The RPF is essentially a punitive slave-labor prison for $cientology staff considered to be unproductive, disobedient, or security risks.
Inmates eat leftover food scraps, without utensils, after non-RPF staff finish eating, and are not allowed to speak to them unless first spoken to.
They are then only to answer briefly, always addressing their betters as "sir." RPFers are dressed in uniform overalls and have to run wherever they go. Their quarters are the worst - often filthy and roach-infested. The RPF continues to this day as one of several parts of the "Church" of $cientology hidden from "public PCs" and "wogs" outsiders).
According to $cientology dogma, confining someone in the RPF is a benevolent act. RPFers are considered insane, loaded with "evil purposes"
causing them to commit "overts" (harmful acts), and therefore they have many "withholds" (undisclosed overts). The RPF is their last chance at redemption.
Some that have left $cientology after being RPFed tell of having to fabricate overts, writing them up to appease the Ethics Officer, to prove they were being rehabiliated. A common reason for being RPFed is the decision to leave the cult. According to Hubbard: "People leave because of their own overts and withholds. The only reason anyone has ever left Scientology is because people failed to find out about them." By this reasoning, the Jews fled Nazi Germany because of their hidden offenses against Hitler.
The degree of degradation experienced in the RPF is difficult to comprehend. Hubbard, GOD to a believing $cientologist, in effect is telling you that you are subhuman, evil, degraded. Long periods of confinement at hard labor, with poor nutrition, little sleep, and no toilet facilities are common practice. According to former Hubbard aide Gerald Armstrong: "There is no way to really describe the RPF experience, the hopelessness, the humiliation, the horror. It seemed to go on forever, the days all identical, no time to oneself, the same blue boiler suits like prison garb, day after day, the same questions in the same endless security checks [gruelling interrogation sessions on a lie-detecting e-meter]. Hubbard's purpose in creating the RPF, running it as a prison with assignees considered criminals, was the breaking of peoples' wills, the total subjugation of anyone he considered exhibited 'counter intention' to his goals. He achieved his purpose with me so well that I thanked him for the opportunity of doing the RPF, much like prisoners of war, who are broken emotionally and spiritually through deprivation and mind control techniques, thank their captors."
From THE CODE OF A SCIENTOLOGIST by L. Ron Hubbard:
[This hypocritical "code" helps motivate $cientology's criticism of psychiatry. It is an excellent illustration of criminals diverting attention from themselves with idealistic bullshit and by exposing the crimes of others. We are supposed to think this crusading "church" is above the very conduct it condemns in others.] 4) "To decry and do all I can to abolish any and all abuses against life and mankind."
5) "To expose and help abolish any and all physically damaging practices in the field of mental health."
7) "To bring about an atmosphere of safety and security in the field of mental health by eradicating its abuses and brutality."
20) "To make this world a saner better place."
And $cientology's brutal, abusive RPF serves these purposes??