The Program Cons, Cults, and Kidnapping is a documentary series released on Netflix on March 5, 2024. It is directed by Katherine Kubler and co-executive produced by Melanie Miller, Diane Becker and Rachel Libert. It consists of three episodes and has a runtime of about 60+ minutes.
This gripping investigative docuseries boldly recounts the terrifying experiences of a filmmaker and former students who attended a disciplinary school, The Academy at Ivy Ridge, fearlessly exposing the disturbing realities of the troubled teen industry. Where teens suffered mental and physical abuse in a program that operated like a cult, in the guise of ‘Troubled Teens Therapy’.
The documentary series features Phil Elberg, Janja Lalich, Alexa Brand, Allison, Dominick, Diana, Thomas Houlahan, Florence ‘Siss’ Dedekker, Sean, Quintin, Maia Szalavitz, Roderick S Hall, John Sullivan, Ann Moderic, Nathaniel Lichfield, Caroline Cole, Mike Mckell and several others.
The Program Cons, Cults, and Kidnapping Review
The Program: Cons, Cults, and Kidnapping is like personal documentation by the show director and former student of the Academy at Ivy Ridge – to essentially prove to her father, what he enrolled his precious daughter into, in the name of correcting her troubled teen days. As she delved deeper and connected with her fellow batchmates, Katherine realised that the traumatic experiences she went through and still grappled with were much broader and grim subjects that needed to be talked about publicly.
If you are unaware of troubled teens’ rehabilitation/correction programs or camps, then you might have at least heard about Paris Hilton’s childhood experience. How some people kidnapped her from home and took her to a correction camp, all with her parent’s approval. The same was the reality for Katherine and many other students at the Academy at Ivy Ridge. If the parents feel like their child is getting out of hand and beyond their control, they sign up for disciplinary school, to get them on the right path. But what happens inside those programs is more akin to a dangerous prison or even worse.
Katherine’s family was one of the many who fell prey to the false promises of a boarding school aimed at rehabilitating troubled teens. Upon arriving on campus, basic freedoms are taken away, kids are denied the right to speak, smile, go outside, and absolutely no privacy or communication with the outside world and even with a fellow student.
The school’s Byzantine merit system, consisting of various levels, was designed to keep students trapped until they turned 18. Forcing the kids to work on their program to get out – essentially breaks down their individuality, isolates them and turns them into robots that must follow all their orders. If anyone acted out, they were physically restrained, and put into solitary confinements for days or weeks, along with food deprivation and a multitude of abuse in the guise of discipline. On top of that, the people handling these hundreds of kids are not even trained or have any qualifications to help/deal with them.
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Instead of leaving these schools as a better person with the right values, the teenagers grow out to be adults ridden with extreme anxiety, PTSD, trust issues and many other symptoms that interfere with their daily lives. Many struggle to cope and get on with their lives, leading to suicide. Even among Katherine’s batch, almost 40 people took their lives because of what they endured as kids, unabling them to function normally in the outside world.
Apart from the con that they are not the ‘happy & best recreational place’ for helping teens, the biggest scam was that it wasn’t a certified educational institution. That means none of the students who graduated from the school had a legitimate degree, wasting all their time and hundreds of dollars, ultimately forcing them to get a GED again after coming out.
As the documentary progresses, it’s revealed that it isn’t an isolated case but a full-fledged industry created by The World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools (WWASPS or WWASP). While the umbrella company might have dissolved currently, programs still exist utilizing the same model or being operated by key members like Robert Lichfield’s family and his associates. Utah remains the epicentre of such schools and camps, while their web extends globally extorting exorbitant tuition to help the troubled kids.
Recently reports of abuse and torture in ‘Wilderness Camps’ have come forward, convincing that the industry is still going. And they don’t even need fixed premises anymore as they can set a tent anywhere and the wilderness gives a perfect excuse, if kids get hurt.
What’s astonishing to watch is how Katherine often comes across people who worked at the school and actively ‘disciplined’ them, but don’t have an ounce of shame or guilt for what they put these kids through. Everyone seems to have the same excuse that they were just following orders, even if it felt wrong but forget that in the face of it, they were the ones strip-searching kids, coercing them and abusing them mentally and sexually. It’s equally remarkable to witness how calmly Katherine converses with them, while personally, nobody would have been able to keep the calm and break shit around after seeing their sheer audacity.
The Program Cons, Cults, and Kidnapping is a must-watch documentary, especially for parents to realise that these institutionalised schools are not what will make their children obey. Sending them away to isolated places and entrusting them with strangers is not going to set things right but make everything worse. The majority of the kids probably need open communication and a comfortable environment to express themselves, and their worries. Those who do need professional help have to be with someone certified to do so.
Overall, the three-part documentary series sets itself apart from the others, since it feels like a personal journey of the person, trying to seek the truth. Instead of sensationalizing the traumatic experiences and getting revenge for what happened, Katherine Kubler just wants to create discourse about the events that happened and if possible, help any other teenager from breaking down under these programs. The style elements she chose to impart information or project the shared tumultuous feelings through overlapping visuals and sounds, are impactful in making one feel quite terrified for what happened with these individuals.
Rating: 4.5/5
The Program Cons, Cults, and Kidnapping is available for streaming on Netflix.
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