[7] The involuntary residential program claims to use an "Acuity Based Care" (ABC) model that identifies and re-assesses the strengths and needs of its students.

Residents instead receive a wide range of interventions including psychotropic drug therapy; use of physical restraints; humiliation; starvation; and solitary confinement.

[8] These accusations gained renewed attention in 2020 when media personality Paris Hilton released a documentary detailing the abuse she and other former residents claimed to have faced at the facility.

[10] Also during 1978, a lawsuit was filed by American Civil Liberties Union and Juvenile Justice Advocacy project arguing the people there were being subjected to cruel and unusual punishment and denied their constitutional rights.

These lawsuits ranged from verbal, physical, and sexual abuse and medical negligence, to violating students' First Amendment rights and invasion of privacy, to false imprisonment and battery, to intentional infliction of emotional distress, civil conspiracy, and loss of parental consortium.

[19][20][21] In October 2020, tattoo artist and television personality Kat Von D alleged her parents sent her to the school for a three-week program, but she was ultimately there for six months.

[24] Dr. D. Eugene Thorne - As head of Brigham Young University's psychology department, conducted electro-shock and vomiting aversion therapy experiments on gay and lesbian students.