The following complaint and motion from the Avenal Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center in New Jersey is significant for two reasons.  The first is that it presents a view from the inside of a treatment and assessment procedure.  There is a considerable controversy about the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of sexual offender treatment programs.  A voice seldom heard in the literature on this issue is that of the people who are recipients of the assessment and treatment procedures.  It is reasonable to expect that there is some level of bias possible in research programs that are designed, administered, and interpreted by those persons who vend the programs and the assessment procedures.  It may be important to hear what the people who are assessed and treated have to say about what they experience.  It may assist in improving both assessment and treatment.  The second significant aspect of this complaint and motion is that it demonstrates what a group of people can accomplish, living in a Draconian, Spartan, and rigidly controlled environment with very few resources.  It may be difficult for anyone not actually living in a prison environment to grasp or comprehend what it may be as far as ability to function.  It is likely that many of the persons functioning quite well in a normal academic or business environment could not make it at all in a prison.  This effort from within that environment deserves respect and acknowledgement even if is is not agreed with as a complaint.

Ralph Underwager
August 11, 2003

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