This is a really interesting article about the significance of the journals. Interesting comment that they may not be admissable though.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/01/19/turpin-torture-diaries/1049928001/
They don't have to be admissible to be used. It's in the article. Every count of abuse can be based on what they find. And they can absolutely be used as evidence. The physical journals themselves may not be able to be admitted on their own but that's okay. They don't need to be physically held by jurors for the facts within them to be admitted.
The 20/20 program ended on a hopeful note. Two of the medical staff said they look forward to attending the young peoples' graduations. The hand-picked team is tender and devoted to their charges. An expert said TRUST is the greatest challenge. An interview with a New York mother and her now-adult sons ( "The Wolf Pack") who survived 18 years of home confinement expressed empathy and encouragement that these children will acclimate to a loving, kind world.
The DA asked viewers with any info to call the toll-free number displayed on TV.
I have had that sense about everyone handling this case since the presser. I am very impressed with Riverside County. Everyone seems to dedicated to caring for these kids. It is a very hopeful thing for them.
Also , the posts of why they didn't escape "sooner" or when they were in public.
Read up on the effects of severe abuse and trauma on the psyche and the very real effects of Stockholm Syndrome. Read the narratives of Jaycee Dugard or Elizabeth Smart.
The shackles become internal and psychological very quickly. It's about survival. Please don't question why these siblings didn't run, escape or tell someone sooner. Severe and complex trauma is a complicated and very real thing.
Vent over.
Thank. You.
My God. I don't understand how anyone could question. Take a puppy. Put a shock collar on him or her. Install an invisible fence. After even a couple times deactivate the electric fence. Then see what happens. I can tell you. They won't go near the previously invisible boundary. No matter what.
These babies were "conditioned" from the time they were toddlers that any slight disobedience, even allowing the water and soap when they washed their hands, to hit slightly above their wrists, would result in insane, mind-boggling, torturous punishments. Beating. Hogtying. Being shackled for weeks. Even months. For a minor infraction.
And they were so isolated they knew next to nothing about the outside world except a couple strangely tantalizing but totally unreal glimpses at Disneyland and Vegas.
They were so deprived and abused that they have cognitive defects as a result and muscle wasting. Their brains are actually underdeveloped. They have intellectual disabilities due to lack of food and stimulation. Jeez.
The question is not why they never tried to escape before this. The question is how did this miracle, of one of these tragically tormented children escaping their captors and having the werewithal to document that torment so someone would believe, how did this miracle occur?
It's practically divine intervention. We should not be hearing about this miraculous escape. We should be hearing about a stench coming from an abandoned home and a subsequent, hopeless, gruesome discovery.