12 step coersion in Illinois

[Guest guest]

Here's what's happened in Illinois on the state level that I know of. Remember the difference between Federal (7th district) and State.

In the early 1980s Secretary of State Jim Edgar (later Governor) helped expand DUI punishment including evidence of AA membership.

About 1992 Rational Recovery was first used successfully by a DUI convict to regain driving privileges. In this period Rational Recovery was accepted as a recovery group alternative to AA. Since then RR has cancelled all recovery group meetings and refuses to be justification for keeping AA mainstream in these hearings or any judicial case for that matter.

About 1995 a Committtee of the Illinois Supreme Court overseeing state judicial practices sent out a memo (a copy of which they refused to supply to me) to all the circuit courts that essentially stated that judges, probation, and social service departments couldn't require only AA or jail, that they had to offer alternatives.

In Illinois there's a difference between reigning in the courts and reigning in the Secretary of State's Division of Administrative Hearings.

In the following Department of Administrative Hearings standard form all petitioners recieve (which I believe is evidence of a bald faced breach of US Constitutional Law) the petitioner is the DUI convict trying to show evidence of not being a danger to the citizens of Illinois if he/she were to regain driving privileges.

beginning of form

SECRETARY OF STATE

SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS 62758

NOTICE - LIST OF REFERENCES

Petitioners and their legal counsel are hereby notified that the Hearing Officer appointed by the Secretary of State may refer to any of the references listed below in deliberating upon petitions for driving relief, making findings of fact, drawing conclusions of law and making a recommendationa for the disposition of petitions to the Secretaryof State.

The AA Experience; Milton A. Maxwell, MacGraw Hill, 1984.

Alcoholics Anonymous; Alcoholics Anonymous World Service, Inc., 1939.

American Psychiatric Association: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders(FourthEdition); Washington, D.C., A.P.A., 1994.

Another Chance (Hope and Health for the Alcoholic Family); Sharon Wegscheider, Science andBehavior Books, Inc., 1981.

The Disease Concept of Alcoholism; E.M. Jellinek, Hillhouse Press, 1960.

800-Cocaine; Mark S. Gold M.D., Bantam Book, 1984.

Encyclopedic Handbook of Alcoholism; Pattison and Kaufman, eds., 1982.

'll Quit Tomorrow; Vernon E. , Harper and Row, 1980.

Loosening the Grip: A Handbook ofAlcohol Information (Third Edition); J. Kinney and G. Leaton,1987.

The Natural History of Alcoholism; E. Vaillant, Harvard University.

Physician's Desk Reference (49th Edition); Medical Economics, Inc., 1995.

Recent Developments in Alcoholism; M. Galanter, ed., 1987.

Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions; Alcoholics Anonymous World Service Iric., 1952.

DAH H-61.1

end of formAt a quasijudicial hearing the petitioner makes his case, about half the time with a lawyer, and gets his thumbs up or down about two months later. One person using Rational Recovery a number of years ago was turned down for the following reason. This is a quote from the thumbs down reply from the secretary of state

(1997)

ORDER

Findings of Fact

Item 10 d.

quote

The petitioner testified that he believes he is alcohol dependent and cannot drink again. However, he disagrees with the commonly held belief that alcoholism is a disease. The Petitioner also disagrees with the belief that alcoholism is not curable. The Petitioner is recommended to return to his treatment provider to address the issue of the disease concept of alcoholism. The Petitioner shall not be considered for full reinstatement of driving privileges until the issue is addressed.

endquote

The lawyers and hearings officers are professional buddies and often switch jobs from time to time, totally incestuous. Some lawyers will test the system, but only with foresight that they'll get a big cut of whatever moves in to replace AA. RR has been repeatedly misrepresented and maligned by all types of lawyers and human service providers here in Illinois in an attempt to not rock the boat.

There's also the deep deep Catholic/Judiciary connection here in Chicago. Father Ignatious McDermott (a huge bigwig in Chicago) (runs Haymarket recovery program) was one of those early priests to help AA way back in the 1940's and 50's get a foot in the door of acceptability in human services. He has led the judiciary towards AA punishment for decades through his buddies on the bench. Those early fights in the Catholic Church over whether to accept AA or not are a whole unpublished story yet to be told.

On the federal level, there is a case here in the seventh district coming down soon against a major employer where the EEOC is taking sides against the employer's EAP/AA program that was mandated on the plaintiff. I am in the middle of it and will let you all be among the first to know what happens. It is a slowwwww process, but Stern is the plaintiff's lawyer, YESSS!

Dave Trippel