HaCKeRz KrOnIcKLeZ 3/HaCKeRz_KrOnIcKLeZ.iso/drugs/prison.project

Internet Message Format | 1996-05-06 | 5KB

From: [e-mail] (the ticktockman)
Newsgroups: alt.drugs
Subject: Concord Prison Psilocybin Rehabilitation Project
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 2 Jan 94 20:17:26 GMT

[quoted articles deleted -cak]

Here's the original citation, FWIW:

Leary, T., Metzner, R., Presnell, M., Weil, G., Schwitzgebel, R., & Kinne, S.
     A change program for adult offenders using psilocybin.  _Psychotherapy_,
     1965.

Although I don't have this article handy, here's a pretty good (although
brief) summary, reproduced without permission, from "Psychedelics Encylopedia",
pp. 241-242:

    "Three Psilocybin projects were set up in line with Leary and
Alpert's specialty, the psychology of 'game-playing.'  In early 1961, after
initial psilocybin investigations, the Leary group began working in nearby
Concord with convicts in the Massachusetts Correctional Institution, a
maximum-security prison for young offenders.  It was hoped that psilocybin
could help prisoners 'see through' the self-defeating 'cops-and-robbers
game' and become less destructive citizens ...
    The six volunteers grew in number to thirty-five over the next two
years.  Each underwent two psilocybin experiences during six weeks of
bi-weekly meetings.  Although the subjects were not very well educated,
they were able to detach themselves from their everyday roles and 'confront
themselves,' recognizing constructive alternatives to their formerly violent
and self-destructive behavior patterns.  The question was what would happen
to these prisoners upon release.  Would the insights gained from two fairly
heavy doses of psilocybin help them to lead useful and rewarding lives?  Or
would they soon be headed back to prison?  Dr. Stanley Krippner, who also
was given psilocybin at Harvard, ... summed up the results:

         Records at Concord State Prison suggested that 64 per cent
    of the 32 subjects would return to prison within six months after
    parole.  However, after six months, 25 per cent of those on parole
    had returned, six for technical parole violations and two for new
    offenses.  These results are all the more dramatic when the
    correctional literature is surveyed; few short-term projects with
    prisoners have been effective to even a minor degree.  In addition,
    the personality test scores indicated a measurable positive change
    when pre-psilocybin and post-psilocybin results were compared.

    Although this psilocybin experiment included a lot of 'tender,
loving care' and ** no control subjects ** [emphasis mine], it established
a sound basis for hope.  The results warrant at least one controlled study."

Also from _PE_, p. 243:  "Second Annual Report; Psilocybin Rehabilitation
Project:  All the professional work on this project was volunteer.  The
expenses for clerical assistance and salaries for ex-inmate workers were
covered by generous donations from The Uris Brothers Foundation, New York,
and the Parapsychology Foundation, Eileen Garrett, President ... Applications
to three offices of the U. S. Public Health Service requesting support for
continuing this project were refused ... The project was designed as a pilot
study -- necessarily exploratory -- since little was known about the long-
range application of the substances."

And here (again, reproduced without permission) is an article from the
MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies) newsletter
of Winter 1992 (vol 3, #4):

"A Long-Term Follow-Up to Dr. Timothy Leary's 1961-1962 Concord State
Reformatory Rehabilitation Study

by Michael Forcier, Ph.D., Social Science Research & Evaluation, Inc.
and Rick Doblin, Harvard Kennedy School of Government

[...] Two follow-ups were conducted with the inmate participants.  A short-
term follow-up occurred a mean period of 18 months after the first treatment.
Twenty-four subjects who participated in the program were paroled within
10 months of first treatment.  Of these 19 (77%) showed evidence of good
adjustment while five were returned to prison during that time.  The
recidivism rate was 23% compared to an expected 65%.
    A second, longer-term follow-up occurred roughly 3 years after the
first treatment and all 32 inmates participated in the project.  Of these 32,
27 had been released while 5 were still confined at Concord.  As of January
27, 1964, 11 (41%) of the 27 released inmates were still out of prison, 13
(48%) had been returned as parole violators, and 3 (11%) were reincarcerated
for new crimes.  At this follow-up, the actual rate of recidivism was 59% as
compared with an expected rate of 56% for the Concord inmate population as
a whole.  However, it was also expected that recidivists would be equally
divided between parole violators and those committing new crimes where in
actuality, those returned to prison were predominantly parole violators."

MAPS currently has a project underway to conduct a 30-year follow-up study
with all 32 inmates (if possible); my understanding is that it currently
lacks the funds to do this.

the ticktockman
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