Second Chance Therapy Working

I only followed the Second Chance issue, a drug rehabilitation center for inmates, from afar.

Apparently, Scientology critics have been blasting the center because "Some of its training manuals are based on research by L. Ron Hubbard" - irrespective of whether the program is effective or not.

It seems the center will now have to close because it built a sauna within its premises, for which it did not have a permit, and also for housing inmates from other counties who may not have been eligible for the rehabilitation program. Abruptly shuttling people from the facility on Christmas Eve, caught on camera by police officers watching the facility after they had been tipped off, did not help.

This being said, Carlsbad Magistrate Judge Henry Castaneda who assigned inmate to the center finds it a pity that the center would have to close, because, as he reports, the results have been very positive:

"They have been successful on coming out. They have learned from the program. I see them on the street and they look healthy," he added. [...]

Castaneda reported at that time that he has sentenced 11 individuals to the Second Chance Center since late last year. He said seven have completed the program and five were currently in the residential drug rehab program that takes six months to complete.

Castaneda said the individuals he has sent to the program through the court's alternative sentencing program had been habitual drug offenders. Since their completion of the program, he noted, he sees them on the street but has not seen them back in court.

"They are holding down jobs and they look healthy," he said Monday.

Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chaves, himself, though he terminated the city's lease with Second Chance (who has until Jan. 31 to vacate the facility), qualifies the abrupt termination of the center as "an unfortunate end to what could have been an alternative drug treatment center".