The Program: Cons, Cults, and Kidnapping

Documentaries are so alike that we start feel like once we've watched one we've watched them all. There was just something different about this one.. maybe its because it was created by the people who went through these horrid things. It has a personal touch to it that no one else would really be able to shine light upon.

Even though 3 episodes is plenty and there wasn't really much else to be said at the moment, I was left wanting more. I want to know if justice was served or if any of the children there today can be set free.

I hope this show go viral so the people behind the camps can be stopped and all current victims can be saved.

I think this was a pretty good show, but one thing I will say is this stuff goes on all over the U. S still till this day. I was in group homes and foster care from age of 9 until 18 and many went on a point system. Things kids are in those homes to get away from go on in those homes. I've physically fought staff members because I refused to be bullied. Staff members sleep with some of the kids sexually and all. It's crazy. They kicked me out when I turned 18 in an area hours away from my home town and I had to figure it out. I'm great now my own family, land, and home. They fail, I made it...

This did not expect this documentary to touch me the way it did. I spent 12 month at Casa by the Sea. I Find it funny that another reviewer compared the tactics to the military and so stated it was difficult to be sympathetic. I served 7 years in the Army, with two deployments to Iraq, one of those being attached to an infantry unit. I'm also a firefighter. I've seen a lot. I would rather relive any other point in my life than that program. If you haven't been in it, you can't speak to it. What this documentary does so well, is that it does not whine and say that no one understands why are parent could resort to sending their child to a program. What it DOES to is explain why they are harmful, and usually, don't have the intended outcome. From the lack of credible staffing, programming, mental abuse, physical abuse (which I did not sustain, but I also am not surprised), and financial corruption, this documentary does a great job of fulfilling its intent. To inform.

Really skillfully done, and surprisingly very hopeful and endearing throughout. These girls could be anyone you know, and they have such beautiful, strong spirits. I'm so glad to see that hasn't been ripped from them completely. I loved the heavy dashes of F you: the inside church audio, the gutsy phone calls to past workers, and the One Way or Another part. ;) How brazen of these absolute criminals to leave behind all their evidence, that really speaks to how above the law they feel they are. I'm glad it was all there to be found, I wish happiness and abundance to all who survived, and anxiously await the downfall of every wretched person who contributed to this nightmare.

I began the documentary with the idea that I'll get to learn more about the programs Paris Hilton keeps mentioning, instead I revisited a suppressed memory.

When I was about 7 years old I recall my half sister being in and out of my life. The time we did spend together she was the funniest person I knew and I would normally feel excited to have her around. I remember her mother coming to pick her up one day after she had spent over a year with us and told my father she had a "contingency plan" in place in case she began acting out again. My sister was 14 years old, she was rebellious on paper but nothing that could not be managed since my parents had proven in the last year that she was just starving for attention and got her to change. However, her mother thought otherwise.

A month later her mother contacted my father to let him know that she was going off to a "behavior modification program" and that she would pay for it. My father reluctantly agreed and off my sister went. The next time I saw her I was 12 years old and she was a shell of the girl I remembered. Yes, we were both older by now but something was different beyond normal aging, she was hurt.

Today she does not speak to my dad despite him stating he would have intervened sooner had he known. It took this documentary for me to connect the dots on why she stopped keeping in touch and cut off her parents. As a child, things are explained on a surface level, "your sister was a broken kid due to a divorce and now she resents the world". I never even contemplated it was the program she was sent to, even though I now can connect how that was what ultimately broke her.

After finishing the documentary I questioned my dad about the "special school" she was sent to and he had a difficult time even explaining it, instead he summarized it to "a reformatory".

Today I am 33 years old and even though I am grateful that I did not suffer from the same fate as my sister, I feel guilty for not learning of this sooner. I can only hope she is willing to speak to me one day again.

Thank you all who participated in this documentary, it was not your fault.

"You're not a victim for sharing your story.

You are a survivor setting the world on fire with your truth. And you never know who needs your light, your warmth, and raging courage." -Alex Elle.