How Was Compliance Gained?

[DKincaidCFS]

In your experience, how did the program staff achieve compliance from the kids?  Please keep responses limited to those of you who attended a "troubled teen program."

[Froderik]

Threats...privileges...abusive punishments...the false sense of importance in going along with the "group"...

..i guess that about covers it.

[shaggys]

In the program I was in, complaince was achieved through a variety of means but the primary motivator was fear. Fear of confrontation. Fear of "consequences" like food/sleep deprivation. Fear of physical assault. Fear of never getting out at all.
Much much more could be said here.

[DKincaidCFS]

I'd like to hear more on this subject.  With involuntary placements compliance is always an issue.  I'm trying to figure out the methods that were used to gain compliance from kids who were not voluntarily participating in the program.

[Anne Bonney]

I'd like to hear more on this subject.  With involuntary placements compliance is always an issue.  I'm trying to figure out the methods that were used to gain compliance from kids who were not voluntarily participating in the program.

If you take what I posted in your first question thread, put that together with what Frod and Shaggys have just said.....you get a pretty good idea.  What more, specifically, would you like to know?  We were scared to death of being "reported" for some ridiculously small infraction of a rule.  Afraid of getting beaten, afraid of being ostricized from the 'group' we had now become dependent upon (Stockholm Syndrome), afraid of being 'confronted' (read, verbally attacked) by said group, afraid of being further denied sleep, food, water, seeing our parents, seeing the outside world at all etc.

It's easy to get them to comply under the conditions we were in, but is compliance really what's valued out of these places?  Compliance is very different from real, true change.

[DKincaidCFS]

I agree absolutely.  Compliance should never be the goal.  When kids are placed involuntarily there must be some method to gain compliance with the rules of the facility.  Teen "programs" are reportedly notorious for using violence and/or extreme stress in order to foster a compliant environment.  I was looking for specific things the staff would do or say to insure compliance.

So far I have read sleep deprivation, food and water deprivation, confrontation, battery, threats of not being allowed to leave for longer periods of time, isolation from family and punishment.

[Anne Bonney]

I agree absolutely.  Compliance should never be the goal.  When kids are placed involuntarily there must be some method to gain compliance with the rules of the facility.  Teen "programs" are reportedly notorious for using violence and/or extreme stress in order to foster a compliant environment.  I was looking for specific things the staff would do or say to insure compliance.

So far I have read sleep deprivation, food and water deprivation, confrontation, battery, threats of not being allowed to leave for longer periods of time, isolation from family and punishment.

Isolation from the entire outside world and anyone who thinks in a manner that's contrary to what "programs" teach.  It really is thought reform, as the Senate found out about the Seed.

The sleep deprivation was extreme.....it wasn't like we were just being denied a little here and there.   It was part and parcel of the process to 'break us down', thus making us more vulnerable to thought reform.

And Stockholm Syndrome is an important component as well.  Since they ARE denied contact with anyone not program related, the program becomes everything to the child and fear of being ostricized from that which they've grown to depend on is a powerful thing.  That's why the "positive peer pressure" line is such crap.  There's nothing positive about it.

[DKincaidCFS]

So you're saying that the program staff would foster a dependent relationship between the child and the program and then threaten to abandon the child that has become physically and psychologically dependent upon the program and its staff?

[Anne Bonney]

So you're saying that the program staff would foster a dependent relationship between the child and the program and then threaten to abandon the child that has become physically and psychologically dependent upon the program and its staff?

More so the 'group', but yes.  And by fostering a dependent relationship - I mean complete isolation from the outside world, the extreme 'confrontation' combined with the 'love-bombing' when the child says the 'right' thing in addition to the sleep deprivation etc.  It's not like the staff fosters the relationship by being a true counselor or providing anything close to what could be described as therapy.  It's thought reform.

[Shadyacres]

So you're saying that the program staff would foster a dependent relationship between the child and the program and then threaten to abandon the child that has become physically and psychologically dependent upon the program and its staff?

Not abandon the child.  Turn on the child.  Whip the group up against them and then let the group rip into them.  This is now the only family the child has and the staff has the ability to turn that family into a hatefest focused on the child.
I will never understand how anyone can think this is not abusive.

[Froderik]

Not abandon the child.  Turn on the child.  Whip the group up against them and then let the group rip into them.  This is now the only family the child has and the staff has the ability to turn that family into a hatefest focused on the child.
I will never understand how anyone can think this is not abusive.

Fucking sadistic old creeps, they wanted to have a platform from which they could crucify "druggies," no holds barred...

This is the "program" they sold to the nazi straightling youth, the ones who became staff and perpetuated this agenda.  

You had to stand there, motionless, and listen to them rip you a new one...

[Anne Bonney]

Not abandon the child.  Turn on the child.  Whip the group up against them and then let the group rip into them.  This is now the only family the child has and the staff has the ability to turn that family into a hatefest focused on the child.
I will never understand how anyone can think this is not abusive.

Fucking sadistic old creeps, they wanted to have a platform from which they could crucify "druggies," no holds barred...

This is the "program" they sold to the nazi straightling youth, the ones who became staff and perpetuated this agenda.  

You had to stand there, motionless, and listen to them rip you a new one...

And if you even blinked in a way that they thought was 'rebelling', you'd be plastered on the ground with 5 people sitting on top of you, allthewhile telling you that they "love you" and that it's "for your own good".  

[shaggys]

Not abandon the child.  Turn on the child.  Whip the group up against them and then let the group rip into them.  This is now the only family the child has and the staff has the ability to turn that family into a hatefest focused on the child.
I will never understand how anyone can think this is not abusive.

Fucking sadistic old creeps, they wanted to have a platform from which they could crucify "druggies," no holds barred...

This is the "program" they sold to the nazi straightling youth, the ones who became staff and perpetuated this agenda.  

You had to stand there, motionless, and listen to them rip you a new one...

And the slightest movement was taken as resistance, so the person would be slammed to the floor and sat on.

[Anne Bonney]

Not abandon the child.  Turn on the child.  Whip the group up against them and then let the group rip into them.  This is now the only family the child has and the staff has the ability to turn that family into a hatefest focused on the child.
I will never understand how anyone can think this is not abusive.

Fucking sadistic old creeps, they wanted to have a platform from which they could crucify "druggies," no holds barred...

This is the "program" they sold to the nazi straightling youth, the ones who became staff and perpetuated this agenda.  

You had to stand there, motionless, and listen to them rip you a new one...

And the slightest movement was taken as resistance, so the person would be slammed to the floor and sat on.

 :cheers:   Simulpost!  :seg:

[DKincaidCFS]

All of you were at "Straight" then?  I have also heard many stories of the exact same methods being used at newer programs as well.  Do we have anyone from newer programs that can share with us about how compliance was gained/maintained at those facilities?