For more than 30 years, several dozen developmentally disabled men were consigned to work in a turkey processing plant in a small Iowa town.
They lived in an abandoned schoolhouse in increasingly decaying conditions, were paid next to nothing for their work, had to pay for their own medical care and were often abused. They were virtually prisoners and for decades, almost no one did anything to help them even though the men were well-known in town.
New York Times reporter Dan Barry ( @DanBarryNYT) — who first covered the story in 2014 — has written a book about the scandal called “The Boys in the Bunkhouse,” and talks with Here & Now‘s Lisa Mullins about why it happened.
Book Excerpt: ‘The Boys In The Bunkhouse’
By Dan Barry
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