITS HIS 'NIGHTMARISH' CHILDHOOD HOME. Finished with my shoe leather investigations, I set out to write HARD CANDY with the hope of making a profound difference.
Bear in mind, what happened to my brother and me stained our psychology, wreaked havoc with our spirit, and incubated an emotional worm that drilled holes in and out of our psyches until what was left of our psychology resembled the appearance of Swiss cheese. We had to fight off not only the sexual predators of the past who repeatedly raped us over and over again in our photographic memories (such is the case long after the predator is gone), but also deal with the lingering side effects of gender issues, sexuality, masculinity, bonding, trusting others and a host of other problems mandated by having been chronically abused for years--something like living with the erratic splashes of a Jackson Pollock painting, harbored by the dissident crescendos of a Stravinsky temperament. Yes, the innocent pay a life sentence for the guilty, but however challenging life's journey, quitters we were not, fighters we were, who like wild horses, we refused to be broken--and that is the essence and strength of our remarkable story of survival.
BUT WAIT Again, this is not just a true story of yesteryear, as HARD CANDY also dispels the myth that it doesn't happen anymore. Though protective mandates have been in place to protect these children for years, they haven't worked. The evidence from my research is clear; the abuses are horrendous and have already crept into the Twenty-first Century. Think not? Read what the U.S. Justice Department found behind closed doors in the appendices of the book. You'll be appalled by their findings.
MEDIA EVENTS & AWARDS Mr. Carroll's has appeared on Live With Regis & Cathy in New York City, The Dr. Firpo Carr Show in Los Angles, interviewed on numerous NPR and PBS radio and television shows, was featured in People magazine (5 pages), and featured in many newspapers and magazines across the county. He has been a keynote speaker on the national, state and local levels speaking for victims without voice, and his book won the Hollywood Book Festival Awards and the Midwest Independent Publishers Awards (MIPA), receiving Honorable Mention for both.
GENRE BESTSELLER Mr. Carroll's book made #1 on the Canadian Amazon bestseller list for the genre, Family/Childhood. In the U.S. on February 1, 2008, the book took #3 on the Amazon bestseller list for the genre, Memoir/Biography. On October 20, 2008, the book made #2 on the Amazon bestseller list for the genre, Dysfunctional Relationships, and on October 23, 2009, HARD CANDY made the Amazon bestseller list for the genre, Child Abuse--and continues to land on these genre bestseller lists.
This review is from: Hard Candy: Nobody Ever Flies Over The Cuckoo's Nest (Hardcover)
AS A VICTIM ADVOCATE AT A RAPE CRISIS CENTER, MYSELF AND TWO OTHER COUNSELORS COULD NOT PUT THIS BOOK DOWN. WE ALL READ IT IN 3 DAYS TOTAL. I HAVE A SCHEDULED BOOK SIGNING WITH CHARLES AND I CAN'T WAIT FOR SOME QUESTIONS TO BE ANSWERED. WHAT AN INCREDIBLE SPIRIT HE AND HIS BROTHER HAVE. THE BETRAYAL OF THESE TWO MEN HAS LEFT ME IN AWE OF THEIR ACCOMPLISHMENTS.THIS BOOK IS A MUST READ AND I HOPE IT GETS NATIONAL RECOGNITION.CHARLES WOULD BE A WONDERFUL SPOKESMAN FOR CHILD ABUSE.
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I could hardly take it! I had to put the book down to walk away from the intensity... but I'd circle right back in to sweat out the relentless string of nightmarish horrors tripping into and over each other. Though not without relief, the dark tones of this memoir ring in the colorless realities of Chuckie and Bobby, two orphaned brothers in dire need for the love of family and home. They were neither "insane," nor "retarded," but there they were, shuffled into the mix as such, foisting upon them the ravages of a dignity-stripping, state institution, archaically run, and fraught with stomach-turning abuse--sexual, physical, and psychological.
Throughout the story, told in a balance of narration and dialog, young Charles voices his experience; the lurid details of trust gone to betrayal, innocence thrust into vulgarity, dignity that compromises for protection, and yes, the occasional wisps of light and hope silhouetting relationships the "normal" outside world could never understand. This is Chuck's heart-rending, tell-all story of coping, courage, and survival. Deftly written and easy to follow, the story really moves, never once palling; the base line, flashbacks, and vignettes, each swapping in and out for center stage in perfect timing--artfully composed. Yet, the book's purpose is not merely of entertainment but one with a particular voice.
For the many children who have suffered the torrid abuse and neglect, "Hard Candy" speaks graphically on their behalf as part of today's vanguard to advance the call for protection of all those who are vulnerable to the crude indifference of those "in charge." The back of the book contains appendices, a hundred pages of evidence, documented citations of the very same miscarriages that happened to Chuck and Bobby that are still happening today.
After reading "Hard Candy" I felt so struck with an ever-deeper compassion for those who went defenseless, unprotected, and un-nurtured for all too long. And, I thought I had it understood, but this was humbling still. For the author, his memoir burns loudly through the pages, revealing the moral injustices, the personal indignities, and the pretentious facades that cover up and perpetuate the unconscionable. While credit is due for progress made, even today, there is still too much fueling the insanity fire. Inside "Hard Candy," young Chuck's truth glints and swirls; it rises up as tall plumes of smoke... and boy does the scent ever linger.
Highly recommended for anyone charged with the care of others.
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This review is from: Hard Candy: Nobody Ever Flies Over The Cuckoo's Nest (Hardcover)
This book is Charles Carroll's unflinching memoir of his and other boys' brutal treatment while wards of the state (New Jersey) during the 1950s. Mislabeled retarded and institutionalized, Mr. Carroll endured years of sexual, physical and emotional abuse at the hands of his caretakers and other boys. The book is well written with an adult insight into some of his experiences. Though definitely not a pleasant afternoon read, it is certainly a worthwhile one. He also includes an extensive appendix with examples of modern day abuses of the system; just in case you might want to solace yourself with the thought that things have been fixed in modern day society.
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