Compulsory Treatment in New York: A Brief Narrative History of Misjudgment, Mismanagement, and Misrepresentation

Abstract

The theory of civil commitment holds that while some drug users are motivated for treatment, most are not. For these, there must be some lever for diverting them into treatment. The New York experience with compulsory treatment is especially interesting, and much of what happened was never reported in the literature. The New York Parole Project was deemed a success, but for a variety of reasons the data on which the Program was evaluated were tainted. New York's Narcotic Addiction Control Commission (NACC), reportedly the largest and costliest civil commitment program in history was doomed to failure from its inception because of mismanagement and misrepresentation. First, it was founded, in part, on biased research findings. Second, its treatment facilities were former prisons having general environments that were unconducive to behavioral change. Third, treatment facility directors were for the most part political appointees with little or no administrative and/or clinical experience. Fourth, NACC's aftercare program was incapable of influencing or controlling the behavior of its charges. Finally, NACC lost public support through a number of Watergate-like coverups.