Recovering from Rehab: Work-based Drug Therapy in the US | Fault Lines

In the midst of an American drug epidemic, low-cost drug treatment has been in high demand, and across the United States, treatment facilities are offering clients a simple solution: check into rehab and work a job to pay for your treatment.
The result has been a national trend called work-based rehab, often celebrated by drug court judges seeking a cheaper way to send people to treatment instead of prison.
But there's a catch: the jobs for private companies that clients work are unpaid, the workplaces are often dangerous, and the labour practices that underpin the entire system could well be illegal.
In Recovering from Rehab, Fault Lines and Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting investigate The Cenikor Foundation, one of the nation's largest and most lucrative work-based rehab programmes.
Cenikor's residential rehab facilities in Texas and Louisiana have partnered with more than 300 companies in the past five years, sending thousands of clients to work inside the oil and gas, warehouse, manufacturing, and construction industries - a practice that has garnered about $36m.
Drawing on the accounts of former staff who blew the whistle on this practice, we tell the stories of four men who were promised a chance at recovery from drug addiction - and are now recovering from rehab instead.
More from Fault Lines on:
KZbin - aje.io/faultlinesYT
Facebook - / ajfaultlines
Twitter - / ajfaultlines
Website - aljazeera.com/faultlines/
#AlJazeeraEnglish #Rehab #FaultLines

[@nurk_barry]

I almost went there twice, once while homeless in Baton Rouge and again while trying to beat an addiction in a Houston, family and courts were trying to sway me into going there because they advertise it as a great place to “get help” and get “clean” but even in my deteriorated state back then, I could tell something was just not right about Cenikor, it was creepy and demeaning and exploitative, I could tell just by touring the place that it would be an 18-month nightmare to be there. Lots of crazy girls roaming the hall and you can’t talk to any of them without a chaperone or there would be repercussions. And a very low success rate means that they keep most of the residents’ income without them earning a dime. Salvation Army has the same type of exploitative setup except you work strictly for them as opposed to earning a real paycheck. Both rake in millions. What a sham.

[@GrahamMessadieh]

Where can I find a list of the 300+ companies contracting with Cenikor?

[@457max]

Is speaking out about Cenikor and forcing them to redistribute profits back to the clients part of the treatment model? Probably not.

[@joymariah1864]

It's very true there was barely any treatment for addiction the main focus there was work smh. This really hurts our feelings because I was desperate to live so I stayed😔

[@edp3202]

I'm sorry for you

[@chalysen]

People projecting bought goodness but behind the veil dabbling in the trade of something that their predecessors died fighting against. This isn't capitalist greed but rather a disdain on humanity itself

[@Maka556]

Siem Reaper Given that Cenikor are being paid by these companies in the form of work contracts, keeping their patients paychecks, and being subsidized by their patients needing to rely on food stamps and Medicaid, there’s absolutely some capitalist greed in there too.

[@therenegadekautsky1423]

Siem Reaper capitalist greed drives such disdain for humanity. Wake up.

[@susanw.967]

Wow thats insane an fucked up to take advantage of people like that!

[@sobersherpa]

My treatment program was 3 weeks, then straight to work. Getting away from all the drama at sober living and outpatient and getting back to living, being responsible turn out to be the right ingredients. Having to pay rent and buy food provide me with the incentives i needed. I celebrated four years last December 2018. I'm tremendously grateful that I'm experiencing freedom from my addiction today. I took the direction of healing my emotional wounds - I applied forgiveness in areas where I was not willing to do so previously - subsequently the burden of my emotional wounds took its toll. Now that I've been granted the freedom of eliminating the burden of the emotional baggage I experienced a freedom then I never knew possible. Sometimes I go for months without being stressed or burdened with anger /resentment. Free at last free at last free at last. Very often happy joyous and free

[@justinking7335]

Good job dude!!! 1 day at a time

[@sobersherpa]

@@justinking7335 Thank you.

[@MsNooneinparticular]

Congrats on your sobriety. But it's YOUR accomplishment. Don't give credit to these exploitative bastards. There are many routes to sobriety that don't involve forced unpaid labor & endangering your physical safety. I'm glad you are clean today but that doesn't change that what they're doing is wrong. It's okay to acknowledge that; it won't endanger your sobriety. Recovery is your achievement. Don't give ANY program the glory. What you've written sounds like cult brainwashing honestly. Best wishes to you.

[@misstekhead]

Cenikor bot found.

[@kmasse81]

@3:20 I had to rewind to make sure I heard that right. After 2 YEARS, 2YEARS! After 2 years you can walk away clean and sober?!?! Wtf!

[@olzt100]

This is all about exploiting people with addictions and making money from their exploitation.

[@edp3202]

A form of slavery. Here's lodging for non stop work and no pay.

[@chasestanford4312]

As a person who attended cenikor three seperate times from 2009 to 2017 with a total of 50+ months trying to save my life from iv meth addiction and finally now a graduate and personally know atleast one of these people this is trash on most levels you chiose to be there no one is forced quit crying or leave the program again I am a graduate I am sober today and gained an awesome job as an electrician due to this program

[@MsNooneinparticular]

No, the people ordered by a judge to be there didn't "choose" to be there. If your only "choice" is between forced labor in an addiction treatment program or forced labor in the prison system, that's not a choice at all. It's slavery.

[@antoniosvekris408]

the same exploitation is happening also in the private prisons. please do a documentary for this

[@mikehawk892]

Y dont u find this reporting on the Sinclair broadcasting network? Another country has to report criminal activities?

[@RUNLIKEHELL04]

how does Cenikor get away with this?! don't they know about labor laws?!

[@anotherarmchairhistorian2831]

When I was in cenikor they fell under the department of health and hospitals. That was one way they could get away with some of the stuff they did. This is just the surface. The therapy they did was torture.

[@crazylegz324]

@@anotherarmchairhistorian2831 oh yeah definitely! I wanted to go to work to get out of that building. It’s so hard to describe the mental abuse they put people thru

[@anotherarmchairhistorian2831]

@@crazylegz324 yeah it's almost impossible to explain to someone what they put you through. You really have to experience it first hand. The way the whole thing works is so messed up. It took me about a week in orientation before I finally understood everything, how the program worked. I barely lasted 3 months. There's a reason people rather do a 20 year prison term than go through that place.

[@edp3202]

The judges and labor lawyers are in cahoots with Cenikor. They're all making a profit off the unpaid unskilled laborers.

[@RUNLIKEHELL04]

screw confidentiality....i see more serious laws being broken

[@sobersherpa]

@17:00 - notice how the producers of the film use this creepy cinematography. This place was probably bad it's not uncommon the addicts and alcoholics create chaos in treatment and then blame the treatment center. I work in treatment and see this every week. The addict or alcoholic causes a shitstorm and then blames it on the staff. I have a feeling that there's two sides of the story here

[@crazylegz324]

Actually most of us just wanted to go to work, come home, eat, go to group, and sleep. It’s hard to explain to people that this place was actually bad because I feel like I’ll be written off, but I’m sure if you asked most people who went there, most will tell you they had a negative experience. The staff made sure to inject as much chaos as possible. They wanted constant confrontation for the dumbest shit and they would pull the fire alarm at 3 in the morning just to check if someone was missing. I could write a book on the unsavory things they do. Let me put this in perspective. I didn’t care about not getting paid. In fact I was happy to go to work to get away from staff. You see most of staff where graduates and they are still very very sick people.

[@jesse6099]

Exactly put. Guy lifting weights is a total nut job. Engineered the whole story...

[@RUNLIKEHELL04]

that still doesn't justify these ppl working mad hours for free and nearly getting killed in a job they have no training in

[@misstekhead]

It’s obvious you work for Cenikor. It’s a massive racket and there have been numerous stories by various journalists about it’s abusive atmosphere. Even employees have come out online about the abhorrent work culture. What they do is NOT genuine therapy. Then again, with the amount of money lining the pockets of Cenikor makes it easier to pay for the wool to be pulled over your eyes.

[@KenBarun]

I graduated from this program years ago and learned more there than anywhere else. The report is one sided and tells the story like we are dealing with normal people. These folks are headed to prison, death, or killing someone else. No sympathy from me.

[@Maka556]

Ken Barun Congratulations on being one of the 8%. But what of the 92%? What this is is legalized slavery, trapping a captive population and forcing them to work 80 hour weeks for no pay, which happens to probably be illegal. Kindly go fuck yourself.

[@chasestanford4312]

I agree one hundred percent

[@MissAmanda0515]

Agree

[@crazylegz324]

A lot of people there are normal people with a drug problem, who don’t have the money to go to a normal rehab. That being said I think most, if not all, rehabs are exploitive.