Cultish reform programs

[David]

I stumbled upon a pretty interesting web comic last night that recounted an American guy's real-life experience as a teenager in a court-mandated juvenile behavioural modification program in Maine, the now notorious Elan School, in the 1990s. It's pretty extraordinary and horrifying stuff – I kept trying to find comparisons: Church of Scientology? Nope, worse. Don Dale? Nope, not even close – and really makes you wonder how such places can exist with seemingly no government oversight.

It also made me think about the philosophy that these schools emerged from, and how easy it is for something packaged as a progressive alternative to the prison system can become thoroughly dystopian and abusive.

Here's the link: https://elan.school/
And a chapter list: https://elan.school/chapters/

There are about eighty chapters in total. The last twenty or so deal with his life after leaving the program, which I found a little less interesting, but the first half is one of the most insane things I've ever read or seen depicted.

(There's also an American TV current affairs piece about the school from 1980: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIV6hhoj3-0)