Rehabilitation Project Force

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The RPF: Scientology's gulag
The forced labor camps integral to Scientology's para-military, "Sea Organization", are referred to as the "RPF" or "Rehabilitation Project Force". Ex-Sea Org members who experienced the program have compared the RPF to soviet gulags and to the re-education camps once run by the Khmer Rouge. Even today, there are hundreds of prisoners in the Sea Organization's RPF, living and working under conditions that are both squalid and illegal.

Ex-Sea Org member and former 'inmate', Gerry Armstrong described Scientology's RPF as:

Another former inmate, Howard Schomer said:

The RPF is NOT a myth. On ABC's "Nightline", Scientology spokesman Tommy Davis admitted the existence of the RPF calling it, "... a program that, uh, members of the Church's religious order, uh, do voluntarily and are given the opportunity to do if, uh, they're found to have failed in their duties". Davis' disigenuous answer echoes the "Church of Scientology's" usual progaganda which tries to 'pass off' the RPF as a voluntary penance program, similar to a monastic order. In reality, the RPF is a hard labor prison camp.

Policies and history of the RPF
The RPF hard labor program was instituted in 1974 by Scientology's founder, L. Ron Hubbard. The numerous policies Hubbard drafted were designed to create a hostile environment. These policies of intentional mistreatment are enforced by the cult's current leader David Miscavige. These include:

Restricted Communications:

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Forced Confinement:

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Poor Diet:

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Physical Maltreatment:

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Running:

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Dangerous Working Conditions and Exhaustion:

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Hygiene:

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Sleeping Conditions:

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Media Access:

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Study of Hubbard Ideology:

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Forced Confessions and Security Checking:

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Medical and Dental Care:

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Success Stories:

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Children and teens in RPF
There is substantial evidence that children and teens are placed on the RPF. Hubbard intended children to be included in the RPF and wrote voluminous policies on the subject.

Scientologist believe in multiple reincarnations. Children are considered adult souls (thetans) packaged in a smaller body. For this reason children are given little special consideration. They are made to work in the same environments as adults and usually deprived schooling. The RPF does make allowances for a child or teen's lessor physical capabilities, but the dogmatic thrust of the program is the same for children, as it is for adults.

There are many reports of children in the RPF and proof captured on film by by a television news crew:

Christmas in the RPF
David Miscavage sentenced the Commanding Officer of Scientology U.S. Western Division to the RPF for giving the inmates a rare, one day, Christmas 'break'. Mark Fisher relates this unusual example,

Inmate descriptions of the RPF
The forced labor camps integral to Scientology's paramilitary Sea Organization are a public disgrace. The fact that these gulags are located in major cities in the western world is almost impossible to believe! There is a great deal that could be written about the Scientology's RPF and yet the words of those who have survived the program seem to describe all that is necessary:

Why would someone would allow this to happen to them?
Why would anyone 'voluntarily' submit to such treatment? Fear of excommunication! A fate that is unthinkable for Sea Organization members who sign 'billion year contracts' dedicating current and future lifetimes to Scientology.

Dr. Stephen Kent from the University of Alberta described 'voluntary' participation in the RPF in this way:

Another possible reason Sea-Org members submit to this punishment is ideological brain-washing. Scientologists are indoctinated to believe that bad events are 'self-created' psychically. Scientologists are taught they have personal power over "mattter, energy, space, and time". Having that power, they blame themselves for bad outcomes or events which must be "their fault". "Pulled it in" is a catch-phrase in Scientology that describes this. Sea-Org members assigned to the RPF often believe they "pulled in" and deserve their sentence.