Daily Archives: December 28, 2011

ALATEEN SAFETY GUIDELINES G-34

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Alateen is a branch of Ala-non headquartered out of Virginia Beach VA. They have a safety guidelines brochure G-34 addressing the minors in their care. They speak many times about how each area should review their local laws and regulations in regard to teens, as they vary from state to state. Unfortunately it does not tell members what state agencies for them to contact to find out this information.

As many of you know Alateen and Ala-non are based on 12 step principles. Some how they have managed to put into place safety guidelines for Sponsors and teens for their program. They have implemented procedures that AA/NA Corporate offices state they cannot possibly do, because it would break traditions. This is what they hide behind to have no accountability. Yet Alateen follows the very same 12 step principles, and their safety precautions are mandatory. In fact if a group is not compying, they will remove them as a group pronto! Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous refuse to have any safety guidelines and are flying under the radar when it comes to protecting minors or other vulnerable members of society.

I assume Alateen has taken this step to satisfy Insurance Companies and themselves from liability. Yet we have AA and NA going into high schools, juvenile detentions centers, and have literature stating you are basically never too young to join the adults in AA/NA. Yet they follow zero safety guidelines. DCF seems to look the other way. Why is this obvious lack of accountability with minors being ignored?

Courts are mandating level 3 sexual predators, rapists, and other violent felons to Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous everyday through out this country. AA and NA are aware of minors being sexually assaulted by AA members, yet they have voted to do nothing about it. Except to solicit more minors to attend dangerous meetings.

Plus many women have been raped and others killed,stabbed and financially scammed by 12 step members they met at meetings. There needs to be safety measures put into place to protect people attending meetings.

Here is the start of Alateens G-34 phamphlet-

Alateens are members of the Al-Anon fellowship who have suffered because of the alcoholism of a loved one. They have come to Alateen seeking recovery. Before recovery can take place, an environment of trust and safety must exist. It is the responsibility of Al-Anon and Alateen as a whole to work together to maintain a healthy, loving, and supportive environment.

These guidelines offer procedures for insuring the safety of Alateen members, their Sponsors and Al-Anon/Alateen as a whole. All guidelines, including the Alateen Safety Guidelines, offer the shared experience of Al-Anon/Alateen members. Following these guidelines is not a substitute for knowing and obeying the law of your area as it relates to minors. Each state and province has its own way of regulating these issues, and it is important that each person involved with Alateen is aware of and follows local legal requirements.

Read the rest!

http://www.al-anon-ak.org/cms_uploads/G34.pdf

GAO Report States Almost Half Of Drug Courts Do Not Decrease Recidivism

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Washington, D.C. – The Government Accountability Office last week released a report, in which it finds that only 18 of 32 drug courts – or just over 50% – showed statistically significant reductions in recidivism among participants. That is, almost half of drug courts do not reduce re-arrest rates of their participants below the rates of people who went through the normal criminal justice process.

“The message here is: enter a drug court at your own risk. The chance that you’ll enter a drug court that might help you avoid getting arrested again is about 50-50, the equivalent of a coin toss,” said Margaret Dooley-Sammuli, deputy state director in Southern California for the Drug Policy Alliance. “Clearly, the popularity that drug courts enjoy is not supported by the evidence.”

The GAO’s findings echo those of the Multi-Site Adult Drug Court Evaluation (MADCE), the longest and largest ever study of drug courts. Funded by the National Institute of Justice, MADCE recently reported a re-arrest rate for drug court participants that was 10 percentage points below that of the comparison group, but that the difference was not statistically significant. This means that the study effectively found no difference in re-arrest rates between the groups, as the decrease may be the result of chance.

“Drug courts have actually helped to increase, not decrease, the criminal justice entanglement of people who struggle with drugs and have failed to provide quality treatment,” said Daniel Abrahamson, Drug Policy Alliance’s Director of Legal Affairs. “Only sentencing reform and expanded investment in health approaches to drug use will stem the flow of drug arrests and incarceration. The feel-good nature of drug courts hasn’t translated into results. U.S. drug policy must be based not on good intentions, but on robust, reliable research.”

The Drug Policy Alliance this year released Drug Courts are Not the Answer: Toward a Health-Centered Approach to Drug Use, which found that drug courts have not demonstrated cost savings, reduced incarceration, or improved public safety; leave many people worse off for trying; and have actually made the criminal justice system more punitive toward addiction – not less. For example, people who struggle the most with a drug problem are more likely to be kicked out of a drug court and incarcerated. Although relapse is a common and predictable occurrence during treatment, drug courts often punish relapse with jail time.

The GAO’s study is available at: http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-12-53. Results from MADCE are available at: http://www.urban.org/publications/412353.html.

Tony Newman 646-335-5384 or Margaret Dooley-Sammuli 213-291 4190

http://www.drugpolicy.org/news/2011/12/government-study-finds-nearly-half-drug-courts-do-not-reduce-recidivism