Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > The Seed Discussion Forum

Looking for history on Congressional Hearings on The Seed

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Anonymous:
Does anyone know any of the history behind why Congress even ended up hearing about The Seed? I am talking about Senator Sam Ervin's thing, 1974 I think. Some LEA grants or something like that came up? Wait it must have been in the Senate not the House. Course the $64,000 question is what today would compel Congress to hear about the Seed and Straight copycat programs still running.

GregFL:
Hope this helps. If you need more, let me know.

(emphasis and bold text mine)


The Broward news, Saturday, December 15, 1973

Dennis Holder and James Trotter, herald staff writers.




A US. Senate subcommittee on constitutional rights has begun a preliminary inquiry into the operations of The Seed, a Broward County drug rehabilitiation center, based on complaints made against the Seed's program,, a subcommitte spokesman has disclosed.
"our office has received a number of complaints about The Seed", said Dorothy Glancy, a staff spokesman for the subcommitte which has U.S. Sen Sam Erwin as its chariman. "many people have written and enclosed newpaper articles that raise some questions about this particular program."

However, Miss Glancy said the inquiry is "only in an information gathering stage", with most of the information being sought from the department of Health, Education and Welfare (Hew) about the Seed's grant application process.

" Our own committee's concern is with the constitutional rights of people in the program, not with its effectiveness or success rates or anything like that", Miss Glancy said.  "we are trying to determine whether people put into the program ought to be given the right to submit voluntarily or decline to submit to  program aimed at behavior modification."

The issues involved are basically the individual right of privacy and the right to decide about behavior or attitude modification individually", she said.  "also, of course, there are several questions that have bveen raised recently and are being debated concerning the rights of juveniles."

Art Barker, the director the The Seed program, would not be reached Friday for comment.

The seed, which utilizes a rigorous, encounter-type peer pressure program in dealing with the drug problems of young people, has been both praised and criticized during its more than three years of existence.  Last year, a comprehsensvie state evalution of the program commended the program in part, but disputed its claims of success.

Miss Glancy said the complaints received by the Ervin subcommittee gave the appearance that "the consitutional rights of some of the juveniles being committed to this program may have been violated or are being violated"..

"In a recent decision in federal court in Pennsylvania, a program that sounds a lot like this one was declared unconstituional". Miss Glancy said. "we don't have enough information to know exactly how similar this Seed program is to the program in that case.

"the Decision in that case, though, talked abouty these issues of privacy and juvenile rights that we are talking aobut,"she said.

The Seed will begin its third year of operation under a federal grant Feb 1. Jimn Heising, public information officer for the drug abuse grant, said the Seed application "is in the process of being reevaluated for its third-year term.

"we have no problem with them at the present time, and I anticipate the grant will be renewed as scheduled,". Heising said.

The Seed program began opeating as the a rehabilitation center for alchololics and drug users and gradually focused its attention on youthful drug users.

The program moved from a small church house in Fort Lauderale to larger quarters at the former home of the Cromarty family on Andrews Avenue.  As the program grew in popularity, it found still larger quarters on State Road 84 on a 20 acre compound paid for by the program's hundreds of supporters.

Still later Barker decided to expand the program to serve Dade County and found a home in an airport hanger at Opa-Locka Airport.  when the program outgrew those quarters it moved its Dade facility at Tropical Park Racetrack.

Three months ago Barker announced that he would pull his program from Dade County because the drug rehabilitation "establishment" was jealous of his program and sought to deprive it of federal funds.  In the process he had a stormy confrontation with Metro Mayor Jack Orr.

Barker has since established satellite Seed programs in St. Peterburg and has plans to establish them in other Florida cities as well.

GregFL:
Just a tag line to this story, this was the beginning for the end of Art's dream to have a seed in every community. Up until this point, the growth rate of the seed had been phenomenal.  It all started going downhill from here.

WWFSMD:
Wow, I hadn't seen that before.  Thanks Greg.  This part just cracks me up  "Three months ago Barker announced that he would pull his program from Dade County because the drug rehabilitation "establishment" was jealous of his program and sought to deprive it of federal funds."

Talk about delusional!
What is ominous is the ease with which some people go from saying that
they don't like something to saying that the government should forbid it. When you go down that road, don't expect freedom to survive very long.
--Thomas Sowell
--- End quote ---

GregFL:
Here is an article that predates the Broward article by 13 days, and I think is a little more telling of the "issues", and was written by two of my childhood heroes to boot!

(empasis and bold mine}



U.S. Zeroes in on Seed Money, Methods

St Petersburg Times
city and state section,
Sunday, December 2, 1973

By Eleanor Randolph and Margaret Leonard


Committees of both houses of the U.S. Congress have begun investigations of the financing and methods of the Seed, Inc., a controversial Florida program that uses intensive peer pressure to change attitudes and habits of adolescents.

U.S. Sen Sam Ervin, D-N-C, has prompted one of the inquires to determine whether the consitutional rights of juveniles are being violated by the program.

Staff members of the Senate subcommittee on Constitutional Rights said the inquiries were started at the request of Ervin, who has been know for years as one of the senate experts on the U.S. Constitution.

At the same time, another investigation to find out whether the national institute of mental health (NIMH) has granted the Seed $1.4 million in federal funds without adequately evaluating the quality of the program.

Staff members of both committees said the investiagations were started independent of each other more than a month ago.  The congressional inquiries  about the program, however, have come just as NIMH is reviewing as much as $900,000 in additional requests from Seed programs in three Florida cities.  And one staff member said privately that there is a possibly that the committe requests could delay the NIMH decisions on the Seed.

Ervin's Press secretary, Hall Smith, would not allow reporters from the times to talk to the senator. But Smith did confirm that Ervin's interest in rights for juveniles and his fear of behavior modification (changing a person's behavior by using punishment and rewards) sparked the staff investigation.  One of the staff lawyer's for Ervin's subcommittee on Constitutional rights , Ms. Dorothy Glancy, said the committee has learned so far that NIMH did not ask for legal "assurance" from Seed president Art Barker that rights "seedlings" as participants are called, are not being violated."

Ervin's subcommittee is trying to determine whether youngsters are being placed in the Seed without their permission or without access to a lawyer if they want one, Ms Glancy said, a second question is whether programs such as the Seed are violating a peron's rights by changing his behavior without his permission.


Behavior Modification can involve the possibility of violating the privacy of an individual whose behavior is being modified , she said.

Art Barker, who says 5000 Seedlings so far have participated in the Florida program, established his program three years ago to treat drug abusers or potential drug abusers.

The program has been criticized, especially by the Health Planning council in Dade County, for its secrecy, its methods of changing behavior of youngsters and its use of pressure through influential parents of Seedlings.

Barker, who could not be reached for comment after repeated tries five days last week, boosts a 90 per cent cure rate for Seedlings who go to group sessions that involve tearing down a youngsters "bad" or "druggie personality and replacing it with such things as obedience to parents and teachers.

So far, about 800 to 1000 Seedlings have participated in the Seed program in Pinellas County. (my note....this after 5 months, most were still on the program)

The program, inspires strong feelings-parents who believe Barker has saved their youngsters from drug addiction and others who believe that he is turning youngsters into robots.

The House committee doing its preliminary study-the committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce-also oversees federal health programs including the NIMH.

Staff members for the committee said privately that the Seed program is being used as an example to determine whether NIMH is financing drug programs without evaluating the "quality of care" for those treated.


But rep Paul Rogers, D-FLA, a member of the House Commerce Committee, said the investiagtion eventually probably will cover a number of drug programs "to see which approaches are effectivce and which are not".

Rogers, who helped The Seed obtain its initial NIMH financing in Fort Lauderale, said the committee will lookinto the fiscal accountability of programs receiving public money as well as the effectiveness of the programs.

"Funds ought to be accounted for all the time", he said. "they should be constantly subjected to accountability and we are interested in the results".

Rogers is chairman of the subcommittee on Public Health and Environment, which oversees federal health programs.

The committee staff, according to one staff member, also plans to do its own evaluation of the Seed for comparison with the NIMH evaluation.

The Times has tried unsuccessfully during the past two months to obtain copies of any evaluation of The Seed by NIMH, which is a federal institute under the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.

A staff member of the House committee said it also is studying whether Barker of the Seed needs ethe federal funds or can operate on private sources.

"we'd like to know whether NIMH has made any attempt to find out whether its true (that barker has enough money without federal help), a committee staff member said. "and if it is, why they gave him the money".

Staff members from both committees said their inquiries are only in the early stages at this point and they are unable to estimate when ther ecould be some committee action on the Seed.

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