Achi news desk-
A new Netflix documentary series, The Program: Cons, Cults, and Kidnapping, about the “troubled teen industry”, highlights how teenagers with so-called conduct problems are misled -systematic treatment and torture in the United States.
The three-part documentary features survivors of the Academy at Ivy Ridge, New York, speaking out about abuse and uncovering a shocking trail of abandoned records detailing the horrors they endured in the name of “treatment”.
The series has risen to the top of Netflix’s most watched shows, reaching number one in the US and number two in the UK and Canada.
The documentary is a raw and powerful display of survivors reclaiming their stories. The violence revealed in the series has shocked the public and caused so much concern that some viewers have been left feeling traumatized after watching all three episodes in one night.
For decades, the troubled teenage industry has been getting away with abuses and human rights violations, sidestepping meaningful state oversight and lining the pockets of industry operators and their cronies. Survivors have been speaking out against this system for as long as the industry has existed, but until recently, our stories were considered unbelievable – even “crazy”.
I am a survivor of a “therapeutic” boarding school like the one featured in The Program. I am also a qualified social worker, and spent seven years researching institutional abuse in therapeutic residential schools for my doctorate. As the director of The Programme, Katherine Kubler, my personal experience drove me to this work, to listen to survivors and raise awareness about what happens behind closed doors.
Although some programs are more extreme than others, the one featured in The Program is horrifying and far from the only one of its kind.
What is unique and makes a truly powerful crime series is how confusingly self-incriminating the Academy staff was at Ivy Ridge. In the disused halls of the now defunct school, staff left behind thousands of documents which clearly described – and in some cases filmed – their own abuse of children. Unfortunately, records like this are extremely rare and most therapeutic residential school survivors will never have proof of what happened to them.
Therapeutic boarding schools are not really schools; they are private residential behavior modification programs that seek to reform “troubled teenagers”. Students can be held in these institutions against their will or under threat of being sent “somewhere worse”.
Some are legally kidnapped and taken there by force. Cut off from the outside world, students are confined to campuses that are usually in rural areas that are difficult to escape from. The programs are designed to give total control over teenagers and bring so called “at risk” youth under control.
As in the documentary, in my research, reports of emotional, physical and sexual abuse and neglect were widespread. Abuses described included “speaking bans” which prevented students from communicating with each other, solitary confinement, excessive and dangerous physical restraints, child labour, nutritional deprivation, sleep deprivation, prolonged exposure to extreme temperatures, medical neglect , the use of medication to sedate students, physical assaults, sexual harassment and rape.
“Attack therapy” was common. In a large circle facing each other, staff and peers would scream verbal “attacks” and publicly humiliate students in “group therapy”.
Students who try to avoid participation would become targets for the attacks. Under the guise of accountability, these group sessions were used to degrade students and cause a psychological breakdown. This was useful for the programs because students who had broken down were less likely to “refuse treatment”.
Lost narratives
Missing from the documentary were experiences of LGBTQ+ “conversion therapy”. LGBTQ+ young people appear to be more likely to be sent to therapeutic residential schools.
Cloaked in therapeutic language, some facilities have treated being LGBTQ+ as a “developmental disorder” that can and should be “overcome” through psychotherapy and AA-style “sex addiction” groups.
Students can be punished for not conforming to conservative sexuality and gender expectations. Of course, these interventions do not “cure” one’s sexuality or gender identity, but they lead to long-term harm and complex trauma.
These are not just matters of historical abuse; there have been a number of child deaths over the past few years. A 12-year-old boy was recently found dead in a troubled youth industry program in North Carolina.
How do we stop abusive programs?
Talk about what is happening so that other parents don’t send their children to programs like these. In the United States, you can support efforts for federal legislative reform and call on state legislators to stop using taxpayer money to fund children who are sent to these facilities.
If we stop giving them money, they will close. In other words, don’t feed the beast.
For those outside the US, don’t get too comfortable with the idea that this only happens overseas. Children from all over the world can be taken into US programs compulsorily. If we want to help stop this industry, a good first step would be to stop and undo its expansion.
If you know someone who is a survivor, reach out to them and let them know you care. It has been a relief for many survivors to see people testifying to what these industries are really like, but it also brings up a lot of emotions, and for some, traumatic memories can resurface.
The Program ends with several survivors standing around a fire pit, burning old case files and looking on as the paper turns to amber ash. There’s a powerful rallying call: “Child abuse is a business for anyone who knows about it,” and now, as the director says, you know. Survivors have long suffered in silence, but now that these stories are finally being heard, will it be enough to motivate people to demand change?
