The Mayflower Group — How Straight, Inc. Bought Its Way Into Washington
Straight didn’t come to the Washington suburbs looking for kids who needed help. It came looking for parents who had power. The Mayflower Group was where those parents gathered.
The Pitch
By the early 1980s, Straight, Inc. had already proven in Florida that frightened parents would hand over their children and their money. The next step was obvious. If Straight could win over the families who ran the federal government, it could win over the country.
So it went to Northern Virginia. In 1982 Straight opened a facility in a converted warehouse at 5515 Backlick Road, Springfield, about ten miles from the Pentagon and inside one of the most influential commuter belts in America. The surrounding suburbs of Fairfax County, McLean, Alexandria and Arlington were full of federal careers, military rank, contractor money and social standing.
Survivors and researchers describe the Mayflower Group as the circle of Washington-area parents who became the public face of Straight’s expansion: well-connected, well-off, and fiercely loyal. The Sunshine Place documentary podcast named an entire episode after them (Season 2, Episode 5, “The Mayflower Group,” Nov. 20, 2024). That episode tells how Straight “set its sights on the next prime market”: the D.C. suburbs, “with its population of wealthy and powerful parents.”
Look at our parents. Look who supports us.
Why It Worked
Status as a sales tool
A program endorsed by colonels, agency officials and community leaders didn’t look like a warehouse where teenagers were confined and confronted for months. It looked respectable. Every successful, well-dressed parent who stood up at an open meeting was an advertisement.
A recruitment engine that fed itself
Straight parents were expected to recruit. Neighbors, coworkers, church members, the parents on the PTA board: the referral network ran through the same affluent social circles. Each new family added to the waiting room, and each new family had friends of its own.
A shield against scrutiny
Trouble arrived almost immediately. In December 1982 a Fairfax man, Fred Collins, accused the program of brainwashing. In May 1983 a Virginia jury found that Straight had falsely imprisoned him and awarded him $220,000. The verdict was upheld on appeal in November 1984. A program carrying that kind of record needed defenders, and powerful parents made the most convincing ones.
The Road to the White House
The mid-1980s belonged to “Just Say No.” The Reagan White House wanted anti-drug success stories, and Straight was built to supply them: disciplined rows of teenagers, tearful testimonials, grateful parents.
Springfield became the showcase. On November 11, 1985, invitations went out under the name of “The Director of Straight, Greater Washington and The Entire Straight Family” for a visit by First Lady Nancy Reagan and Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales. Network cameras followed them through the doors on Backlick Road.
There is no public record showing exactly who arranged the visit. What is clear is the result. A program already found liable for false imprisonment stood beside the most famous women in the world, in front of the national press.
Political attention → parent enthusiasm → more political attention. The loop fed itself, and the children inside paid for it.
Behind the Doors
The parents in the Mayflower circle saw the version of Straight that was staged for them. Their children lived in the other version:
- Months of 12-hour days in the group room, sitting rigidly in plastic chairs
- Nights locked inside “host homes” belonging to other Straight families
- Newcomers held by the belt loop wherever they went
- Group confrontations, restraints, and “spit therapy”
The image did not last. In September 1990 Virginia cited the Springfield facility for failing to report alleged abuse, and press reports counted dozens of prior violations. In January 1991 the state moved to shut it down. On July 30, 1991, Straight closed its Springfield center.
What It Left Behind
The Mayflower Group’s influence outlasted the building. Survivors describe parents recruiting parents, families split for decades, and years spent unlearning the program’s language of fear and loyalty. Those are the classic marks of a high-control group, held together by status, shared identity and the belief that the program saved their children.
The Mayflower Group gave Straight what no license or clinical credential ever did: legitimacy, money, a pipeline of new families, and a path to the White House. It got all of that while a jury had already found the program liable and survivors were already speaking out.
Sources
- The Sunshine Place, S2 E5 “The Mayflower Group” (Audacy / Team Downey, Nov. 20, 2024)
- Washington Post coverage, 1982–1991: the Collins verdict (May 1983), the appeal upheld (Nov. 1984), the Springfield closure (July 30, 1991)
- Richmond Times-Dispatch, “Straight Inc. Ordered To Close” (Jan. 31, 1991)
- The 1985 royal visit invitation, from this archive