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[NO TITLE] May 1, 2019 Pen America Prison Writing Program APWA c/o Hamilton College 198 College Hill Road Clinton, NY 13323-128 There are more than 300 different therapy programs and some state treatment programs are in chaos. They are based on fear, pain and shame with a lot of negative words and thinking. They use the word treatment which by definition is to deal with surface symptoms to keep opening up old wounds until they will no longer heal to create a lot of anxiety and despair. I have been looking for better answers and after reading some books on traditional Chinese medicine because of poor health care for some I was seeing in prison, realized they look for the root cause of a problem if a person is having to take aspirin for a headache and pain. When they are able to solve the root issues the pain goes away and you no longer need to take aspirin. Why are not the highly paid mental health experts able to find some of the root issues and be able to teach and coach those who are in prison programs to make better choices in life? After all when you get down to the basics, "We are really our own best doctors." While going through a victim impact seminar I started asking the question; when does healing start and resilience begin? For victims as well as those who have caused the pain as perpetrators. When you think of psychology as an observational sport you can see a lot of trends develop. A few I've noticed are: - After 3-5 years a person develops the markers for PTSD. - In 10 years a person will have experienced a traumatic event. - After 20 years you start to become institutionalized and realized the world has passed you by. When the mental health experts developed the "Marshall Plan for Corrections" in Germany after WWII they considered 20 years as being a life sentence. They also developed apprentice programs to teach the unskilled ways to make a living while they were in prison and kept some of what they earned from their work as a grub stake to help them survive while they were starting out in life on the outside. I will not go into detail about their program but do believe it is available on a web site some place - I've heard their notes are amazing to most of us who have to depend on dead tree books for most of our research. An interesting study by Wheaton College a few years ago shows that Humanistic programs ran by states have up to a 68% failure or recidivism rate and faith based programs are having less than a 14% rate and in some cases less than 4%. That is too wide a spread to be a statistical error. Seems there should be a desire to find programs that are not in chaos and having the failure rate of programs who are so fearful of "Separation of Church and State." They (states) can use all kinds of teachings from eastern beliefs and philosophies, but cannot accept the successes of programs like Teen Challenge, AA and successful church programs. Thank you for your efforts and giving us a place to write and vent some of the time. Sincerely, Alvin Smith Colorado Springs, CO
