Therapeutic Communities

History

The first therapeutic communities were established in hospitals in England during the 1940s by psychiatrist Maxwell Jones; the programs were established to help war veterans who were having problems locating and maintaining employment. In 1958, recovering alcoholic Charles Dederich adopted the approach in treating narcotics addicts in the San Francisco area, establishing the wellknown Synanon drug treatment program. Synanon declined in the late 1970s after critics alleged that religious undertones in the program gave it a cultlike status. Regardless, similar communities continued to emerge for drug abusers and addicts, such as Phoenix House, Odyssey House, and Daytop Village.

In 1975, the Therapeutic Communities of America (TCA), a nonprofit association dedicated to promoting therapeutic communities, was established. Still in existence today, TCA represents more than 400 substance abuse treatment programs. TCA members provide detoxification, residential care, case management, education, vocational services, and medical services. TCA is attempting to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of substance abuse programs. The organization seeks to promote cooperation among therapeutic communities as well as to educate the public about the need for and the benefits of substance abuse treatment. It also seeks to educate policymakers about the value of therapeutic communities.

Officials introduced the first therapeutic community in a U.S. federal prison at the Federal Correctional Facility in Danbury, Connecticut, in 1966. That same year, New York's Clinton Prison started looking into doing the same. However, it was not until the Anti–Drug Abuse Act of 1986, which allocated federal funds for drug treatment from the Bureau of Justice Assistance and other agencies, that interest in therapeutic communities for prisons was really stimulated. In the late 1990s, this interest grew when the Office of National Drug Control Policy and TCA joined forces to develop a set of operating standards for prison-based therapeutic communities. The eventual plan is to put [Page 956]120 standards across 11 program domains into a format for use by national accrediting organizations.

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