Woodlands

Woodlands is a private psychiatric institution in Maine that becomes the long-term treatment center for Theodore Jones, one of the most profoundly damaged survivors of the Placerville High School hostage crisis. The facility is the setting for a medical and ethical struggle over Jones's catatonic state, a condition that resists both diagnosis and therapy, and that leaves the central question of what happened inside Room 16 after the shades were pulled permanently unanswered.

Nature and Structure

Woodlands is a private institution, not a state hospital, and its costs are borne not by the public but by Jones's uncle, who is footing the bill. This private status gives the facility a degree of autonomy in its treatment decisions, but it also places the financial burden on a single family member. The institution's administrative wing is headed by Rich Gossage, who receives internal memos from the medical staff. The doctors at Woodlands operate under the scrutiny of a board of directors, to whom they must justify their therapeutic choices, and the pressure to produce measurable results is evident in the correspondence between the attending physician and the administrator.

Medical Staff and Treatment Philosophy

The primary physician responsible for Jones's care is Dr. Andersen, who is deeply uncertain about the best course of action. In an interoffice memo dated November 3, 1976, addressed to Rich Gossage, Dr. Andersen expresses reluctance to proceed with electroshock therapy, a standard treatment for catatonic patients, but admits he cannot fully explain his hesitation, calling it a "hunch." He acknowledges that a hunch cannot be justified to the board of directors or to Jones's uncle, who is paying for the expensive private care. Instead, Dr. Andersen proposes an alternative regimen: a standard drug schedule supplemented with synthetic mescaline and psilocybin, two hallucinogens that have shown success in treating semi-catatonic patients under the care of a colleague named Will Greenberger. This experimental approach reflects the medical staff's willingness to explore unconventional avenues when conventional methods seem inadequate, but it also underscores the desperation of the case.

Jones's Condition and the Unanswered Question

Theodore Jones is diagnosed as being in a "flat-line catatonic state with some signs of deterioration." He does not respond to stimuli, and his condition shows no improvement over time. Dr. Andersen's memo reveals a growing pessimism: "I might as well admit to you up front, Rich, that I am not as hopeful for this boy as I once was." The central frustration for the medical team is their inability to determine what actually occurred inside Room 16 after Charles Decker ordered the shades pulled down. This missing knowledge—the precise sequence of events that led to Jones's psychological collapse—is the key that might unlock his catatonia, but it remains inaccessible. The memo's language conveys a sense of professional bafflement: "Jones is such a strange case—goddammit, if we only could be sure what had gone on in that classroom after that Decker individual had the shades pulled down!"

Narrative Significance

Woodlands functions as the story's final, unresolved repository of the trauma that erupted in Room 16. While Charles Decker is sent to Augusta State Hospital, a public institution, Jones is placed in a private facility, a distinction that highlights the different social and economic trajectories of the two boys. The institution's inability to cure Jones—or even to understand what broke him—mirrors the novel's broader refusal to offer easy explanations for violence, madness, or the collective cruelty that the hostages inflicted on their classmate. The memo from Dr. Andersen, dated November 3, 1976, stands as a quiet testament to the limits of psychiatric knowledge and the enduring mystery of human cruelty, a mystery that Woodlands, for all its resources, cannot solve.