While crime ran rampant at the Academy at Ivy Ridge in Netflix's The Program, not everybody involved was arrested for their crimes.
Netflix's newest investigative documentary, The Program: Cons, Cults, and Kidnapping, opened viewers' eyes to the horrors that took place at New York's Ivy Ridge, which included various forms of physical and psychological torture.
Detailed by survivor and investigation leader Katherine Kubler, she and other victims spent more than a decade exploring what happened at the facility, hoping to bring those responsible for their suffering to justice.
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Arrests and Punishment Seen After Netflix's The Program
Ahead is an analysis of all the major players involved with the Academy at Ivy Ridge in Ogdensburg, New York, which was the subject of Netflix's The Program:
George Tulip
George Tulip was employed as the boys' program director at Ivy Ridge, described as a tyrant and a child abuser by victims in the documentary who saw and experienced his practices.
There are several allegations against Tulip for his heinous wrongdoings, with an article from Latest Bolly Holly claiming he has since been arrested.
However, this article does not expand much further than that basic information, saying that details about Tulip's mugshot and specific potential charges are still undisclosed.
For now, it is impossible to tell if Tulip has been arrested, although the evidence presented in the documentary would not place an arrest out of the question.
Tom Nichols
Tom Nichols is a former politician who worked as Ivy Ridge's public relations coordinator brought in to put a positive spin on the program. He currently works as a pastor at a church in Galilee, a neighborhood in Ogdensburg, New York.
The documentary detailed how he took "marketing photos" of the children at Ivy Ridge which came on their one day per year when they were allowed to be outside playing sports and enjoying nature like normal teens.
Unfortunately, there is no current information on either him or his connection to Ivy Ridge on the internet, although Katherine Kubler and her crew visited him at his church in The Program.
Asked about his time at Ivy Ridge, he quickly got contentious with Kubler, bluntly telling her he was not going to be part of a "60 Minutes[-style] exposé" on his alleged crimes.
Jason Finlinson
Jason Finlinson held a position as Ivy Ridge's director, speaking in archive footage about the facility using a level program that "enables kids to see where they’ve been misled."
Furthermore, he was married to MayBeth Lichfield, whose father held a much higher position in the grand scheme behind Ivy Ridge.
Currently, Finlinson has various lawsuits filed against him over the work he did at Ivy Ridge, but this does not include any criminal charges. On top of that, he continues to deny any wrongdoing to this day, some of that denial being seen in his interviews from The Program.
David Gilcrease
David Gilcrease played a key role in the Worldwide Worldwide Association of Specialty Programs organization (WWASP), which funds and helps create programs such as Ivy Ridge.
Specifically, Gilcrease created the WWASP seminars detailed in The Program, which were used to put the victims through physical and emotional rigors for hours at a time - many of which broke their spirits daily.
There is currently no recent information about Gilcrease, his whereabouts, or his current connection to Ivy Ridge. It is also unknown whether there is an arrest warrant out for him.
Robert Lichfield
Robert Lichfield is one of the heads of this disturbing story as the co-founder of WWASP, who is reportedly continuing his work with organizations like Ivy Ridge even to this day.
Lichfield has laid low and stayed off the radar in recent years, and the organization is all but dead, with Horizon Academy in La Verkin, Utah being the last WWASP facility directly associated with Lichfield to be shut down (per Screen Rant).
The New York Times reported on quotes from Lichfield in July 2013, in which he denied all rumors of misconduct at his schools and even disassociated himself from the facilities to some degree:
"Allegations against schools I did not own or manage, I can’t answer. I wasn’t there, I didn’t abuse or mistreat students, nor did I encourage or direct someone else to do so. I provided business services that were non-supervision, care, or treatment services to schools that were independently owned and operated."
Ken Kay
Ken Kay spent years working as the president of WWASP, although he, too, denied any allegations of abuse at his organizations and facilities.
Per The Cinemaholic, Kay has avoided any sort of spotlight over the last few years, although several lawsuits have been filed against him for his actions.
Randall Hinton
Randall Hinton is an important figure not mentioned in The Program, who co-founded the WWASP-affiliated Royal Gorge Academy boarding school in Canon City, Colorado.
As reported by the Canon City Daily Record, a jury found Hinton guilty of third-degree assault and false imprisonment (one count each). But during that trial, they also found him not guilty on four other counts of third-degree assault and one count of false imprisonment.
Ivy Ridge Student Arrests
As detailed in The Program by a couple of the victims (per The New York Times), 12 teen students were arrested and jailed after a massive riot at Ivy Ridge after one teen pulled the fire alarm in the boys' dormitory in 2005.
Destroying windows and furniture before fighting past guards, the students attempted to escape the facility before multiple law enforcement agencies stopped the riot, leading to the arrests.
The Program: Cons, Cults, and Kidnapping is now streaming in full on Netflix.
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