Prison/Industry: Same MO

[Deborah]

It happened that I spent some time with someone I hadn't seen in a number of years. He divulged that he had been in prison for Meth trafficing.
He was bounced from prison to prison for two years and stayed six months at the last one, primarily for 'rehab', then three months in a half-way house.

As he was sharing I sensed that he was watching my reactions. I gave him my opinion on the 'war on drugs' and the gate opened wide.
What he related about 'prison rehab' was exactly what's happening in the teen hurt industry.

He was told to write a ten-page account of his history. He refused and told them it wasn't anyone's damn business. That he'd share what he felt was relevant with the counselor he was required to see, but he wasn't writing his history. He considered the 'counseling' to be a waste of time- counselor didn't have an 'inkling'. He was eventually pressured into writing that history, so he made up a dandy tale which they gladly accepted as the truth.

He also related that he was pressured into admitting that he was an alcoholic, even though he had never had a problem with alcohol. He said he was accused of being in 'denial' everytime he claimed to have no problem with alcohol. He eventually caved. It's not like they really have a choice if they hope to ever get out. So, part of his FOURTEEN YEAR 'AFTER CARE' program is that he must attend AA, in addition to weekly counseling sessions, and visits to a PO. In addition to those obligations, he is supposed to support himself and is now being pressured to attend college. His 'therapist' is pushing him to go to school to become a drug/alcohol counselor on a special pell grant program. Apparently, the money is there, provided you complete the training. If you bail, you repay it. Not so with regular pell grants. While in rehab prison, he was in educational classes all day long and was 'sick' of school.

I shared some about the industry and how the MO is identical. He looked relieved to be heard and understood.

Big business.... So the 'treatment' for Meth trafficing is 2.5 years in prison/rehab, 3 months in a half-way house, 14 years 'after-care', and monitoring.

Interesting comment he made... that the person administering the 'drug test' should also have to take one. We were interrupted and he didn't elaborate.

[Antigen]

I've heard similar things from a lot of people. Tell your friend to check into first amendment objections to AA. Every court that has ever heard a case on the question has agreed that AA is a religion and, therefore, the government cannot compel participation. There's a decent group on yahoo called 12-step-coercion-watch; at least it was decent a couple of years ago when I used to read it regularly.

When we are pleading with foreign governments to stop the flow of cocaine, it is the height of hypocrisy for the US to export tobacco.  Years from now, our nation will look back on this application of free trade policy and find it scandalous.

1989 testimony before the US Trade Representative,September 1989
--Surgeon General, Everett Koop

[Anonymous]

The thing that is striking me here is the 10-page history. Might as well be the confession required in communist brainwashing, or the complete lack of privacy expected of the German citizen in the Nazi era, or the forced confessions extracted from children in the American gulags. When Die Stadt starts gettin all up in people's personal business, things are going REEL wrong.

[Antigen]

Well yeah!

Forced treatment = Stlinist reeducation

The inspiration of the Bible depends on the ignorance of the person who reads it.
--Robert G. Ingersoll, American politician and lecturer

[Truth Searcher]

Interesting topic.  I have a family member who has been in and out of the penal system for 20 something years.  His biggest complaint is that the "system" does not rehabilitate.  It only incarcerates.  He is no closer to being clean after a prison stay than he is the day he was locked up.  In fact, we have been told by many reliable sources that drugs are as available and prevalent in the prison as they are on the street.  But, I digress.

I just wanted to comment that in our families experience, the prison does not even attempt to rehabilitate (other than the occasional AA meeting).

[Antigen]

And do you think he'd be any better off if, in addition to incarceration, they had a pack of berserkers on him all the time? I dont'.

We can easily forgive a child who is afraid
of the dark. The real tragedy of life is
when men are afraid of the light.
--Plato