Benchmark had what they called an "individualized" program. It basically meant they inforced whatever rules they felt with, and the ones that were written down were bent here and there by the staff or added to on a whim. Lends a lot to the overall feeling of fairness... contraband had a lot to do with "issue". If the divine insight of your counselor said that XYZ is bad for you, well then.. it was banned.
General:
no verboten music / books / movies,
bedtime at 10 (lights out, and they check) so no late TV
no mouthwash,
no aerosols,
no make-up (even for girls, unless they didn't like make-up, in which case they were forced to wear it.. i shit you not),
no dressing in black,
no bandanas (must be gang shit),
no "wiggers" (yes they used that term),
most definately no rap music,
no porn,
no sex toys,
no condoms,
no passport,
no money,
if you wanted to leave: no property, no clothes, no food, nothing... and in the super-fun-crime-ville that is Redlands California, most did actually end up dead, or in jail, or a hooker/stripper(if lucky), or on smack/meth... fulfilling the prophecy, and coming back broken(if parents still got cash)... usually fairly soon, so you can truly believe "im-a-gonna-DIE without program.. i can't make it on my own"... then you make it... no more faking it, you believe it... until you figure out you weren't crazy, and they really are fucking with you to make a buck.
There's probably a lot of banned shit i'm missing but it changes very rapidly... They like to shuffle rules around and were known to change things pretty drastically at each staff meeting. the absurdity of it was the point. When you obey rules like that, without questioning... And when i mean "without questioning"... I mean: you are far better off not asking the rationale (becuase they probably don't remember/know, and have to make something up) and certainly not debating the rules (because it pointed out they had very little capacity for thought left after all the smack, meth, and god knows what else...). I failed on both those points. I came, i asked, i debated, i thought they would be cool with it... I learned. Sort of. It took a beating down to get me out of my head.
