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New Choices, Harris County Jail
Houston, TX | See other Texas rehab reviews
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Why did you choose this facility?
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Court Order |
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Tell us about the experience - was it positive or negative?
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It was extremely negative. All of the rules and
principles that were the underlying part of the
program were broken constantly by the inmates
who would break every rule given to us in the
New Choices Handbook. The program was built
around the 12 step program of AA, with
counselors contributing additional support and
guidance and material for the inmates. The
problem was that it did not take into account
that many of us had issues that were not being
dealt with, i.e. death. If you "worked the
program" to its' fullest, you were supposed to
come out on the other side with the tools you
could utilize to enable yourself to go back into
society and be able to change the way you dealt
with your drug habit, i.e. no longer making
those choices to do drugs. It ended up being
cultish, contradictory to its' own teaching
process by way of how all of the inmates acted
after the counselors were gone. The counselors
had some inmates on the inside who would
transfer information to them because the
counselors could not be there often, and talking
to them one on one was impossible. The fear,
paranoia, extortion by other inmates, stealing,
physical attacks, sex going on at night, and so
many other negative emotions did not contribute
to any type of positive rehabilitative program.
A cookie cutter program designed to scare,
intimidate, demoralize, belittle, punish, etc.
does not work for me. I definitely knew I had a
problem, I was and am not a self-pitying person
and my problems were rooted in many areas that
could not be addressed by this program, only
every problem I had was exacerbated by the way I
was treated there. |
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Do you feel the program was successful?
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Not at all. I was released over a year ago
after being in the program for 3 months (I was
kicked out because they said I did not do my
homework, but in reality, I had been sexually
assaulted by another inmate). I have remained
out of jail and drug free since December, 2007.
This was not due to the program, but to the
counseling and therapy I received after being
released from jail. I had post traumatic stress
syndrome from what went on in there and suffered
terrible nightmares. People who
were "successful" and graduated from this
program are now in prison or jail, never
learning anything (I know of 5 offhand). |
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What advice would you give somebody considering going to this facility?
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I would say I feel very sorry for them, and that
they should try to do the best that they can,
with an open mind. You are in the prison
system, remember, and just like all of Harris
County Jail, it's an entirely corrupt operation.
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