The Riverside Regional Jail in Petersburg, Virginia bravely offers
coeducational components in their TCs. The women’s TC and the men’s TC conduct
some of the programs, such as confrontation, together The women sit on one side of the
circle and the men sit on the other side with clinical social workers in between. Few
problems have been noted. If any fraternization occurs an inmate is put out of the TC.
There have been instances when note passing has been intercepted
The Northern Neck Regional Jail, in Wausau, VA at the request of the Superintendent
instituted a work release program for clients who have obtained Phase III of the program.
Five clients work from 4:00 pm to 2:00 am and attend TC activities during the day. The
starting time was pushed up to 9:00 am to help those in the work release program get some
sleep. The inmates like it because they make better money, but there has been some
inattention due to lack of sleep by those participating in the program.
Clinical social workers at the Middle Peninsula-Northern Neck Community Services Board
are getting certified in acupuncture. Acupuncture is reported to be beneficial in the
treatment of substance abuse. They are trying to get the jail supervision to allow them to
use acupuncture in its program.
The women of the Pocahontas Unit #13 TC have painted a mural on the back wall of their
dorm.
St. Brides Correctional Unit #25 has a program for youthful offenders with numerous
vocational programs to help young inmates learn a marketable skill.
The Fairfax Regional Jail is building a new addition that should help considerably in
alleviating over crowding.
The substance abuse program to begin this fall at the Bon Air Correctional Center will
be one of the few in the country working with juvenile female offenders. The outcomes of
this program will be most beneficial in providing future direction for substance abuse
rehabilitation of this group.
A Recent NIDA Article Suggests That the Explanation for Cocaine’s Powerful
Attraction May Be That It Affects Several Neurotransmitters, All of Which Are Involved in
Mediating Pleasure
Studies performed with genetically altered mice have suggested that cocaine’s
euphoric effects may involve several chemical sites in the brain. The medications used to
combat cocaine addiction may need to target these multiple sites just as cocaine does.
These studies showed that cocaine blocks transporter proteins for three different
neurotransmitters: dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine. The blocking of the dopamine
transporter was most important for producing the drug’s euphoric effect. Some
scientists have theorized that by blocking the dopamine transporter, cocaine might raise
the level of extracellular dopamine in brain regions involved in pleasurable sensations.
This excess dopamine could give rise to euphoria by continually affecting neurons in these
regions.
Therapeutic Communities of America
Therapeutic Communities of America (TCA)
is an association of substance abuse treatment organizations working together to advocate
for and promote the understanding of the self help therapeutic community (TC) methodology
for the treatment of drug and alcohol abuse.
On both coasts and in-between criminal justice issues have taken center stage for many
providers. In Washington D.C. R.A.P. Inc. has been given HIDTA funds to place criminal
offenders in 120-day residential treatment programs where they are technically still
"fulfilling their sentences"in the program.
Gaudenzia, Inc. in Pennsylvania, Walden House, Inc. and Phoenix House in California,
are being contracted with by the states to provide aftercare programs for released
inmates. With the increase in TC programs in jail and prison settings communities are
beginning to realize the need for effective after care programs.
As the President of TCA said, "Prisons have become the "energy sink" of
our era, and energy sinks are projects in which societies make massive investments of
resources (human and materials)with little or no return. Most states now invest more
heavily in building prisons than building schools." The answer according to the TCA
President is to change the way Americans look at substance abusers and substance abusing
criminal offenders. Treatment must be recognized as a means for extracting value from
these people. Virginia with its many jail and prison based TCs seems to have gotten the
message.
TREATMENT RECOVERY LINKS
Addiction Recovery Resources
for the Professional
Addiction Resource
Guide
Advocates for the
Betterment of Addication Treatment (A.B.A.T.E.)
Center for
Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT)
National Association of Addiction
Treatment Providers
American Police Association
World’s
Most Wanted
Office of Justice Programs
National
Directory of Drug Abuse and Alcoholism Treatment and Prevention Programs
Internet Legal Resources
RWJF
Substance Abuse Policy Research Program
Therapeutic Community Association
(TCA)
National Institute of Drug
Abuse (NIDA)
Looking Ahead...
November 4-6, 1999 CAC’s 1999 Annual
meeting will be co-sponsored by the State of Florida’s "umbrella"health
agency. The agenda for the meeting will link the three themes of public membership,
professional regulation, and managed care under the theme, "Effective Health
Professions Regulation in the Age of Managed Care."
December 1999-The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse At Columbia
University are managing a juvenile justice demonstration program. This project,
part of CASA’s investigation of the impact of substance abuse has impacted the growth
in the juvenile justice system. They will examine how substance abuse and delinquency are
linked and identifying programs and services to reduce the impact of substance abuse on
juvenile crime and delinquency. This project is funded by NIDA (National Institute on Drug
Abuse) and the W. T. Grant Foundation planning activities began in July of 1998. Expected
program completion date is December 1999
Periodicals, Books & Research Papers...
For more information on cocaine addiction studies see...
Rocha, B. A., Fumagalli, F.; Gainetdinov, R. R.; Jones, S. R.; Ator, R.; Giros, B.;
Miller, G. W.; and Caron, M. G. Cocaine self-administration in dopamine-transporter
knockout mice. Nature Neuroscience 1(2):132-137, 1998
Sora, I; Wichems, C.; Takahashi, N.; Li, X-F; Zeng, Z; Revay, R.; Lesch, K-P; Murphy,
D. L.; and Uhl, G. R. Cocaine reward models: Conditioned place preference can be
established in dopamine- and in serotonin-transproter knockout mice. Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences USA 95(13): 7699-7704, 1998
Carmona, G. N., et al. Attenuation of cocaine-induced locomotor activity by
butyrylcholinesterase.
Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology 6(3): 274-279, 1998
Fox, B. S., et al. Efficacy of a therapeutic cocaine vaccine in rodent models. Nature
Medicine 2(10): 1129-1132, 1996.
Sparenborg, S; Vocci, F.; and Zukin S. Peripheral cocaine-blocking agents: New
medications for cocaine dependence. Drug and Alcohol Dependence 48:149-151, 1997
NIDA has published a new Research Report, Cocaine Abuse and
Addiction". This 8-page report summarizes the latest scientific findings about the
makeup and extent of cocaine abuse and addiction. It discusses the consequences of
using and abusing cocaine and which treatments are most effective for those addicted to
cocaine.
Highlights of this report include:
What is cocaine?
How does cocaine produce its effects?
What are the short-term effects of cocaine use?
What are the long-term effects of cocaine use?
What are the medical consequences of cocaine abuse?
What treatments are effective for cocaine abuse? One of the treatments discussed is
therapeutic communities.
For more information
The NIDA Research Report "Cocaine Abuse and Addiction" (NCADI
publication #PHD813, National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information, P.O. Box
2345, Rockville, MD 20847, 1-800-729-6686. Also visit the NIDA home page at
www.nida.nih.gov.
Food for Thought
According to Dr. Carl Larson of the University of Denver and Dr. Frank
LaFasto of Baxter Healthcare Corporation, the following principles are common in
successful teams.
