THE ALUMNI Andrew Ferguson L'00 Chandra Bhatnagar L'01 Cathy Carr L'79 Karen Peltz Strauss L'81 Langer & Grogan Paula Dow, L'80

Chandra Bhatnagar, L'01 describes an appalling scene: a juvenile detention center where the worst imaginable human rights abuses are commonplace. Children are beaten for minor infractions. Some are hog-tied or shackled to poles. Others are stripped and left naked in cells for hours, sometimes in total darkness.

As Americans, we'd like to imagine these atrocities took place in Sudan or China, the sort of countries we usually associate with the words "human rights abuse." But these incidents occurred much closer to home, at the Columbia Training School, a reformatory school in Mississippi. And it's Bhatnagar's mission to remind us: you don't need a passport to witness tragic cases of indifference, oppression, and exploitation.