News (Media Awareness Project) - US VA: Expert And Inmates Find Faults In Prison Drug-Treatment |
| Title: | US VA: Expert And Inmates Find Faults In Prison Drug-Treatment |
| Published On: | 2000-03-06 |
| Source: | Virginian-Pilot (VA) |
| Fetched On: | 2008-09-05 01:13:19 |
EXPERT AND INMATES FIND FAULTS IN PRISON DRUG-TREATMENT PROGRAM
CHESAPEAKE -- Virginia's showcase effort to treat drug offenders in a
prison setting is hobbled by serious shortcomings, according to an outside
expert who studied it.
The program, which transformed an entire prison into a drug treatment
facility, was a response to research showing high success rates of
therapeutic treatment. It has been held up as a success story by state
officials, who have called it the largest facility of its kind in the nation.
But according to the expert who studied it -- and a number of inmates who
complained to The Virginian-Pilot -- there are major obstacles standing in
the way of success. To a large degree, the problems seem to spring from the
inherent contradictions between long-held state policies emphasizing
imprisonment and punishment and the newly introduced concept of treatment.
Among the problems are these:
- - The program is involuntary, forcing inmates to participate whether they
are ready for rehabilitation or not.
- - Opportunities for education, job skills and vocational training are
limited and not well integrated with the drug-abuse program.
- - There is little or no aftercare available to inmates when they are released.
- - There is little incentive to successfully complete the program because of
the state's abolition of parole. Drug abusers still have to serve their
full sentences.
The drug therapy experiment is being conducted at Indian Creek Correctional
Center. The facility looks like a typical Virginia prison -- a complex of
squat, beige buildings with slits for windows, enclosed by tall razor-wire
fences and guard towers amid the cornfields of southern Chesapeake. A
medium-security institution, it opened in 1994 and can house 648 inmates.
In 1995, the state got a four-year federal grant that provided $800,000 a
year to turn Indian Creek into a drug treatment facility. When the federal
money ran out, the state took over the funding.
The program uses the ``therapeutic community'' treatment model, which
strives for behavior modification in a communal setting.
``It is a national model that has been selected by the U.S. Department of
Justice as the approach to treating offenders with substance abuse
problems,'' said Scott Richeson, program director for the Virginia
Department of Corrections. ``The main objective is to attack criminal
values and replace them with pro-social values.''
Despite these lofty goals, inmates are unsparing in their criticism of the
program.
``I know what substance abuse treatment consists of,'' Robert Yingling
wrote in correspondence with The Virginian-Pilot, ``and this is not it.''
Yingling, 38, of Portsmouth is serving 14 years for heroin possession and
grand larceny. He was an addict for 20 years.
The program at Indian Creek is ``a joke,'' he wrote. ``This is all window
dressing to give the appearance of something functional when the truth of
the matter is that it's totally dysfunctional, and sadly, in the end it's
those with real substance abuse issues, educational issues and job skill
issues who will suffer.''
Ronald Harris, 49, of Norfolk, said in an interview that the program has
done nothing to help him reverse 30 years of drug use.
``This is the bottom,'' said Harris, who is doing 7 1/2 years for cocaine
and heroin possession. ``I'd rather be digging ditches.''
About a year ago, disgruntled inmates staged a sit-down strike, refusing to
participate. Some 35 to 50 inmates who were considered instigators were
transferred to higher-security institutions.
Many of the inmates' complaints are echoed in the assessment produced last
spring by the state's consultant, Dr. Harry K. Wexler of the Center for
Therapeutic Community Research in New York.
Wexler has studied therapeutic communities in and out of prisons, and found
that they can reduce recidivism by drug abusers at rates of up to 75 percent.
Wexler found that the program at Indian Creek ``is well organized and
operates smoothly,'' but has major weaknesses. His biggest criticism is
that it is involuntary. This is counterproductive, Wexler and the inmates
say, because a drug abuser can't change until he is motivated from within.
``If a program like this is going to work, you can't have people in it who
don't want to be here,'' said Jason Preddy, 26, of Virginia Beach, who is
serving four years for breaking and entering and grand larceny.
Since uncooperative and antagonistic inmates can't be expelled from the
program, the administration has resorted to taking away ``good time''
credits and returning inmates to earlier phases of the program, as well as
other sanctions. This, Wexler wrote, ``has had the unintended consequence
of contributing to inmate resentment and resistance.''
One factor behind such sanctions was Virginia's abolition of parole in
1994, said Richeson, the program director.
``Abolition of parole has left us with less incentives for encouraging
program participation,'' she said. ``It used to be, we could encourage
inmates to get in a program and they might make parole earlier.''
Another pitfall, inmates say, is the manner in which they are disciplined.
The Indian Creek prison staff metes out collective punishment for
individual transgressions, further fueling inmates' resentment.
For example, last summer an inmate was caught with homemade wine in his
footlocker. As a result, all 80-plus men in that dormitory were stripped of
visitation, telephone, recreation, commissary and television privileges,
according to several inmates.
Gerald Benjamin, 38, of Colonial Heights, who is serving 5 1/2 years for
robbery, said when he complained about the policy, a counselor told him:
``Chalk it up as a learning experience.''
``The only thing I'm learning,'' Benjamin said, ``is that I can be punished
for something I didn't do.''
In addition, Virginia's long sentences and no-parole policy seem at odds
with the ideal treatment time for drug offenders.
Wexler's studies of other therapeutic communities have found a decline in
positive outcomes after 12 months of treatment. But the typical drug
offender's sentence at Indian Creek is five years.
The result: Inmates say the material gets recycled and becomes redundant.
Richeson said the administration is aware of the program's weaknesses and
is working to correct them. ``We hired Dr. Wexler to help us improve the
program,'' she said. ``There is no part of his report that we disagree with.''
Of particular concern to her, Richeson said, is the need for more education
and aftercare. But fixing those shortcomings, she said, ``will be dependent
on getting resources.''
So far, there has been no attempt to measure the Indian Creek program's
success.
``Once we get the services adjusted to where we feel that what we are doing
there is right on the target, that's when we'll proceed with outcome
evaluation,'' Richeson said.
She estimated that might take three years.
Below is the index for this series of articles:
US VA: Virginia Is Paying The Price For Prison Boom
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n326/a09.html
US VA: Overbuilt Prisons Must Import Criminals
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n327/a01.html
US VA: Virginia's Incarceration Rate Far Exceeds Crime Rate
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n327/a02.html
US VA: Department Of Corrections Denies Information Requests
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n327/a03.html
US VA: Drugs, Not Violence, Are The Fuel For Prison Growth
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n327/a04.html
US VA: Expert And Inmates Find Faults In Prison Drug-Treatment
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n331/a13.html
US VA: Poll Shows Little Support For Gilmore's Get-Tough Drug
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n327/a05.html
US VA: Blacks Imprisoned At Rate Out Of Proportion To Drug Use
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n327/a06.html
US VA: Cost Of Housing Older Inmates Goes Up As Risk Goes Down
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n328/a01.html
US VA: New Prisons Bring Much-Needed Jobs To Rural Areas
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n328/a02.html
US VA: Party And Racial Lines Divide Lawmakers On Prison Reform
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n332/a01.html
CHESAPEAKE -- Virginia's showcase effort to treat drug offenders in a
prison setting is hobbled by serious shortcomings, according to an outside
expert who studied it.
The program, which transformed an entire prison into a drug treatment
facility, was a response to research showing high success rates of
therapeutic treatment. It has been held up as a success story by state
officials, who have called it the largest facility of its kind in the nation.
But according to the expert who studied it -- and a number of inmates who
complained to The Virginian-Pilot -- there are major obstacles standing in
the way of success. To a large degree, the problems seem to spring from the
inherent contradictions between long-held state policies emphasizing
imprisonment and punishment and the newly introduced concept of treatment.
Among the problems are these:
- - The program is involuntary, forcing inmates to participate whether they
are ready for rehabilitation or not.
- - Opportunities for education, job skills and vocational training are
limited and not well integrated with the drug-abuse program.
- - There is little or no aftercare available to inmates when they are released.
- - There is little incentive to successfully complete the program because of
the state's abolition of parole. Drug abusers still have to serve their
full sentences.
The drug therapy experiment is being conducted at Indian Creek Correctional
Center. The facility looks like a typical Virginia prison -- a complex of
squat, beige buildings with slits for windows, enclosed by tall razor-wire
fences and guard towers amid the cornfields of southern Chesapeake. A
medium-security institution, it opened in 1994 and can house 648 inmates.
In 1995, the state got a four-year federal grant that provided $800,000 a
year to turn Indian Creek into a drug treatment facility. When the federal
money ran out, the state took over the funding.
The program uses the ``therapeutic community'' treatment model, which
strives for behavior modification in a communal setting.
``It is a national model that has been selected by the U.S. Department of
Justice as the approach to treating offenders with substance abuse
problems,'' said Scott Richeson, program director for the Virginia
Department of Corrections. ``The main objective is to attack criminal
values and replace them with pro-social values.''
Despite these lofty goals, inmates are unsparing in their criticism of the
program.
``I know what substance abuse treatment consists of,'' Robert Yingling
wrote in correspondence with The Virginian-Pilot, ``and this is not it.''
Yingling, 38, of Portsmouth is serving 14 years for heroin possession and
grand larceny. He was an addict for 20 years.
The program at Indian Creek is ``a joke,'' he wrote. ``This is all window
dressing to give the appearance of something functional when the truth of
the matter is that it's totally dysfunctional, and sadly, in the end it's
those with real substance abuse issues, educational issues and job skill
issues who will suffer.''
Ronald Harris, 49, of Norfolk, said in an interview that the program has
done nothing to help him reverse 30 years of drug use.
``This is the bottom,'' said Harris, who is doing 7 1/2 years for cocaine
and heroin possession. ``I'd rather be digging ditches.''
About a year ago, disgruntled inmates staged a sit-down strike, refusing to
participate. Some 35 to 50 inmates who were considered instigators were
transferred to higher-security institutions.
Many of the inmates' complaints are echoed in the assessment produced last
spring by the state's consultant, Dr. Harry K. Wexler of the Center for
Therapeutic Community Research in New York.
Wexler has studied therapeutic communities in and out of prisons, and found
that they can reduce recidivism by drug abusers at rates of up to 75 percent.
Wexler found that the program at Indian Creek ``is well organized and
operates smoothly,'' but has major weaknesses. His biggest criticism is
that it is involuntary. This is counterproductive, Wexler and the inmates
say, because a drug abuser can't change until he is motivated from within.
``If a program like this is going to work, you can't have people in it who
don't want to be here,'' said Jason Preddy, 26, of Virginia Beach, who is
serving four years for breaking and entering and grand larceny.
Since uncooperative and antagonistic inmates can't be expelled from the
program, the administration has resorted to taking away ``good time''
credits and returning inmates to earlier phases of the program, as well as
other sanctions. This, Wexler wrote, ``has had the unintended consequence
of contributing to inmate resentment and resistance.''
One factor behind such sanctions was Virginia's abolition of parole in
1994, said Richeson, the program director.
``Abolition of parole has left us with less incentives for encouraging
program participation,'' she said. ``It used to be, we could encourage
inmates to get in a program and they might make parole earlier.''
Another pitfall, inmates say, is the manner in which they are disciplined.
The Indian Creek prison staff metes out collective punishment for
individual transgressions, further fueling inmates' resentment.
For example, last summer an inmate was caught with homemade wine in his
footlocker. As a result, all 80-plus men in that dormitory were stripped of
visitation, telephone, recreation, commissary and television privileges,
according to several inmates.
Gerald Benjamin, 38, of Colonial Heights, who is serving 5 1/2 years for
robbery, said when he complained about the policy, a counselor told him:
``Chalk it up as a learning experience.''
``The only thing I'm learning,'' Benjamin said, ``is that I can be punished
for something I didn't do.''
In addition, Virginia's long sentences and no-parole policy seem at odds
with the ideal treatment time for drug offenders.
Wexler's studies of other therapeutic communities have found a decline in
positive outcomes after 12 months of treatment. But the typical drug
offender's sentence at Indian Creek is five years.
The result: Inmates say the material gets recycled and becomes redundant.
Richeson said the administration is aware of the program's weaknesses and
is working to correct them. ``We hired Dr. Wexler to help us improve the
program,'' she said. ``There is no part of his report that we disagree with.''
Of particular concern to her, Richeson said, is the need for more education
and aftercare. But fixing those shortcomings, she said, ``will be dependent
on getting resources.''
So far, there has been no attempt to measure the Indian Creek program's
success.
``Once we get the services adjusted to where we feel that what we are doing
there is right on the target, that's when we'll proceed with outcome
evaluation,'' Richeson said.
She estimated that might take three years.
Below is the index for this series of articles:
US VA: Virginia Is Paying The Price For Prison Boom
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n326/a09.html
US VA: Overbuilt Prisons Must Import Criminals
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n327/a01.html
US VA: Virginia's Incarceration Rate Far Exceeds Crime Rate
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n327/a02.html
US VA: Department Of Corrections Denies Information Requests
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n327/a03.html
US VA: Drugs, Not Violence, Are The Fuel For Prison Growth
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n327/a04.html
US VA: Expert And Inmates Find Faults In Prison Drug-Treatment
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n331/a13.html
US VA: Poll Shows Little Support For Gilmore's Get-Tough Drug
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n327/a05.html
US VA: Blacks Imprisoned At Rate Out Of Proportion To Drug Use
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n327/a06.html
US VA: Cost Of Housing Older Inmates Goes Up As Risk Goes Down
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n328/a01.html
US VA: New Prisons Bring Much-Needed Jobs To Rural Areas
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n328/a02.html
US VA: Party And Racial Lines Divide Lawmakers On Prison Reform
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n332/a01.html
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