It’s 1:30 on a Friday afternoon, and Alcoholics Anonymous is set to begin inside of the Addiction to Recovery Center at San Quentin. “Anonymity makes it comfortable for people to talk,” explains AA program director Carl P. “What is said or talked about in AA remains in AA. It’s the principle of all our traditions, because of its anonymous founding.” The core philosophy of AA is to place principle before personality, according to Carl P. His goal is to provide incarcerated men with a way to examine their relationships, how alcohol … [Read more...] about The power of San Quentin’s Alcoholics Anonymous
Alcoholics Anonymous
AA’s Prison History
When documenting the greatest inventions of the 21st Century, Time Magazine included the Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) program in the top five. Its “12 Steps” have been the model for almost every subsequent addiction recovery program ranging from sex to gambling. In June of 1935 there were two alcoholics who had found themselves facing a disease they were both convinced would slowly destroy them. Both wanted desperately to end what was eventually described in the Big Book of AA as: “Pitiful and incomprehensible demoralization.” The idea of … [Read more...] about AA’s Prison History