A harrowing new Netflix series, 'The Program: Cons, Cults and Kidnapping', has left viewers stunned as it exposes the abuse at a disciplinary school in New York. The three-part docuseries details the experiences of survivors of Ivy Ridge, a facility in rural Ogdensburg that shut down in 2009.
Former student Katherine Kubler, who was sent to Ivy Ridge as a teenager, created the documentary to warn others about the 'troubled teen' industry. She found video footage and student files lying in plain sight in the abandoned building, and spoke to a former staff member who claimed she was just following orders.
Survivors recount how students were prohibited from speaking to or looking at one another, and were penalised for looking out of a window. One attendee recalled being forced to lie face down on the floor for hours during an 'intervention'. Students often slept on mattresses on the hallway floors.
Viewers have been bingeing the series in one night, with many taking to social media to share their shock. One wrote on LADbible's Netflix Bangers Facebook page: 'This had to be so traumatizing! 10/10 definitely opened my eyes up to things I had no clue were happening.' Another on X said: 'The Program on Netflix is crazy from the start... the level of f**ked up psychological warfare reaches another level.'
Kubler hopes the documentary will help shut down the 'troubled teen' industry. 'This industry exists because there are not many good resources out there for families in a crisis, so we need to figure out alternate solutions,' she explained. 'Ultimately the goal is to expose these places and to get this industry shut down.'
