Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) / Warren Jeffs

The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) is the largest Mormon-fundamentalist polygamist organisation, descended from a 1929–1935 schism with the mainstream LDS Church over the latter's 1890 Manifesto formally ending plural marriage. The FLDS settled the twin border towns of Hildale, Utah and Colorado City, Arizona (then called Short Creek), where the religion's prophet-presidents — John Y Barlow, Leroy S Johnson, Rulon Jeffs, and from 2002 Warren Jeffs — exercised effectively total control over residents through the 'United Effort Plan' communal property trust that owned virtually all land and housing.

Warren Steed Jeffs (born 1955) assumed the prophet presidency on his father Rulon's death in 2002 and immediately tightened control. Within his first three years he excommunicated and exiled hundreds of men (including his own brothers and uncles), reassigned their wives and children to other men, and dramatically expanded the practice of marrying underage girls to older married men. The 'lost boys' phenomenon — teenage boys exiled to reduce competition for the limited pool of marriageable women — was documented in multiple legal and journalistic investigations 2003–2008.

In 2004 Jeffs began constructing the Yearning for Zion (YFZ) Ranch near Eldorado, Texas as a relocation site for the most-trusted FLDS families. In April 2008 Texas authorities raided the YFZ Ranch and took 462 children into temporary state custody following a hoax phone call. The Texas Supreme Court ordered the children returned, but the evidence gathered at the ranch — including marriage records and a temple where Jeffs allegedly consummated marriages with underage girls — supported subsequent criminal prosecutions. In August 2011 Jeffs was convicted in Texas state court of two counts of child sexual assault (the youngest victim was 12) and sentenced to life plus 20 years. He remains incarcerated at the Powledge Unit in Palestine, Texas.

Despite imprisonment, Jeffs continues to lead FLDS through 'revelations' communicated to followers via his brother Lyle Jeffs and other lieutenants. Documented patterns 2011–2025 include: continuing forced underage marriages (multiple Utah and Arizona prosecutions); SNAP food-stamp fraud rings to fund the organisation (2016 federal indictments of 11 FLDS leaders including Lyle Jeffs); the United Effort Plan trust seized by Utah and Arizona courts but residents continuing under FLDS doctrine; documented psychological abuse of women and children including ritual humiliation and severance threats; and the 'keep sweet, pray and obey' indoctrination phrase that became the title of the 2022 Netflix documentary series. Estimated current membership is 6,000–10,000 with significant attrition since 2002.

The CLCI 37 (Extreme, top quartile) reflects total information control (members forbidden from internet, television, secular books), comprehensive behaviour control (clothing, marriage, employment, residence, food), complete thought-replacement (Jeffs's revelations as sole legitimate doctrine), and severe emotional manipulation (severance threat, child reassignment, exile). FLDS is the paradigm case of a high-control religious organisation in contemporary North America.