100 lines
5.4 KiB
Plaintext
100 lines
5.4 KiB
Plaintext
From: an49019@anon.penet.fi (the ticktockman)
|
|
Newsgroups: alt.drugs
|
|
Subject: Concord Prison Psilocybin Rehabilitation Project
|
|
Message-ID: <201302Z02011994@anon.penet.fi>
|
|
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
|
|
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|
To find out more about the anon service, send mail to help@anon.penet.fi.
|
|
Due to the double-blind, any mail replies to this message will be anonymized,
|
|
and an anonymous id will be allocated automatically. You have been warned.
|
|
Please report any problems, inappropriate use etc. to admin@anon.penet.fi.
|
|
|
|
|