Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > Facility Question and Answers

anybody ever hear of Abraxas?

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seamus:
supposed to have been a "tough love" program in PA. Back in the seventies? Forest County? PA. or so Ive been told.

Inculcated:
They're that and then some now...

Abraxas: another Synanon spawn that according to the paper quoted and linked below relies heavily on remand placements. Their reach has extended well beyond their PA origins.
Ursus once mentioned, the woman who formed Abraxas came out of Gateway. Like how Joe Ricci came through Daytop and then formed Élan. Like how David Deitch came off of the Narcotic Farm and sought out Synanon (from where he was reportedly “expelled from”) and then (with Casriel) brought that same indelible influence to Judge Bassin and Monsignor O’Brien’s Daytop Village…and after he was ousted (for of all things being a bit too culty)…he then went on with Phoenix house (‘didn’t stop there though) and then well that was a rocky marriage, but ultimately they reconciled…for the sake of the offspring I suppose. I digress...

From page 170 of Compulsory Treatment of Drug Abuse Research and Clinical Practice(numbered 163 and 164)

--- Quote ---“Adolescent Legal Referrals
Among admissions to drug-free treatment, younger clients are more likely to be legally referred than adults. For example, nearly half of all male adolescent admissions to residential and outpatient programs
in the TOPS survey were legally referred (Hubbard et al. 1984).
At Phoenix House, approximately 40 percent of the adolescent admissions are legally referred, compared with less than 20 percent of adult clients. Indeed, there are TCs that serve legally referred adolescents almost exclusively, e.g., Abraxas in Pennsylvania. Findings are unclear for post-treatment outcomes of legally referred adolescent substance abusers.
--- End quote ---
Additionally:

Reported in a related article as a "California company", Cornell Corrections of California, which also does business as Abraxas Youth and Family Services sued the State of Utah after losing out on a multi-million dollar contract to Cornerstone Programs Corp

Related to Cornell Abraxas we have:

--- Quote ---September 29, 2005 Baltimore Sun
Two Maryland judges said yesterday that the Ehrlich administration's decision to close the Charles H. Hickey Jr. School without a clear plan to replace it is jeopardizing the welfare of youths and putting public safety at risk. Baltimore County Circuit Judge Kathleen Cox and Anne Arundel Circuit Judge Pamela North told legislators that with Hickey preparing to close, there are not enough places to send tough young offenders who need to be removed from their homes to protect their safety and the community. The department said some Maryland youths will be sent to programs in Texas, Iowa, Indiana, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Ohio with rates ranging from $47,450 to $116,800 per child per year. The list includes three facilities run by a for-profit Texas-based company that, according to published reports, was forced to close one of its centers amid complaints of abuse. Under pressure from Pennsylvania authorities, a company operating as Cornell Abraxas closed its New Morgan Academy near Reading in 2002 after about a dozen children were sexually assaulted by adults over the span of less than two years, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The same company runs programs that the Department of Juveniles Services plans to use in Shelby, Ohio; Marienville, Pa.; and South Mountain, Pa., according to a list provided to legislators yesterday. Another facility on the list has had a more recent, but less severe, incident of violence. The Summit Academy reform school in Herman, Pa., has said that four workers were fired in July over a June 18 incident in which a 17-year-old male student suffered cuts to his face and ear. http://www.privateci.org/maryland.htm
--- End quote ---

Topix reports: "Two riots break out at Abraxas school" see also
More than a dozen juveniles are involved in incidents Monday and Tuesday. More than a dozen juveniles were involved in separate riots that broke out this week at Cornell Abraxas I in Marienville
22 comments on topix here

And from Abraxas Youth and Family Services in Texas we have:
Youth worker reportedly spent weekend having sex with teen

mlg81:
I worked at Abraxas for approximately three weeks, and what I saw was horrible.
The one I was at was the one in Pittsburgh.  Its for Adolescent females. Most of the girls are from Philly.  Alot of stuff going on with them.  Anyways, the girls had to ask for everything.  We couldnt talk to them unless they put a piece of paper outside the door.  Therapy was a joke.  No one got one on one time with counselors.  It was just horrible.   I saw at least 3 restraints being done every day.  Some girl broke her leg.  I actually got in trouble for NOT RESTRAINING a girl.  I would just talk and bullshit with them and they would listen.    Most of my girls were so damaged already that they were just crazy.  Abraxas messes them up even more.  It was so bad I would cry everyday before work.  I finally quit.  I wanted to help those girls but it was impossible to do in that hellhole.

Oscar:
Unfortunately we are not that far with the datasheet on the wiki.

We are in the process of doing some archive search on Google, so the article can expended and possible some of their departments can earn their own datasheet in due time. It will take some time.

Ursus:

--- Quote from: "Inculcated" ---Ursus once mentioned, the woman who formed Abraxas came out of Gateway. Like how Joe Ricci came through Daytop and then formed Élan. Like how David Deitch came off of the Narcotic Farm and sought out Synanon (from where he was reportedly "expelled from") and then (with Casriel) brought that same indelible influence to Judge Bassin and Monsignor O'Brien's Daytop Village…and after he was ousted (for of all things being a bit too culty)…he then went on with Phoenix house ('didn’t stop there though) and then well that was a rocky marriage, but ultimately they reconciled…for the sake of the offspring I suppose. I digress...
--- End quote ---
Her name is Arlene Lissner and yes, she did have a fair amount to do with the addiction treatment TC Gateway Foundation (orig. Gateway Houses Foundation c. 1968). Incidentally, David Deitch also helped set this TC up, right around the same time as when he did his magic for Daytop Village and Phoenix House.

Although I believe Lissner's first exposure to Gateway may have been as a client, she was soon enough serving the government of Illinois in some professional capacity, i.e., one having to do with drug abuse treatment and/or administration.

In case it wasn't clear, Gateway is located in Illinois, but they have projects/programs in other states as well. They run the Texas prison program that wdtony likens to Straight, Inc.

Briefly, Lissner founded Abraxas in Marienville, PA in 1973. It was a small drug abuse treatment TC, dedicated to the addiction treatment of juveniles, but perhaps not exclusively. I think they had 30 residents in the beginning. They were absorbed by Cornell Corrections, Inc., at Lissner's initiative, shortly after the Welfare Reform Act was pushed through during Clinton's term in the latter half of 1996. This Act made economic survival real difficult for some private non-profit social services programs.

Lissner courted a deal which enabled her program to continue operations, semi-autonomously, within the larger framework of the for-profit corrections corporation. She also started a small research foundation which she still heads, at least as of a few years ago, which is also somehow connected to Cornell Corrections, Inc.

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