If you really think about it Programs’ main strength is that they can provide a safe haven for kids who just need to be removed from their environment. Many of the kids just didn’t respond to local services and it was determined that if left to their present path that they would end up in trouble so the only alternative would be to get them the heck out of the environment they were in.
If it was just that and left out the LGAT/thought-reform crap and was an enjoyable place for them to spend some "time out", you might have a point. But we all know that's not what it is.
Inside a TBS they receive counseling, academics, no peer pressure to take drugs, learn new habits regarding study, self care, better nutrition, highly structured, an environment which can reduce or eliminate their use of present prescribed medication.
Said "counseling" is often done by unqualified persons and most of the "counseling" is based on the damn LGATs, as we've seen with Aspen who admits that they don't provide any treatment. Academics appear to be no better than any public school and quite often worse, as the kids can't use the "credits" they thought they'd accumulated in program because said program's academics are unaccredited. There's huge peer pressure to conform to the group and 'confess your sins' to them (to later be used against you). Having unqualified facilitators doing this isn't helpful to anyone, except the program.
These are all things that can be provided by a stable home life but for some reason wasn’t working or wasn’t present for them. Maybe both parents work, maybe they have no extended family to rely on, maybe todays kids don’t rely on family as much and reach out to peers who could be a bad influence. Maybe the present day medications are making the kids worse.
Since most of these places are extremely expensive, the parents could surely take that money to either take the time off necessary to spend with the child or take them hiking through Europe or something similar. Exposure to a different country's culture can do wonders for the typical American kid.
I think the program teaches the kids that they can be successful and they are in control of their own lives.
I know you
think this, but it's just not true. If anything, it teaches them dependency on one program or another as most are recommended or required to attend further "meetings" (whether LGAT/AA etc.) as part of their aftercare.
I don’t think there is anything permanent like brainwashing going on.
I know you think that and it's somewhat true....eventually the 'washing' wears off but not before it's done its core damage to the psyche. Sure, we eventually get most of our own minds back, but it's like someone's put an egg scrambler to them. The damage that attack/confrontation "therapy" does, doesn't go away so easily. That is what can last for years. Then there are those poor souls who completely fall for the brainwashing and continue, as adults, to be unable to function without some form of dependence on a 'group' and its approval so they seek out LGAT-like groups (i.e. New Warrior Training/Mankind Project, Scientology).
The program values wash off over time as the child slowly immerges back into the world while they are exposed to less structure.
They're thrown back into the real world, stripped of all their defenses, broken and confused and expected to resume their lives as though "normal".
But they are on a good path and remember the success they had while in the program which helps them stay the course as they go.
Not really. I was considered a "success" when I graduated Straight. The minute...and I mean the very second that I started to question it and its methods, I was deemed a failure, doomed to a life of "deathinsanityorjail". All Straight did was confuse the shit out of me, make me feel like I was a complete failure and that I was responsible for every single bad thing in my parents' lives. Hell, I was even told flat out by Ruth Ann Newton, Assistant Director, that the sexual abuse I experienced as a child "was a result of my behavior". I was fucking 7 goddamned years old and being sexually abused was somehow a "result of my behavior"

These places work off of "the end justifies the means" crap and that anything they do, no matter how crazy, abusive or damaging, as long as it helps someone, anyone or has good intentions, is worth it. What a bunch of bullshit.