ACLU FILES COMPLAINT AFTER JUDGE SENTENCED TEEN TO CHURCH FOR 10 YEARS
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Category Archives: Juvenile Justice and Mandated AA
SEX OFFENDER ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS MEMBER JAILED FOR PREYING ON WOMEN IN AA
AA Member and Pedophile Sean Calahan was sent to jail for preying on women in Alcoholics Anonymous. This man had been arrested in the past for sexually molesting a 12 year old boy.He was mandated to AA Meetings and sex offender counseling on a deferred sentenced. He also was found with multiple shotguns!
Drunk Alcoholics Anonymous Member Causes Serious Injury To 19 Year-Old In Crash
The night Brian LaRose decided not to go to his Alcoholics Anonymous Meeting and get drunk instead, was a terrible decision. He seriously injured a young woman.
This article points out to those that think all AA members are sober individuals, and are no longer a threat to society is a myth, plain and simple. The reason teens or children should not be sent to co-mingle with adult alcoholics or drug abusers. Many are still using, thus still making these meetings not an appropriate venue for minors.
Also, AA was NOT working for this man. Maybe had he known of other alternatives to stop drinking, he might not of been driving highly intoxicated that night.
Drunk driver avoids prison for serious injury crash
By Kelly Wheeler and Fox 5 Staff
12:25 p.m. PST, February 17, 2012
SAN DIEGO — A driver whose blood-alcohol level was 4 1/2 times the legal limit when his vehicle slammed into the back of a car in Rancho Bernardo, seriously injuring a young woman, will not go to prison.
Instead, Brian LaRose was ordered to spend a year in a work furlough program where he will work during the day and return to jail at night.
LaRose, 39, pleaded guilty in November to DUI causing injury and admitted an allegation that he drove with a blood-alcohol level above 0.15 percent.
Deputy District Attorney Chandelle Konstanzer argued that LaRose should go to prison for five years, calling the defendant an “extreme danger” to society. LaRose was supposed to be at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting the night he caused the accident that left 19-year-old Heidi Wise with a brain injury and other serious injuries.
AA Fails To Protect Minors From Predators They Invite To Meetings
Now this is rich, some AA members are actually showing concern for minors at meetings and wanting to do something about it. Yet they are shot down, because of liability concerns. If they admit there is a problem with minors not being safe at AA meetings, then you are looking at liability concerns. For anyone reading this in AA, let it be known that MANY people are aware of this problem including AA headquarters In New York City. We know you know! There is no way to pretend that you do not know. It is an outrageous statement to come back with. They put it all on the groups themselves. To protect minors in AA should be a priority that includes AA headquarters. Of course anything each group decides to do to protect minors in meetings would be helpful.They can stop inviting minors, not allow mandated minors and stop having youth outreach campaigns to have minors come to adult AA meetings! You need to look at what Alateen does to protect minors.
Here are some of the highlights presented by our Southeast Regional Trustee
The General Service Board received a request to develop a policy on making the rooms safe for young people who are coming to AA. They wanted to be sure minors are being protected. We received all kinds of background material as to why our rooms aren’t safe from predators. The idea was sent to the General Service Board, and the board sent it to a committee. The committee deliberated and said we want the rooms safe for everybody. The question is, is that just in the AA meeting room or is that outside the meeting room’ The Board had a discussion as to what do we do’ The decision was that it was the responsibility of each group. All that we could do as a Board is to say that it is the responsibility of each group. Part of that is because we have no authority to tell groups how they need to function or what they need to do. That’s the groups’ autonomy. The other part is that we may not know what the issues may be in your group or your community. We need to work hard to make sure the rooms are safe.
Question ‘ Would it be reasonable to have a service piece on the safety in the rooms of AA that might open the eyes of the fellowship’
Answer ‘ I am not an attorney but we have had counsel indicate that if you say there may be a problem and you don’t do something about it, and there is a problem, then you may be liable because you have said there may be a problem. The best way of saying it is, if we print anything that says there may be a problem then if there is a problem then we got a problem. We not only struggle with the spiritual responsibilities but the legal responsibilities in providing information. So the board decided to send people out, like me, and you to do something about it. If your Area feels like we need a written piece, then that is where the voice needs to come.
http://www.area26.net/Reports/2010-10-9-10_Area_26_Reports_For_Oct_2010.htm#District_26
Mental Health Court Mandates Schizophrenics And Bipolar Suicidal Offenders To Alcoholics Anonymous Meetings
This is confirmation of the growing number of Mental Health Courts and Drug Courts that are sending their seriously mentally ill, suicidal offenders to a Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meeting near you! Mandating the mentally ill patients to 12 step programs that dont like therapists and tell many participants not to take their meds. Wow,that sounds like a swell idea! Let’s not forget how proud AA/NA/CA is that they are forever non-professionals. AA likes to call their unique demographics that are made up of violent felons, sexual predators, serial rapists, murders and the seriously mentally ill ( many whom are suicidal), a wonderful place to encourage teenagers and younger minors to come join!
AA is famous for stating that the meetings are just a microcosm of society. Let me tell you-they are completely WRONG!!!!!! Actually AA meetings are a microcosm of AA/NA period, and the people who run them around the country. AA/NA meetings are a dangerous place for minors and other vulnerable people.
Limitations Of 12 Step Programs
12 Step programs designed for people whose problems are primarily substance abuse are generally not recommended for people who also have a mental illness. These programs tend to be confrontive and coercive and most people with severe mental illnesses are too fragile to benefit from them. Heavy confrontation, intense emotional jolting, and discouragement of the use of medications tend to be detrimental. These treatments may produce levels of stress that exacerbate symptoms or cause relapse.
An afternoon in the biweekly mental-health courtroom of Washington County Judge Marco Hernandez in Hillsboro. The scene in court includes, left to right, Jeff MacLean, deputy district attorney; Joe Simich, probation officer; Rebecca Blaney, public defender; and a client reporting to Judge Hernandez.
Washington County Oregon At the start of a recent Mental Health Court session, the 50-year-old judge tells the crowd he shredded his ankle his first time snowboarding. One of the defendants, diagnosed as a bipolar alcoholic, says falling is the best part and volunteers to teach the judge how to do it right.
Another time, a meth addict with a bipolar diagnosis says she is discouraged that her theft conviction keeps her from getting a decent job.
“I started out washing dishes and I was a janitor,” Hernandez barks, waving his arm as the defendants laugh. “I went all the way through college, and my first job was a maid! What’s up with that? A four-year degree and I’m a maid!”
Hernandez leads Mental Health Court as part inspirational speaker, part compassionate confessor, part stern uncle.
The banter puts the mentally ill defendants at ease. Hernandez shows he believes in them and trusts them. In turn, they don’t want to disappoint.
The rapport between judge and defendants, along with intense supervision and hard work by a team of court, corrections and mental health staff, has helped the special court navigate the ups and downs of its first year.
“So, what’s going on?” the judge asks a big man who has schizophrenia and a cocaine addiction. Earlier, Hernandez sent the man to jail on a probation violation.
“I’m doing the classes, I’m out of jail, I’m sleeping in the Coop every night,” the man says, referring to a Luke-Dorf Inc. group home for mentally ill substance abusers. “I’m going to classes. I’m observing the rules every night.”
Progress can be uneven
The Washington County team struggles to deal with the breakdowns that can haunt the mentally ill.
One woman died from a heroin overdose. Some participants attempt suicide, abuse alcohol or use illicit drugs. Some miss appointments and classes. Every session, the judge metes out jail time or community service to those who slip up.
“I’m not messing around,” Hernandez bluntly tells a man who left the Coop and was caught using drugs. “We had a deal. I’ve gone way out of my way to help you out on this, but you aren’t doing your part.”
Hernandez and Simich say they have learned to look at how far the participants have come, not how far they have to go.
One woman with a bipolar diagnosis used to be hospitalized several times a week, threatening suicide. Since she’s been coming to Mental Health Court — and since Hernandez sent her to jail for 90 days for using meth again –“we broke her of that and she did well for a while,” Simich says.
Heather Wiegele, 30, who was diagnosed as bipolar at age 13, was convicted of drunken driving and skipped out on her probation. She says she appreciates that Hernandez, who told her she had to comply or go to jail, is tough but fair. Clean and sober for 7-1/2 months, Wiegele asked Hernandez during court in February if she could move to Arizona to be closer to family. The judge conferred with the rest of the team and said she needed to get a job and finish the program here.
“When she came in last year, I thought she was going to die, she was literally shaking,” Hernandez explains later.
A couple of weeks after she professed she was ready to leave, Wiegele’s depression got the best of her. She drank, took 60 of her anti-anxiety pills and ended up in the hospital. Now she’s back in Mental Health Court and attending extra Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. She has a landscaping job and has moved into the Coop.
What kind of treatment would a defendant be ordered to complete?
Each defendant will have a treatment plan that addresses their unique needs and community safety. The treatment plan could include mental health treatment, medications, inpatient or outpatient chemical dependency treatment, Alcoholics Anonymous, domestic violence treatment, sex offender treatment or other specialized treatments as recommended.
What are the primary goals of Mental Health Court?
- Community safety
- Systems integration and service facilitation for our defendants
- Reducing the criminalization of persons with mental illness and other brain disorders
Hmmm, are they really caring about ‘community safety’ ?
http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2008/03/court_of_hope.html
Juvenile Justice Participants Mandated to Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous and Cocaine Anonymous.
Does the Drug Treatment Court Program have special conditions?
Yes. To finish the program, the minor must:
- Go to drug counseling
- Go to a court review every 2 weeks
- Contact the community worker that supervises them every week
- Go to school regularly
- Have drug tests every week
- Go to ‘12-step’ meetings at least twice a week. This can be Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous or Cocaine Anonymous.
- Write in a journal 2 times a week
They are mandating juveniles to the same meetings as felons and sex offenders.
http://www.scscourt.org/self_help/juvenile/jjustice/special_courts.shtml