Was just about to sit down and continue with a story that heavily involves an internment camp and realized that I don't know much about forced encampment at all. Outside of the main bullet points of forced capture and the terrible treatment and stripping of human rights. I want to build a camp that is like Kidnapped for Christ, if you've seen that movie, where the main goal is to break the humanity of the children and mold them into what their captors want them to be. But I don't know where to start looking for a detailed breakdown of the whole process from start to finish.
I'd say Farewell to Manzanar is a good starting point, since that internment had no intelligible plan and only accomplished the basics of getting people gated up. From there, you can bolt on additional rules and methods according to the camp's goals. Based on your source material, I'd suggest studying attachment therapy: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attachment_therapy
I am going to go out on a limb and suggest looking into North Korea. A whole country under lock down since the 50's. People live in a fear and if they break the crazy laws could wind them up in 'reeducation' camps, that are more or less concentration camps. I say start here because for the most part North Korea is a prime example of a self imposed internment camp in more modern times. Scary thing is you can actually go to that crazy ass country as a tourist, but you wont get to see much of the country outside of a city basically the equivalent of Dictators tourist trap. Though I don't recommend planning your next vacation there seeing as nobody is safe from the insane laws that govern the country. But I think the research into how such a country works could be a good step in the direction you are looking for the setting of your story. You know a place is bad news when there are auto turrets on top of a fighting force just to keep things from getting out of hand. If anything else it is just a more modern source to extrapolate from. Good luck.
Oooookay after reading just a wiki of Hoeryong concentration camp I'm wondering how NK is still standing. They're truly extreme.
@DeathandGrim IDK how they are still standing. They are kind of propped up by China, but that is not the point I was going for. It was to give a modern and realistic perspective of an internment/concentration camp, as opposed to the Nazi concentration camps and the Japanese internment camps of yester-century. You know just a tad more on par with what you are trying to depict, although Kidnapping Kids for Christ is kinda messed up. Then again their are schools that impose harsh disciplines to keep students inline as well. In China for example they make students kneel for hours at a time on dried peas, rice, or corn. But I think NK is far more harsh on its citizens, considering that if you break certain laws not only do you wind up in a camp, but your family for 3 generations get tossed in along with you. I'd say that is a bit much, but it will definitely make you want to obey the insanity, lest you and your family all get whisked off for a life of hell and torture all because you screwed up.
