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2 Logan County Residential Child Care Centers Shut Down
Kidz Ark Licenses Suspended In State, County Criminal Investigation
ABC7 News Colorado Written by Wayne Harrison, Web Editor POSTED: 3:16 pm MDT July 15, 2011

STERLING, Colo. -- State operating licenses for two Logan County residential child care centers for children had their licenses suspended Friday.

The Kidz Ark centers house a total 62 children, according to Liz McDonough, with the Colorado Department of Human Services.

By Friday afternoon, all but six of the children had been put in alternative care facilities. State Human Services staff will stay until the remaining children are removed.

A criminal investigation has also been launched into the facilities outside Sterling and at New Raymer, according to McDonough. She would not say what type of criminal investigation had been launched or what prompted the investigation but did say the Logan County sheriff is conducting the probe.

The New Raymer facilities is a ranch for boys, according to the Kidz Ark website.
The Kidz Ark Centers also had licenses for day treatment, McDonough said. The centers were notified Thursday that their licenses were going to be suspended.

"They cannot undertake any activity that a child care license is required," McDonough said.
A series of issues over the last year led to Friday's suspension, according to McDonough.
A hearing will be scheduled in the coming months, after Logan County Human Services and Sheriff's Department investigations are completed.

The Kidz Ark website describes the company as a therapeutic residential child care facility, specializing in the treatment of troubled children. Children being treated range in age from 10 to 18, according to the Kidz Ark website.
"We have specific qualifications and experiences which enable us to meet the needs of severely damaged children, including children with developmental disabilities," the website states. "The majority of all our kids have been violently abused or grossly neglected."

Img viewable here
Utah youth counselor charged with sexually abusing troubled teensJun. 24, 2011 12:04 AM ET JENNIFER DOBNER, Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A counselor at a southern Utah residential center for troubled teens has been charged with eight counts of forcible sex abuse for reported assaults on what authorities now say could be as many as seven children.

Garfield County prosecutors filed at total of 10 criminal charges against Eric Allen Glosson, 28, of Tucson, Ariz., on Monday, a day after his arrest at the Silverado Academy in Panguitch, Utah, about 250 miles south of Salt Lake City.

By Thursday, the Academy, which is owned by former Utah U.S. Senate candidate Tim Bridgewater, had also been sued in Utah's federal court by the families of three boys from Georgia, Michigan and Nevada who claim they were abused by Glosson.

One of the boys left Silverado several weeks ago and is not among the alleged victims linked to the criminal case, said Colin King, an attorney for the families.

The lawsuit contends the boarding school failed to adequately supervise Glosson or protect the children.

Bridgewater declined to comment on the lawsuit Thursday, saying he had not yet seen it.

Glosson, who is being held on $130,000 cash bond in the Garfield County Jail, is not named in the civil lawsuit.

In addition to the eight second-degree felonies, he is charged with an additional second-degree felony count of custodial sexual relations with a youth receiving state services and a third-degree felony charge of dealing in materials harmful to minors.

A message left for defense attorney Dale Sessions, who was appointed to represent Glosson during an initial court appearance on Thursday, was not immediately returned.

A preliminary hearing is set for July 7 in Panguitch's 6th District Court.

Court papers filed by Garfield County prosecutors don't specify the number of victims alleged in the case but contend that Glosson had sexual contact with youth residents on at least nine occasions between April 10 and June 18.

Garfield County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Becky Bronson said she believes investigators have identified seven victims, all boys, and are continuing to conduct interviews with Silverado's youth residents.

Glosson passed a criminal background check, which included an examination of the state child and elder abuse databases on May 11, said Utah Department of Health and Human Services spokeswoman Elizabeth Sollis. The checks are required for employees of any state licensed facility where employees work with or have contact with children, she said.

The allegations of abuse will prompt an investigation of both Glosson and Silverado, which also secures its licensing to operate through the human services department, Sollis said.

"We'll look to see what happened, how it's possible that these things could have taken place and just look to see what violations occurred (by Silverado), if any, " Sollis said.

Sollis said Silverado's facility for boys has been licensed since 2006 and one for girls was licensed in 2009. All licenses are current and the state has never taken disciplinary or formal corrective actions against the facilities, she said.

The civil complaint states Glosson was hired as a coach at Silverado sometime before 2010, despite having no formal training. Attorneys for the families say Glosson's employment was terminated within months over concerns that he was "being too close with teenagers in the program or was otherwise inappropriate with the teenagers given his supervisory role."

Glosson was later rehired as a coach and athletic coordinator and again placed in a position of trust over teens, the lawsuit says. The families allege their children were abused on multiple occasions in classrooms and in Glosson's room.

"Due to the absence of appropriate oversight, supervision and security policies, procedures and practices, Mr. Glosson was allowed to have repeated access to and time with individual students privately, in multiple locations and settings, including students over whom he was not a coach and had no supervisory duties," the lawsuit states.

Glosson used a variety of tactics to discourage students from reporting the abuse, including threatening to prevent students from advancing to the next level of programming, along with "bribery, physical force, intimidation and deceit," according to the lawsuit.

It contends that Silverado managers also told one student not to disclose the abuse to his parents during a Father's Day telephone call.

The lawsuit states that Silverado managers also knew that Glosson had spoken to police about an allegation of abuse from an Arizona boy but continued to let him work with students at the school.

The families are seeking a minimum of $75,000 in damages and are suing the school for breaching its fiduciary duty, negligent employment and emotional distress.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, Silverado said it reported the abuse allegation to police the same day it was reported to the agency.

"We are cooperating fully with the ongoing investigation," it said.

The complaint states Silverado's program costs between $4,000 and $7,000 each month and students are enrolled for a minimum of six months.

Biblical Reform School Discipline: Tough Love or Abuse?
Missouri Baptist Reform Schools Accused by Mothers of Harsh Punishment and Deprivation BY SUSAN DONALDSON JAMES April 12, 2011

This article covers the story of a woman who survived. What she survived was aided and abetted and concealed by her church for years. The Independent Fundamentalist Baptist Church. Some will recognize the IFB from their http://www.newbeginningsgirlsacademy.com/

The accompanying 20/20 news video which covers some of the abuses endemic to the IFB is a must view. “If you’re not bruising the child you’re not spanking the child enough”

Her entire life was the church. “It was the only world she knew”. A young girl was instructed by her pastor that god wanted her to go to the prison and announce forgiveness to the step-father (longtime IFB member) who severely beat and molested her—after he (Daniel Leif) was sent to prison a second time for molesting another young girl.  The instilling of guilt shame and subjugation of women by her abusive step-father and the adults who continually failed her caused her to be vulnerable to another perpetrator. At fifteen she was raped by Ernie Willis. She believed at that time that “a good Christian doesn’t press charges”. A month later, Ernie Willis raped her again. She didn’t tell until she found out she was four months pregnant.She says she still struggles to forgive herself. Her pastor “showed her a passage in Deuteronomy that said if a girl doesn’t cry out she obviously was a part of it” and that she was “lucky she didn’t live in old testament times or she would’ve been stoned”. Pastor Phelp’s wife Linda asked Tina if she enjoyed being raped and Tina was asked to write a statement asking congregation members to forgive her for “allowing the compromising situation to occur” (the rape) and to read it aloud as discipline before the congregation. She was humiliated. Some members of the congregation were horrified and disgusted to hear pastor Phelps read a statement about this child’s immorality. Eventually CPS was called in and the exploitation of the child was reframed again as a tryst. Her own mother (who is still married to the registered sex offender who also raped her daughter from ages 9-11) was complicit in the cover-up. Tina was then sent to live in the Pastor’s home—the so called prophet’s chamber. Shortly thereafter she was banished to live with another IFB family she had never met (The rapist Ernie Willis paid for her airfare). Here Pastor Matt Olson instructed her to write another letter in which she was to apologize to her rapist’s wife for betraying her trust.

The videos continue on to describe a culture of rampant sexual abuses inflicted on young women covered up by the IFB and church sanctioned physical violence

See also http://baptistthinker.wordpress.com/201 ... b-culture/

It occurred to me to toss this out here for anyone who is interested. ...and yes, as with all references one must consider the source (in this case CHS).
Nevertheless even simply a skim of the table of contents provides an informative summary on the context of and development (beyond just connections between direct Synanon influences and antecedents) toward the TC’s that are the primary topic of discussion here

Slaying the Dragon
The History of Addiction Treatment and Recovery in America

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Prologue: The Problem of Language

Section One: The Rise of Addiction and Personal Recovery Movement in the Twentieth Century
1. The Seeds of Addiction Medicine and Personal Recovery Movements
Early American Drinking
Benjamin Rush and the Birth of the American Disease Concept of Alcoholism
A New Republic on a Binge
The Rise and Evolution of the American Temperance Movement
Alcoholics and the Evolution in Temperance Philosophy
Pre-Washingtonian Involvement of Alcoholics in the Temperance Movement
From Individual Struggle to Shared Recovery
The Tortured Saga of Luther Benson
2. The Washingtonian Revival
Founding and Growth
The Washingtonian Program
John Hawkins and John Gough
The Washingtonian Demise
The Washingtonian Legacy
3. Fraternal Temperance Societies and Reform Clubs
The Reform Clubs
Osgood's Reformed Drinkers Club
Reynold's Red Ribbon Reform Clubs
Francis Murphy's Blue ribbon Reform Clubs
Reform Clubs' Operation and Spread
The Business Men's Moderation Society
Section Two: The Birth of Addiction Treatment in America
4. The Rise and Fall of Inebriate Homes and Asylums
Pre-Asylum Days: Care of the Addicted
The Earliest Institutions
Types of Institutions
Sponsorship and Financing
Relationship to Other Community Institutions
Early Professionalization: The American Association for the Cure of Inebriates
The Decline of the Inebriate Asylums
A Postmortem of the Inebriate Asylum Movement
Legacy
Summary
5. Inebriate Homes and Asylums: Treatment Philosophies, Methods, and Outcomes
The Staff
The Patients: Demographic Profile
The Patients: Clinical Profile
Treatment Philosophies
Major Treatment Methods
The Family and the Inebriate Asylum
Aftercare
Reported Treatment Outcomes
The Treatment of Alcoholism and Other Addictions in Women
6. Four Institutional Histories
The New York State Inebriate Asylum
The Boston Washingtonian Home
The Chicago Washingtonian Home
The San Francisco Home for the Care of the Inebriate
7. Franchising Addiction Treatment: The Keeley Institutes
Humble Beginnings to a National Phenomenon
Keeley: On the Causes of Inebriety
The Keeley Patients
The Keeley Staff
The Keeley Treatment
The Mail Order Business
The Keeley Leagues
Reported Treatment Outcomes
Other Gold Cures
Early Controversies and Critics
Turn of the Century Decline
The Later Keeley Years: 1900-1966
The Keeley Legacy
8. Miracle Cures of Alcoholism and Other Addictions
The Context
The Products
Promotional Schemes
Exposes and Legislative Reform
Continued Presence of Fraudulent "Cures"
Fraud as a Theme in the Early History of Treatment
9. Religious Conversions as a Remedy for Alcoholism
Religion and Recovery: Historical Roots
Skid Row, the Bowery and the Birth of the Rescue Mission
Jerry McAuley's Water Street Mission
The Salvation Army
America's Keswick Colony of Mercy
Early Professional Views on Religion and Recovery
Conversion and Recovery: The Ideas of William James
Later Professional Perspectives
Critics of Religious Approaches to Alcoholism Recovery
Section Three: Evolving Approaches to Alcoholism Treatment: 1860-1940
10. Alcoholism Treatment Settings: 1900-1940
The Inebriate Farm/Colony
Alcoholism and City Hospitals
Alcoholics in Local Psychopathic Hospitals and State Psychiatric Hospital
Drying Out the Rich and Famous: A Continuing Story
The Saga of Willie Seabrook
The Charles B Towns Hospital for the Treatment of Drug and Alcoholic Addictions
11. Physical Methods of Treatment and Containment
Physical Treatments for Alcoholism Between 1840 and 1950: An Overview
Eugenics: Sterilization and Benign Neglect
Natural Therapeutics
The Water Cures
Drug Therapies: 1860-1930
Convulsive Therapies
Psychosurgery and Addiction: The Lobotomy Era
Miscellaneous Treatments
12. Psychological Approaches to Alcoholism and Addiction Treatment
The Psychoanalytic Approach
The Emmanuel Clinic and the Lay Therapy Movement
Aversion Therapy: Early Efforts
Section Four: Treating Addictions to Narcotics and Other Drugs
13.The Treatment of Addiction to Narcotics and Other Drugs: 1880-1925
The Use of Cocaine as an Addiction Cure and Freud's Retraction
Cocaine, Morphine and the Father of American Surgery
Opiate Addiction as a Disease
Drug Treatments and Drug Cures Before the Harrison Act
Drug Treatment, The Harrison Act, Drug Enforcement and the Supreme Court
The Morphine Maintenance Clinics
14. The Treatment of Addiction to Narcotics and Other Drugs: 1925-1950
Voices of Protest
1920-1950: Medical Detoxification and Hidden Drug Maintenance
Dr. Thomas Ratigan, Jr.: Villain or Hero?
Phantastica and Narcotics Research: 1920-1935
The Federal Narcotic Farms
The Addiction Research Center
The World Outside Lexington and Ft. Worth
Section Five: A.A. and the Modern Alcoholism Movement
15. The Birth of Alcoholics Anonymous: A Brief History
Carl Jung and Rowland H.'s Failed Psychotherapy
The Oxford Group
The Oxford Groups, Ebby T. And Bill W.'s "Hot Flash"
Bill W. Meets Dr. Bob
A.A. Identity and Early AA. Group
Grandiose Visions
The "Big Book"
Early Rituals
The Period of Explosive Growth
A Maturing A.A.
Those Who Shaped the A.A. Treatment Relationship
16. The Program of Alcoholics Anonymous
Defining the A.A. Program
A.A. Steps and A.A. Practices
A.A. Experience and A.A. Logic
Identity Reconstruction Within A.A.
Reconstruction of Personal Relationships
Reconstruction of Daily Lifestyle Within A.A.
Reframing: The Curse that Became a Blessing
The Recovery Program of A.A. and Its Predecessors: Shared Characteristics
Innovations in A.A.'s Program of Recovery
A.A.'s Organizational Structure and Practices
A.A.'s Mission
A.A.'s Philosophy of Addiction
A.A.'s Prescription for Short- and Long-term Recovery
Carrying the Message of A.A. Recovery
Internal A.A. Relationships
Defining A.A. Membership
The Expected Duration of A.A. Participation
Power and Decision-making in A.A.
The Voice of A.A.
A.A. Relationships with Allied Fields and Related Causes
Managing Member Growth
Leader Development
Managing the Issues of Money, Property and Personal Ambition
Social Context and Organizational Endurance
17. A.A. Critics and A.A. Legacy
Stretching A.A.'s Gateway of Entry: Women and People of Color in A.A.
Were the experiences of women and people of color instrumental in shaping the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of A.A.?
Has A.A. adapted its program to address the special needs of women and people of color?
What is the degree of participation of women and people of color in A.A.
A.A.'s Place in History
18. A.A. and the Professional Care of Alcoholics: 1935-1960
Visions of A.A. Hospitals
The Knickerbocker Paradox: Actions of A.A. Versus Actions of A.A. Members
St. Thomas: The Beginning of a Model
Model Evolution: A.A. Involvement with Public and Private Hospitals
Model Extension: A.A. and Private Hospitals, Sanitaria
A.A. Members as Moral and Business Entrepreneurs
The Boundary Between Treatment and A.A.: The Story of High Watch
The Distinction Between A.A. and Treatment
A.A. and Alcoholism Treatment: A Synopsis
19. The "Modern Alcoholism Movement": The Core
The Context
The Alcohol and Alcoholism Movements
The Volatility of the Post-Repeal Period
Research Council on Problems of Alcohol
The Yale Center of Alcohol Studies
The National Committee for Education on Alcoholism
20. The "Modern Alcoholism Movement": The Periphery
Changing Medical Opinion on Alcoholics and Alcoholism
The Alcoholism Movement in the Workplace
Alcoholism Movement Within the Church
Municipal, State and Federal Responses to Alcoholism
R. Brinkley Smithers: Private Philanthropy and the Alcoholism Movement
The Role of A.A. and Recovered Alcoholics in the Alcoholism Movement
The Role of the Alcohol Beverage Industry in the Alcoholism Movement
The Legacies of the Alcoholism Movement
Origin of the Modern Disease Concept
Section Six: Mid-Century Addiction Treatment
21. The Birth and Spread of the "Minnesota Model"
Pre-A.A. History
The Beginning: The Story of Pat C.
Pioneer House
Hazelden: The Early Years
Willmar State Hospital
Hazelden: The Continuing Story
Further Minnesota Developments
Defining the Minnesota Model
Why Minnesota
The Spread of the Minnesota Model
Further Contributions of the Minnesota Model
22.Mid-Century Alcoholism Treatments
Organizational Activity in the Alcoholism Field: 1950-1960
Expanding Knowledge and Ideas About Alcoholism
Mid-Century Alcoholism Treatment: An Overview
A.A., Al-Anon, Alateen and Mutual Aid: 1950-1971
Other Mutual Aid Societies: Alcoholics Victorious and the Calix Society
23. Mid-Century Alcoholism Treatment: Treatment Methods
Hypnosis Revisited
Physical Methods of Alcoholism Treatment: An Overview
Nutrition, Alcoholism, and Vitamin Therapy
ACTH: Alcoholism and Endocrine Dysfunction
The Use of Tranquilizers, Anti-depressants, Mood Stabilizers, and Sedatives
Benzedrine in the Treatment of Alcoholism
Antabuse and Other Antidipsotroopics in the Treatment of Alcoholism
LSD and the Treatment of Alcoholism
Miscellaneous and Multi Drug Therapies
The Carbon Dioxide Treatment for Alcohol and Drug Addiction
Advances in Psychosocial Rehabilitation Technology
The Halfway House Movement
24. Mid-Century Addiction Treatment: The Rise of New Approaches
The Legal Context
Medical and Psychiatric Context
Juvenile Addiction: The Story of Riverside Hospital
Community-based Support of Institutionalized Addict
Religious Approaches to Addiction Recovery
Narcotics Anonymous
Synanon: The Birth of Ex-addict Directed Therapeutic Communities
The Therapeutic Community Movement
The Therapeutic Community: Treatment Methods
25. Mid-Century Addiction Treatment: Part Two
Civil Commitments
Methadone and Modern Narcotic Maintenance
The Methadone Critics
Methadone, Watergate and Federal Narcotics Control
Narcotics Antagonists
Multimodality Treatment Systems: The Story of the Illinois Drug Abuse Program
Lexington and Forth Worth: The Twilight Years
Section Seven: Addiction Treatment in the Late Twentieth Century
26. The Modern Evolution of Addiction Treatment
Reaching Critical Mass
The Cooperative Commission on the Study of Alcoholism
The Deluge of Addiction Treatment Legislation
Local Sponsorship and Organization
Two Worlds: Alcoholism and Drug Abuse
Early Programs: What it Was Like
Alcoholism: An Insurable Illness
Program Accreditation and Licensure
Three Worlds: Public, Private and Military
The Rebirth of Addiction Medicine
An Evolving Workforce
A Hidden Story: The Exploitation and Relapse of Recovering Alcoholics and Addicts
Professionalization: Training, Credentialing and Worker Certification
Explosive Growth
Early Intervention Programs
Recovery as a Cultural Phenomenon
Expansion and Diversification of Mutual Aid Societies
Competition, Profit, and Profiteering
Ethical Context and Breaches of Ethical Conduct
The Financial Backlash
The Ideological and Cultural Backlash
The Crash
A Panicked Field in Search of Its Soul and Its Future
27. Modern Addiction Treatment: Seminal Ideas and Evolving Treatment Technology
Eleven Seminal/Controversial Ideas
1. The Concept of Inebriety Reborn
2. From a Single to a Multiple Pathway Model of Addiction and Recovery
3. The Biology of Addiction
4. Toward a Developmental Model of Alcoholism Recovery
5. Addiction asa a Chronic Disease
6. The Continuum of Care Concept
7. Rethinking Motivation: Pain versus Hope
8. Needle Exchanges: A Harm Reduction Case Study
9. Natural Recovery, Spontaneous Remission and Maturing Out
10. The Question of Controlled Drinking and Drug Use
11. Codependency: Popularization and Backlash
Treatment of Special Populations and Treatment in Special Settings
The Public Inebriate
Changing Responses to the Drunk Driver
Gender Specific Treatment
Adolescent Treatment
The Employed Alcoholic/Addict
Treating Impaired Professionals
Treatment in the Military
Culturally Competent Treatment
The Addicted Offender
Treating Addicts with HIV/AIDS
The Multiple Problem Client
Modern Addiction Treatment Technologies
28. Parkside: A Rich Legacy and a Cautionary Tale
The Birth
Early Influences
The Early Program
Contrasts Between Lutheran General and Hazelden
The Treatment Team
The Role of the Alcoholism Counselor
The A.A. Treatment Center Relationship
Al-Anon and Family Programming
Early Diversification
Evaluation Research
Model Dissemination
Explosive Growth
Later Diversification
The Demise
Lessons and Legacies
A Lasting Legacy
29. Some Closing Reflections on the Lessons of History
Approaching History
Addiction Recovery
Addiction Science
The Rise of Treatment Institutions and Mutual Aid Societies
Observations on the Treatment Field
Treatment in Relationship to Community and Society
The Fall of Treatment Institutions and Mutual Aid Societies
The Future of Treatment
Final Words
Endnotes
Index
About the Author/CHS
Lighthouse Institute Publications

"Judge Bassin": “Harnessing the offender as a potential reform agent” [At Daytop] “They will train him how to be a change agent”
VIDEOTheraputic Communities As An Alternative to Prisions
Dr. Alexander Bassin discusses therapeutic communities at a conference on offender rehabilitation. Dr. Bassin co-founded Daytop Village.

Part Two goes into more information about Bassin than I have seen elsewhere and from himself, so I’ll include it here:

A World War II History Club has as its speaker Dr. Alexander Bassin, a former Army Corp. Of Engineer photo-mapping specialist. Dr. Bassin begins his speech discussing his W.W.II experiences. In this video, Chapter II, of his talk he explains how the G.I. Bill impacted his life and how as a probation officer after the war he was instrumental in co-founding the nation's most enduring drug rehabilitation program Daytop Village

He credits Lou Yablonsky for introducing him to Synanon.(13:13)shows a photo taken by Bassin that features Dr. Dan Casriel and two other fellows in front of Synanon House. In the course of this visit Dederich had an argument with Casriel about funding accountability which lead them to have to come up with an alternative route.
In this [Bassin's] version it was O’Brien who suggested that Deitch be brought in as he [Deitch] had had a falling out w/ Synanon and was available to replicate the model.This information as related by Bassin is at odds with accounts given by Monsignor  O’Brien and Deitch.

For some additional perspective on the Encounters within this topic see also Ursus’ thread APA Task Force Report: ENCOUNTER GROUPS AND PSYCHIATRY and participant's comments. See also T.AC.’s thread Synanon and current-day rehabs for Amity, Synanon and on n’ anon links

Nope, “The bizarre aspects” haven’t faded, but yes, they have endured. Here’s how to pretend it’s not what it is while still trying to preserve it in its new packaging

From "The History of encounter groups and the TC" as according to the (narrow revisionist history and account of the present TC scene) version presented by The Amity Foundation  here on Google dox.
[Excerpts Below]

Encounter Groups:Encounter Groups in the TC Where we’ve been, where we are today, and how we can improve groups for our staff members and our participants Rod Mullen Criminal Justice Institute October, 2004
TCs and Encounters:TCs are approaching their 50th Anniversary Over the past decade there has been enormous growth in TCs, with many new workers drawn into the field---a majority of which have no TC background, and many with no recovery background. Few of these have any group experience which is relevant to the TC. Many practitioners around the US as well as in California have observed that the quality of groups seems to be deteriorating.

Encounters have historically been at the center of the TCs—the most important tool of all using “collective formats to catalyze individual change.” If the quality of encounters deteriorates, we can expect the TC itself to be significantly less effective from the perspective of the participants—AND from the perspective of funders, who look at outcomes.
Many of TC practitioners today do not: have a good understanding of the evolution of encounter groups in the TC have an ability to communicate to new workers or to TC participants the importance of encounter groups. have an ability to teach/train/demonstrate the “basics” of encounters to new workers or TC participants.
This, then, is OUR challenge---to get a better understanding of encounter groups AND to figure out how to improve encounters throughout the TC initiative in California—the largest initiative in history aimed at substance abusing criminal offenders.
Evolution of the TC “Encounter” Initiated by Charles Dederich. Dederich was an AA “fanatic” who often verbally dominated AA meetings Living on the Venice beach on an unemployment check, he began having sessions in his apartment in the late 50?s, which he called a “line of no line”. In these groups Dederich varied from the format of AA meetings and began giving participants “feedback” on their behavior.
Synanon begins A couple of heroin addicts wandered into Dederich?s group of recovering alcoholics---and one of them stopped using drugs. Dederich decided to incorporate, first trying the TLC (Tender Loving Care) Club[My insert: Really? No seriously, Really? Oh, LOL!]—but the name was taken. He decided to use the name “Synanon.” Later, disturbed by the growing number of addicts, the alcoholics walked out of Synanon.
Primacy of the Group Note that the organization formed as a result of the group, not the other way around. Would that all of our present day TCs treat the encounter as the most important activity!! [My insert  ::puke:: ]Psychiatrists and psychologists, and all forms of mental health treatment were rejected, as they focused on insight—but seemed unable to change addicts negative behaviors. Dederich initially called his groups the “small Synanon”, and later, the “Synanon Game” to differentiate it from T-groups and therapy.
Uninhibited Conversation- In the Game, emphasis was on extreme and uncompromising candor.
Aggressive confrontation was the norm for groups (some early outside observers called it “attack therapy.” Emphasis was placed on the “here and now” (not on childhood or past trauma)—again a reaction against the psychiatric approach. (Lexington & Ft.Worth)

1) View then feedback observations of the videotape of Synanon “Games” at the Synanon facility in Santa Monica---1964
2) View then feedback observations of the videotape of Daytop Village groups and marathon excerpt—about 1967

The Synanon template Essentially all the tools/approaches/norms developed by Synanon between 1958 and 1966 became the template for the American therapeutic community movement. By 1972 the Ford Foundation reported over 2,000 organizations in the U.S. who traced their roots to Synanon.
Techniques Experienced “game players” “indicted” others in the “game” and used humor, exaggeration, contradiction, ridicule, appeals to authority, identification, ect. –to break through defenses. Emphasis was placed on “gut level” (vs. intellectualizing) communication—striving to break the image of the addict.
View videotape of Synanon Game at the Nevada State Penitentiary: 1964
Role models:Like AA, the TC philosophy explicitly stated that the only person to help an addict overcome his/her addiction was another addict. So encounter norms, methods, and techniques were taught by older members to newer members (as you can see in the videotapes)
[----Excerpts resuming at page 22 ]
Going beyond the 3 hour group Early on Dederich met others who were experimenting with long groups—?marathons?. He enthusiastically incorporated these into Synanon—and marathon groups and trips were developed, lasting up to 48 hours. Since Synanon was the template, many other contemporary TCs also used marathons (see the video excerpt of the marathon at Daytop Village)
Incorporating Insight The use of long groups, "probes", and marathons moved encounters from the “here and now” and into much deeper psychological waters. However, this very important aspect of TCs has virtually disappeared in the past couple of decades as the length of stay has become much shorter, labor laws much stricter, staff less experienced,
Encounters During this period---1958 to roughly 1985 TCs expanded, but encounters remained largely variations of the original model. But gradually TCs expanded to other populations—women, adolescents, dual-diagnosis clients---these changes in population, increased government regulation, and standards imported from mental health and clinical work led to hiring professional counselors, and changes in encounters.[My insert: Look, I’ve done my best to help them out with some spell checking, but clearly they need more emphasis on Fact checking!]
Self Disclosure In order to become “authentic” in one’s own eyes, it is necessary to have "sanctuary" in order to disclose real experiences without fear. Hence the saying, “I thought I had a secret, but in reality the secret had me.”

[My insert: Okay I’m out. This thing goes on for another twenty pages of straddling the author(s)’ conflict between their lament that shorter stays cause a paucity of status members experienced enough to facilitate the facilitator’s of encounter groups and the dwindling ranks of those promoted from within and their unique *qualifications* and that the “many new workers drawn into the field--a majority of which have no TC background-- many with no recovery background” seem to somehow be contributing to the “deterioration” of the *quality* of encounter groups... with their effort to re-present these “newer encounters” (as if in this context this focus on evolution implies that the  repackaged contents are evolved) ]
Additional DVDs with groups and other TC activities are available at the Amity Foundation website:www.amityfdn.org/shop

Quotes like this from a Trainer’s Manual [For how to sell the a kool-aid in a variety of flavors (it even tells who to cite) ] found on Google dox shows that the Amity authors apparently  dutifully followed the advised format and yields some priceless gallows humor LOLs as it imparts the likes as:

Present Synanon’s founding principles, which continue to apply to today’s TC, As Self- help and mutual self- help.
[and…]A belief that treatment should provoke “dissonance,” meaning discord or conflict, to individuals’ self- image so they are no longer comfortable with who they are.
Belief in the power of a therapeutic milieu or “total environment” geared to recovery
A unique encounter group process (originally called “the game”) based on the premise that when challenged, people examine themselves and learn new ways of behaving
A self- help community environment as an agent of change A holistic view of recovery. Add the phrases “create dissonance,” “encounter group,” “holistic view,” and “community” to the newsprint to emphasize the contributions Synanon made to today’s TC.
SynanonEmphasize that, as Synanon was evolving away from its original model of treatment for substance use disorders (and eventually closed altogether), other programs across the country adopted and adapted many of Sinnamon’s original principles.
Daytop Village and Phoenix HouseIdentify Daytop Village and Phoenix House as two well-known TCs that have been in existence since the 1960s and serve as model programs for today’s TCs.
Explain that Daytop Village, or Daytop, was founded in New York in 1963 by Monsignor William O’Brien, Dan Casriel, M.D., and David Deitch. Daytop currently has facilities in six States.
Describe the key features of the Daytop program as A phased system of treatment with the goal of returning the individual to the community Having a focus on right conduct and right living The first to use the term “therapeutic community” to describe the New York Daytop Village in 1965 Providing community treatment in prisons and jails since 1963.

For more info on the proliferation and dangers of these:Behavior: Hazardous EncountersTime Magazine Monday, Apr. 30, 1973
An excerpt from "The Politics of Transformation: Recruitment - Indoctrination Processes in a Mass Marathon Psychology Organization" located at Rick Ross.com  Published by St. Martin's Press 1993 By Philip Cushman, Ph.D.
Also: An article posted and linked by Ursus on Anne Bonney’s "LGATs/Encounter groups/Confrontational 'therapy' "thread Pathology as "Personal Growth": A Participant-Observation Study of Lifespring Training
 

Mounties spent years making case against Saskatchewan sexual predatorBy Barb Pacholik, Postmedia News November 6, 2010Read more:

REGINA — The two men, one a veteran police officer, had been talking about family and work, when the conversation took on a more introspective tone. At that point, Sgt. Gary Cross asked: "When life is all over here and you're up there to face the maker, what do you want to have done — the one thing you want to have completed before you leave this world?"
From across the table, Ron Sawa replied: "I think I've done it . . . Just what I've been doing. Helping people."
Sawa had been working at the Paul Dojack Youth Centre, formerly the Saskatchewan Boys School, for 16 years.

He joined the staff in 1973 as a parental care supervisor. Through the years, his responsibilities had grown to where he was overseeing dorms of teenage boys.
Now, in March 1989, Sawa had ended up in an interview room with Cross after Regina police stopped him outside his house. Sawa thought it was merely a traffic issue, some minor violation of the law.
It wasn't.
A teenage boy, who had recently been sent to the Dojack Centre after committing some break-ins, had seen Sawa there and recognized him. There was much the boy couldn't remember about the two encounters with Sawa at the man's house a couple of years earlier — but he remembered enough.
Sawa, on the other hand, initially told the police he couldn't recall the boy ever having been to his house.
The interview progresses and Cross asks Sawa once again: "So you don't recall him being at your house?"
"I shouldn't say 'recall,' " Sawa replies. "He may have been there. I don't know."
Cross then asks if Sawa remembers another, separate, incident nearly two decades earlier. "I see out there a report that indicates you've had a problem like this once before," Cross says. "Do you recall that?"
"Seventy-two," Sawa says, meaning the year, 1972. The other cop, he explains, the officer who had picked him up outside his house, had shown him the old police file.
The investigation in '72 hadn't gone anywhere — but now a boy had told police that, as a 14-year-old, he had gone twice to Sawa's house, where he blacked out after drinking large quantities of liquor, and come to without his clothes on.
In the interview room, Sawa is asked to rate his own level of honesty on a scale of zero to 100, "I'd say close to 100," he replies. "Maybe 90."
Did he, in fact, touch the teenage boy?
"I probably did," says Sawa. "I don't remember anything that he's saying."
Sawa acknowledges that he does remember the boy being at his house — but not in his bed or the shower with him as the youth is claiming.
Finally, Sawa admits that, yes, he "probably" did touch the boy. However, the contact was over the boy's clothes, he says, as they watched a show together on television.
Then asked if he'd had other boys at the house and done "this," Sawa twice denies it.
"You're sorry about this, are you?" Cross says.
"You bet," Sawa replies, and then, his voice trailing off, he adds: "Nothing since that . . ."
As he's leaving the interview room, Cross thanks Sawa for coming clean and wishes him luck. "I think this thing will work out fine for you in the end," Cross says, in feigned reassurance for a man the seasoned officer knows has just confessed.
Ronald Anthony Joseph Sawa, 39 years old at the time, was charged with sexually assaulting the teenage boy. Following a preliminary hearing, Sawa was committed to stand trial, but subsequently pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of common assault.
Sawa received an absolute discharge, but he did not escape unscathed. The charge prompted an internal investigation at the Dojack Centre. In 1989, the longtime employee lost his job.
Ron Sawa quietly walked away.—

Sixteen years later, in late 2005, a man we'll call "Bob" was at a Toronto detention centre when the captain called the prisoner over to a side room.
The captain held a fax in his hand, but before he could say anything, Bob spotted three words on the page: Saskatchewan Boys School.
"It was 30 years earlier, and I knew exactly what it was about," Bob would later tell a Regina courtroom
He was asked what had changed; why speak out now when he'd kept quiet for decades?
"What had changed? An RCMP officer who took the time to travel this country from east to west to look for all these people and put a lot of hard work into this case," he replied. "That's what changed my motivation . . . and my trust level, and telling him exactly what happened."
—
Over nearly 2 1/2 years, RCMP Cpl. Len Boogaard talked with a lot of "Bobs" — because of a court order, the victims can't be identified by their true names. Most of those conversations took place in this country's prisons and jails, where many of the men had passed much of their lives.
"You'd go to a penitentiary and you'd see these individuals," Boogaard recalls. "It's something like you would see on TV. They're the big, hard-assed-type cons with the tattoos and the muscle shirts. They walk in and they give you that look — basically, 'What-the-f are you doing here' type of thing.
"All I had to do was mention a name — the Saskatchewan Boys School, or the name of the individual — and all of a sudden, they were just like little kids. Their demeanour just broke down, the sobbing, the crying."
That name was Ron Sawa.
"There were some individuals that right then and there wanted to get it off their chest," Boogaard says. Others, despite being victims, had been on the other side of the criminal system for years — indeed still were — and they were loathe to break the cons' code of silence. "They were afraid of being labelled a rat," he adds.
Given time, some of those men also came forward with statements. Some never did, preferring to keep the past in the past. "They indicated they had gotten over it," says Boogaard. "I don't think they have, or else they wouldn't be sitting where they were."
In the early 2000s, about a half-dozen lawsuits began trickling into the Regina-based Merchant Law Group from men who claimed they were the victims of sexual and physical abuse while housed at the Saskatchewan Boys School/Paul Dojack Centre. After years of keeping quiet, they decided to call the firm that had become well known for its work on claims of abuse in Indian residential schools.
The Saskatchewan Boys School opened as a residential facility in 1950 to provide care for "delinquent" boys or those who lacked a parent or guardian who could safely care for them. In 1975, "school" was replaced by "centre," when the facility became a residential treatment program for boys aged 12 to 15 as well as a 10-bed remand unit for those before the courts. It was renamed the Paul Dojack Youth Centre in 1985, and became a closed-custody facility — a youth equivalent to jail — for boys and girls aged 12 to 17.
Throughout, it has been government-operated.
The men sued not only Sawa, but the much deeper pockets of the Saskatchewan government.
Lawyer Tony Merchant doubts the law ever would have caught up to Sawa if not for those early lawsuits.
"Because, what had happened with these people — I spoke with a fellow who came forward for the first time. He said, 'I never told my wife. I never told anybody. You're the only person with whom I've ever spoken about this,'" says Merchant. "So, you had people who were embarrassed about what happened. That's common if people have been sexually abused. But they were also, in almost every instance, embarrassed about the fact that they'd had some criminal problem when they were a young man. So they wanted to put both of those things behind them."
A combination of the civil lawsuits landing in government offices and some of the plaintiffs making criminal complaints prompted an RCMP investigation in 2004.
After undergoing back surgery in the fall of that year, Boogaard was sidelined from uniformed, street policing. He became a plainclothes officer in the general investigation section (GIS), where the Sawa investigation was underway. GIS was swamped. Boogaard was assigned the Sawa file and plugged away at it full time from May 2005 to July 2007.
There was a lot of ground to cover, with some 1,300 teens having gone through the centre in the years Sawa worked there. Boogaard crossed this country and also dipped into the U.S. in his search for them and former staff.
The goal was to try to find everyone who had been in Sawa's care or had contact with him, including those on hockey and football teams he coached, sometimes recruiting boys from the centre.
In many of the cases, the centre's troubled boys had grown to become lawless men. About 500 of some 700 people Boogaard interviewed were inmates.
Boogaard had worked in policing — as a Mountie and with the Toronto police — for 25 years when he was handed the Sawa file. He was skeptical at first.
"I spent all these years going out and arresting and charging and then trying to convince the prosecutor . . . these are the dregs of society and this is what they've done," he says. Boogaard admits he had "a big attitude change."
As he talked to more people, a consistent pattern of behaviour by Sawa emerged. Often, the stories were corroborated not only by other inmates, but former staff from the facility."It spanned from one end of the country to the other. There was no way that everybody could get together and all of a sudden say, 'Hey, let's get together and let's do this lawsuit against Ron Sawa and the provincial government.' There was just too much."
Although a victim of a crime, Bob arrived at court in leg shackles and handcuffs. Many of the people Sawa preyed on did not straighten their lives out at Dojack — they never did.
The what-ifs weren't lost on Boogaard, a father of three sons and a daughter. Among Sawa's victims are robbers, killers, sex offenders and career criminals.
"You think, 'OK, so if this didn't happen to you while you were in that school, by this individual, where would you be now?'" the Mountie says from his Ottawa office, where he was transferred from Regina last year. "And they brought it up themselves, too, a lot of them. There were fellows that were querying their own sexual orientation, along those lines, as well. Depression, alcohol, drugs, et cetera. They try to cope with it."
—
In August 2008, the RCMP held a news conference to announce that Sawa had been charged with 39 offences — including indecent assault, gross indecency, sexual assault, and sexually touching a child while in a position of trust or authority, occurring between 1974 and 1989. He was accused of molesting 18 male youths, ages 10 to 17, most of whom had been residents of the Saskatchewan Boys School/Dojack Centre. Two more charges, involving one more youth, followed.
Sawa remained free until April this year when he was sentenced after pleading guilty to nine charges involving nine victims. An agreement reached by the Crown and defence amalgamated some of the charges and dropped others.
Asked by Justice Ian McLellan if he had anything to say before sentence was imposed, Sawa tersely replied, "No. I do not."
All but one of the nine victims, who was in foster care at the time, were molested — offences that ranged from touching to oral and anal sex — at the Boys School or Dojack. In the words of prosecutor Roger DeCorby, Sawa "exploited their vulnerability."
Sawa had slowly groomed his victims, then used his power at the institution to ensure they complied and kept quiet about the abuse.
—-
Ron Sawa sat in the same prisoner's dock where many of his victims had sat over the years. Indeed, some of them had been sent to prison by the same judge. On this day, however, none of them was in court — to give victim impact statements, to look Sawa in the eye, or to see him taken away in handcuffs.
Bob was the only one to file a victim impact statement. The handwritten statement wasn't read aloud in court, so it's unclear if Sawa ever heard it.
Profound in its brevity, it reads:

"You breached the trust, you instilled horror, you took away peace, security, self esteem. I feel sick to my stomach as I write about this. Your actions have affected my relationships throughout life. I couldn't open up with people because I felt ashamed over what you put me through, and thought it would make me less in the eyes of my loved ones. I even thought, perversely, that in some way what you did to me I deserved. You substantially contributed a lot of twisted values beliefs, fears, horror and negativity to my young impressionable mind."

Like the note Bob received five years earlier giving him an opportunity to tell what he knew about Sawa, the victim-impact statement arrived by fax. It was sent to Regina from a prison in Ontario.
Bob is a designated dangerous offender, serving an indeterminate sentence (as are at least two other men who have filed suit against Sawa) that will keep him behind bars for decades.
Sawa was sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison. The 61-year-old will be eligible to seek full parole in October 2011.

The civil suits suggest the victims number nearly 10 times those reflected in his guilty pleas.
As of last month, the province had settled with 11 claimants from the Boys School/Dojack Centre, with compensation ranging from $25,000 to $35,000, although those don't reflect the most serious allegations involving rapes.
When he testified against Sawa, Bob was asked about his lawsuit.
"There's no money that can be given to restore stuff like that," he said. "I don't really give a crap about the money part of it, because I've wasted 33 years of my life in the penitentiary."

A chair is a very useful common object. At Daytop (and throughout the TTI) The Chair is a very common and effective breakdown tactic .They seem to confuse breakdown for breakthrough quite a lot.

The Chair in its’ most benign form involves the recipient being ordered to sit there from am to pm. Or from when The Chair is ordered until it’s been decided the time spent “on Chair is sufficient”. This at times goes on for days with time off only for bathroom breaks, meals and sleep.This isn’t so bad in an abusive program setting considering this (teen time out) gives some brief reprieve from the screaming, gaming, copping crying and cleaning. This is fairly basic. Though I’ve observed some houses (locations) add the stress of placing the recipients’ forehead to the wall for whatever reason.

Consider also the differences of being put on chair for a known infraction versus being put there and not told of the reasons. This is called "sweating you out" and it is the prelude to a fishing expedition.

Furthermore, different chairs different circumstances: If you’re on chair facing the wall and you’ve already been screamed at, this is the basic being on Chair experience. You will likely only have the part where you are expected to cry and ask forgiveness to look forward to during your haircut (if you haven’t received it yet). Crying is interpreted as the only authentic contrition so really do make a point of showing them the emotions they demand or risk accusations of “coming out of your head” and consequences for having done so, but only when it’s asked of you.

If your chair happens to be facing outward and is by the closed door of the Coordinators or a counselor’s office, you are about to be moved to another chair. This will be a "haircut".That chair will face three or more other chairs and the occupants of those chairs will be screaming at you. These haircuts can happen several times a month, or week and for some even more than one in a day. Sometimes one of them is meant to be “as the voice of reason” and try to coax you in good cop mode, but often that devolves to the fling of their spittle against your cheek as the accusations, condemnations, warnings and even threats fly out as well as from the others.
Try not to cry right away though or this will be ridiculed as false and manipulative. You’re a kid and you come from a home of violence and you tend to vacillate between shutting down and breaking down? Well, look forward to spending a lot of time as a shot down you little manipulator. Once you know when to cry at the time that seems to elicit the least rage from your treatment team you are now in fact a manipulator and like an ulcer even unconsciously this created conflict eats away especially in the setting that causes one to be constantly gut checking themselves.

If you are on chair facing outward to say the day room or other and you are wearing a sign that starts with the words: “Ask me…” or if you are instructed not to speak and your sign starts with the words “Tell me… ”you are the recipient of an LE. This is learning experience—known in all other places of the world as humiliation. Sometimes your sign can come with a prop that is meant to signify whatever aspect of your program that needs working. Peers are required to respond to these signs by asking and informing in a constant stream of pull-ups throughout. If they don’t do so and this avoidant behavior is observed they will be accused of either neglecting or conspiring with the LE recipient and receive their own inane dealt-with or worse.

If your chair is placed similarly to the pending haircut position, but you have a clip board, blank paper and a pen… your world has just changed. Even people with whom you do not get along are averting their eyes from this fate. You are dropping guilt. Your accuser's bellies have flipped (their parlance) and their suspicion has lead to this. Your friends tummies are gnawing with a little fear that some secret or even only silliness not approved will be outed that they will soon be punished for. They try to fight the urge to make an eye contact plea or show of sympathy or support to you. They know that this too might be observed and noted and lead to consequences. Good Luck. There is nothing good that comes from forced confessions and nothing good that comes from pleading your case when your paper isn’t filled front and back with guilt to be picked through.

If your chair is facing a house meeting—everyone knows why you are there and it’s going to be a long while. You see first the counselors rally the house. Then the house is incited to show you some punitive love. This is called feedback and it’s very loud. This will go on and on and by the time you are issued your insane LE your ears are ringing and you're just glad that part is over. It’s like an encounter group (a circle of combative “dissipations” –like a rage prone debate team of sorts or the verbally abusive equivalent of a cockfighting ring where everyone is either yelled at, yelling or silently willing themselves to disappear), but a house meeting in your honor is all of the focus and intensity and rage aimed your way from every "family member" and every staffer on hand to participate. You do not speak until you are instructed to read your confession and express your contrition and have been permitted to thank the peers who have just called you everything from junky to liar to slut to trash to toxic to baby to even too stupid to want to be saved.

If your chair is encircled completely by a ring of chairs that are occupied by your peers and counselors and happens to be facing an empty chair…hold on to your seat it’s reenactment time! Yes, you’re about to have childhood trauma play out for the group and you will be pushed and pushed until the desired performance is pulled from you. Whether you are meant to be screaming at [insert abusive primary caretaker here] or confronting yourself in the empty chair, an extraction is being performed and a performance is expected. This is not an option unless you want to be dealt with and have consequences for withholding from the group and depriving yourself of growth. Try to be inwardly grateful this is happening with chairs and not in an extended group…it gets far freakier when the "bedding bunkers built from pillows" are involved.

This rant was typed w/out coercion from the Philippe Starck ghost chair in my living room.
Edited: some typos and likely missed some more