Promised services on their website were not provided once participants arrived.
Website listed a $5,000 intake fee, but some were charged $7,500 with unexplained “incidental fees.”
Promoted education as a core part of the program but treated access to schooling as a rare “privilege.”
Misrepresented the program as therapy-based rehabilitation when in practice it was a labor-extraction system.
 
Labor Exploitation
Students were required to work six days a week, eight hours a day, without pay.
Labor was used to run affiliated businesses (farm, moving company, store, hay company) benefiting John Volken financially.
Students forced into different jobs when short-staffed, regardless of medical condition.
No coverage, wages, or professional protections—described as “slave labor.”
After government intervention in 2023, students finally had to be paid minimum wage.
 
Deprivation & Coercion
No phone calls to family for the first six months, all family and religious paraphernalia confiscated.
Students locked in rooms when sick or when trying to leave (sometimes for up to 18 hours, with only small portions of food).
Speaking bans and forced shaming exercises (wearing labels of offense on shirt or work uniform).
Only one movie allowed per week; no access to news or media.
Mobile phones banned, preventing students from recording or reporting abuses.
 
Psychological Abuse & Cult-Like Tactics
Environment likened to a “Mormon boot camp.” Non-Mormon practices (e.g., Bible reading, Catholic faith) suppressed while Mormon services were prioritized.  One participant received bible from outside shopper while working at Grocery store, it was promptly confiscated. 
Encounter groups devolved into verbal attacks, surveillance, and forced confessions, often escalating into near-physical fights.   Like a real life Stanford Prison Guard experiment with no real "zvenyevoi"

Speaking Bans enforced for looking at member of opposite sex

Students punished with extra labor on their only day off.
Constant gaslighting: told they were worthless, dreams dismissed (e.g., being called “charlatan” for wanting to be a photographer).
Graduation delayed for mistakes, prolonging captivity and free labor.

Not allowed to be in touch with outside world events or news.  
 
Medical Negligence & Unsafe Practices
Students pressured to stop psychiatric medications abruptly by unqualified staff.
Medication distribution lacked privacy and confidentiality, meds handed out lackadaisically.  
In one case, a student hospitalized with vertigo was not reported to emergency contacts; family was kept in the dark.
Unsanitary facilities: no janitorial staff, dirty kitchens, and no proper food safety.  Everything run by "students" aka people in recovery, a medical situation.  
Malnourishment: very small portions, sometimes lacking protein, despite heavy physical labor.   
 
Financial Exploitation & Fraud
Government provided subsidies (~$1,000 per student per month) based on diagnoses, but students only received ~$115 monthly for personal needs such as hygiene.    
Allegations that Volken funneled business profits through the foundation to avoid taxes.
Students’ government assistance funds diverted, with portions withheld for “room and board.”
 
Favoritism & Discrimination
Preferential treatment given to Mormon students who often fully embraced the program’s ideology.
Older participants and even recently released prisoners admitted, despite advertising otherwise, fostering tense peer environments.  They just wanted to take anyone and anybody to get free labor with little to no regard at how this would impact alleged "treatment", which most formal settings designated as "treatment center"categorize based on age/reason they are there in the first place.   
Students from outside faiths or perspectives were belittled, excluded, or forced to conform.
 
Deaths & Severe Harm
Reference to a student promised opportunities, placed in managerial roles, then subjected to crushing expectations. He is no longer with us. 
Parents believe the Academy’s practices contributed directly to deaths of loved ones.
Multiple survivors reported PTSD, anxiety, depression, social isolation, panic attacks, difficulty trusting others, financial fallout from selling items like cars to survive afterwards despite working for months even years and long-term health effects (including ulcers requiring surgery).
 
Institutional Manipulation & Cover-Ups
Program repeatedly avoided government shutdowns by filing for extensions.
When survivors raised concerns, leadership deflected, silenced, or punished them.
Social media and public relations campaigns falsely painted the program as a successful rehabilitation model.
 
📌 Overall Allegation:
The John Volken Academy systematically misled families and participants, subjected vulnerable people to exploitative labor and cult-like control, deprived them of medical and emotional care, funneled money for profit and tax evasion, and created conditions that led to long-term trauma and even deaths.

"...We experienced John Volken Academy luring people in with false advertising, then subjecting us to excessive unpaid labor that amounted to labor trafficking in a “Mormon boot camp.” The program engaged in unsafe medical and mental-health practices—pressuring residents off prescribed medications and running coercive “encounter” sessions—that left many of us with anxiety and PTSD. It favored Mormon adherents, restricted family contact, and enforced a culture of surveillance and punishment for minor mistakes. In light of these patterns—deception, labor exploitation, discrimination, and lasting psychological harm—we are preparing a coordinated tribunal complaint and/or civil action, believing collective action is the best path to accountability...."