Editing Sea Org (section)

===Rehabilitation Project Force===

{{main|Rehabilitation Project Force}}
[[File:RPF Los Angeles.jpg|thumb|Sea Org members performing manual labor on the Rehabilitation Project Force]]
The Rehabilitation Project Force (RPF) was created in January 1974 as a system of work camps set up by the Sea Org, intended to isolate and rehabilitate members who have not lived up to the church's expectations, have failed [[List of Scientology security checks|security checks]], or have violated certain policies. RPF groups are within Sea Org facilities, and there are no locks on the doors.{{r|melton2003|page=65}}

Many ex-Sea Org members have reported grueling treatment. On the RPF, one works eight hours of physical work six days a week, such as painting, plumbing, and upkeep of grounds. The work may involve teaching the member a skill such as carpentry. Members also spend five hours a day studying with an auditing partner.{{r|melton2003|page=65}} Former Scientologist Jon Atack argued, in ''[[A Piece of Blue Sky]]'' (1990), that treatment of Sea Org members in the RPF was a "careful imitation of techniques long-used by the military to obtain unquestioning obedience and immediate compliance to orders, or more simply to break men's spirits".{{r|atack|page=206}} One former member, [[Gerry Armstrong (activist)|Gerry Armstrong]], said that during his time in the Sea Org in the 1970s he spent over two years banished to the RPF as a punishment:

{{blockquote|text=It was essentially a prison to which crew who were considered nonproducers, security risks, or just wanted to leave the Sea Org, were assigned. Hubbard's RPF policies established the conditions. RPF members were segregated and not allowed to communicate to anyone else. They had their own spaces and were not allowed in normal crew areas of the ship. They ate after normal crew had eaten, and only whatever was left over from the crew meal. Their berthing was the worst on board, in a roach-infested, filthy and unventilated cargo hold. They wore black boilersuits, even in the hottest weather. They were required to run everywhere. Discipline was harsh and bizarre, with running laps of the ship assigned for the slightest infraction like failing to address a senior with "Sir". Work was hard and the schedule rigid with seven hours' sleep time from lights out to lights on, short meal breaks, no liberties and no free time&nbsp;... <p>When one young woman ordered into the RPF took the assignment too lightly, Hubbard created the RPF's RPF and assigned her to it, an even more degrading experience, cut off even from the RPF, kept under guard, forced to clean the ship's [[bilge]]s, and allowed even less sleep.</p> |author=Jon Atack in ''A Piece of Blue Sky'' {{r|atack|page=206}}}}