The history of Narconon
The origins of the Narconon ® Program
On August 2, 1965, William Benitez, an inmate at State Prison Arizona jumped out of his double bunk in the old cellblock where he was housed and made the following statement on his wall calendar: "Decision to develop drugs Foundation. "He also toured the 18th the same month, his target date for the approach of the Prison requesting permission to establish a program of detoxification in the prison walls.
Officials denied permission for the following six months. Demand for Mr. Benitez to launch a program consisting of twenty convicted drug addicts caused concern to officials who feared such a program could constitute a security problem (such programs were rare in prisons during that decade). Officials had little reason to believe that the application of a habitual drug addict and repeatedly convicted felon would result in the largest program of rehabilitation of worlds.
Mr. Benitez persisted and finally assured officials the program was necessary and it would not present a threat to the safe and orderly operation of the prison. After being allowed to start the program on a trial basis, he founded the Narconon program (narcotics, NO) February 19, 1966.
Today, the Narconon program has expanded this program in a state prison in Arizona to include programs community in many states and countries such as Denmark, Italy, Holland, Germany, France, Sweden, Spain, Canada, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Colombia, Switzerland, New Zealand, South Africa, Ghana, United Kingdom, Australia, Indonesia, Taiwan, Argentina and Brazil.
Until his death from a sudden illness in 1999, Mr. Benitez was a Hearing Officer with the Department of Corrections in Arizona, the same system that once kept him under lock and key. Below, he tells his own story:
"I started smoking pot in 1947, when I was thirteen. Then I switched to injecting opium and other drugs when I was about fifteen. I started to have trouble and was arrested for various crimes, so I decided to join the Marines to see if I could get out of drugs. Instead, I eventually arrested for drug possession during the Korean conflict, received a court martial and was discharged as undesirable.
In subsequent years, I continued to try to stay away from drugs. Sometimes I could stay clean for a short time, then I go right on the needle again. I carried the monkey for about eighteen years, and it cost me thirteen years to be enclosed calendar. In addition to make time in the Marines, I'm not a sentence in federal prison and was also sentenced to three times the state courts of Arizona.
On my last trip to prison, I pled guilty on December 22, 1964 to possession of narcotics. Because I had to be sentenced as a recidivist, the penalty called for a compulsory year of fifteen years, and up to life. I remember talking to a staff of the court and tell him how I was still leaving the drugs alone and maybe even start a program of drug. I remember his words so well: "The best thing to do with guys like you, after the first, is to take you behind a building and you and everyone a favor and you out of your misery. "
My attorney arranged for me to go to court just before Christmas, the feeling that the spirit of the festival could be in my favor. It may have worked. I made my plea to the judge telling him all the attempts I had made over the years to stop using drugs, such as joining the Marines to engage in hospitals for psychiatric care and therapy on several occasions, isolating myself in mining towns in a personal attempt to get rid of the habit, and even how two marriages had not helped me recover. I told him that, despite all these setbacks, I was going to be done and he would find a solution to my problem, I did not stop smoking. He must have thought there was still a spark of hope for me. He condemned the compulsory period of fifteen years, but instead of executing to life, he has run fifteen to sixteen years.
After arriving at the prison, a friend of mine gave me some reading material to keep me occupied while I was in the cellblock guidance pending their transfer to the general population. Among the equipment was old, tattered book, Fundamentals of Thought, by L. Ron Hubbard. I heard of his writings when I previously served a sentence of ten years at Arizona State Prison, but had never read. I had always been an avid reader of books on human behavior. Yet, this small book impressed me More than anything I had ever read before. I read and reread and then purchased additional books by Mr. Hubbard and studied them very carefully over the next year, even in late hours of the night in my cell.
Equipment identified capacity and human development. I was surprised I had never run across the workability within a multitude other works that I studied for years. I am not a gullible person when it comes to accepting new or different approaches or ideas. If work is good. Otherwise, throw them out the window. They either work or they do not. I was tired experimenting with so many ideas and philosophies, many having credence only because some "authority" had written.
What impressed me most about [Hubbard's materials] was that they focus not only on identification capabilities, but also on methods (practical exercises) to develop. I realized that the drug was no longer a handicap, "" resulting when a person ceases to use abilities essential to constructive survival.
I found that if a person rehabilitated and applied certain abilities, that person could persevere toward goals set, confront life, isolate problems and resolve them, contact life, be responsible and set ethical standards, and function in the Gaza certainty.
I finally realized I developed the core capabilities needed to overcome my drug problem. Feeling safe ground, I knew I had to make this technology available other addicts in prison. I thought back on the years of all the junkies I had shot with, and remembered their conversation, the more valuable "One of these days I'll quit." I found ways and he would share with them. Then I took the actual decision to write on my calendar page in my cell.
So effective was the technology I learned that I experienced a freedom long lost to me. The prison walls of height became only temporary barriers. I realized that my 6x8 cells foot was all that I needed a command post. Even back then, I knew Narconon would reach international proportions, and even wrote about it in 1967, "The purpose of Narconon.
The program was sanctioned by the warden, and he soon began to spread from its original twenty members. I then started to receive applications from non-dependent prisoners who wanted to go to Narconon. They said they were impressed with what Narconon students had told them about the program and what technologies are taught. I approached Administration permission to include non-addicts. At first he resisted, saying that non-addict members do not need services of Narconon, and could disrupt the program.
I showed the authorities that any person detained or otherwise could benefit from Narconon because its attention was on the rise in capacity, we had a system of ethics is part program, and that responsibility and commitment required of a member would soon dissuade anyone not serious about improvement. I managed to convince the prison staff. The program met its expectations so well that seven months after the beginning of Narconon, I was asked to start another program for young offenders housed in the annex outside the prison.
I then wrote Mr. Hubbard about Narconon. He and his organizations supported our program donation of books, tapes and course materials. We received hundreds of letters from around the world validation of our efforts to make drug addiction and criminal or illegal behavior a thing of the past in our lives. "
Shortly after the founding Narconon program, William Benitez searches of court conviction and discovered he had been tried under the wrong statute and was sentenced beyond that prescribed by law. Upon his return to the court, Mr. Benitez was advised that he could possibly be re-sentenced to time served and be based on his eighteen months already served because of denial of justice.
The Narconon program was only old few months at the time and Mr. Benitez believes that the program would collapse if he does not finish. Rather than a petition for his immediate release, he requested a sentence of smaller size that would allow it to fully implement the development program Narconon. The Re-Court sentenced him to four to six years, leaving him sixteen months to serve. Mr. Benitez returned to prison and developed the program to its full capacity. As he says, "was the best, but toughest decision I ever made in my life. I loved to walk this court a free man. "
The Narconon program subsequently came to public attention when journalists leave guaranteed Arizona Daily Star guard to interrogate the prisoner who has asked to be returned to the walls. The Star printed a two-part series on the Narconon Program August 1966. TV Channel 10 News from Phoenix also took its cameras to the prison to interview Mr. Benitez and members of the Narconon program and observe its functions.
Mr. Benitez completed his prison term and was released in October 1967. He moved to California to expand the organization Narconon and make it accessible to people in need. Mr. Hubbard and his organizations supported the effort, resulting from expansion in the world.
Of Years later, Mr. Benitez returned to Arizona and was hired as Inmate Liaison by former Department Services Arizona Corrections Director, Ellis McDougall, 1981. Until his death in 1999, he served as an officer of hearing prisoners' complaints to the Director Corrections to the Central Headquarters.
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About the Author
Caratacus freelance writer and a supporter of narconon, the world's most successful; drug-free rehab. he edits the newsletter of Narconon's UK centre in Hastings, England - visit http://narconon-enews.blogspot.com
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