If you ended up in a program, you were probably behaving in a way that concerned people enough to choose that option.
You got to be kidding me, Max. I thought you grew beyond this BS to at least realize that many kids did not deserve a program. Now I happen to believe that no kid deserves a fraudulent and emotionally abusive one, because it isn't helpful, to say the least, but many kids had parents who were unable to accept a different type of kid, or who took a radical approach to troubled times. Or who simply wanted a fucking vacation from parenthood, but couldn't admit it was because they were weak. And in so many cases, divorce was really the perfect backdrop to to extract kids out of families.
Maybe you would have been deadinsaneorinjail. So fine maybe "the program" saved your ass, but from my understanding of your posts, you didn't exactly go straight after the program. It's possible you just matured and got sick and tired of your own BS. (Or maybe not.)
As for "deadinsaneinjail," it was program manipulation. If parents second guessed their decision, the program immediately pulled out the DIJ card to keep their parents submissive and their wallets active. I will also say that CEDU traumatized many people who were not headed toward DIJ until they had to re-adjust to life in the mainstream. CEDU had disconnected their coping mechanisms for living in reality while beating the living crap out of their self esteem and authentic sense of self. This is an experience that was duplicated in offshoots and many other programs with the same systemic methodology.
Seriously, they pulled the same BS with my parents, but let's add, "she'll become addicted." Well, I was not addicted before CEDU. I was not sent to CEDU for drugs (and isn't a treatment center) so why would they throw that scare tactic out there? And jail? I never even stole a Hostess twinkie, so jail seems like a pretty extreme outcome... I guess anyone could go nuts temporarily, but I've never had my sanity (seriously

)questioned. But this was THE standard tactic used to keep parents and kids in line, and it was not isolated to one program or time frame. This was endemic.
So arguing semantics to devalue the DIJ tactic is total bullshit.