Therapeutic Center for Drug-Addict Prisoners

The therapeutic center for drug – addict prisoners opened at the beginning of September 2002 in Eleonas/Thibes Greece. It is a specialized therapeutic detain center under the umbrella of the Greek Ministry of Justice, Transparency and Human Rights. On its property, addicted prisoners from Greek prisons serve their sentence while they follow a therapeutic multi-stage setting.

The Center adopts the therapeutic philosophy of drug free community programs: voluntary participation, abstain of drug usage, no violence, no sex, respect for the origins and the limits of the program, participation in all activities of the program (therapeutic sessions, work, educational schemes etc.), respect for each other and mutual help among its members. The program is multi-staged: counseling sessions at the central prison in Athens, and a preparing stage (A’ stage) with the entrance of inmates at KATK. Following the first stage and after the evaluation of their motivation to change, the inmates enter the second stage (B’ stage) in which work and therapy coexist. The goal is to stabilize therapeutic commitment and to abandon “prison and drug culture”. A pre-community stage helps «advanced» members of the program to move to the next stage. The third and main stage (C’ stage) is the community based life in which inmates live, work and share daily life along with intense therapy. After a stay of at least six months and while they are released, inmates are allowed to move to the final stage (D’ stage): that includes rehabilitation and social re-integration of the former inmate to social milieu. The program offers shelter availability along group therapy and various leisure activities.

The Center, along with security and administrative staff, employs a psychiatrist who is responsible for the scientific supervision of the program, four psychologists, four social workers, one music therapist, a nurse and a criminologist-sociologist. The staff is trained on drug therapy issues and supervised from an external therapeutic expertise.

Counseling stage: once a week group therapy.

A stage: twice a week group therapy.

B stage: daily morning and evening sessions, once a week group therapy, music therapeutic session once a week, deviant once a week group therapy, language sessions, athletics, theater, cinema and often various other extra educational and therapeutic schemes.

On the pre-community group two weekly group therapeutic meetings along with daily meetings.

C stage:daily morning sessions, three weekly therapeutic group sessions, art therapy (painting, theater), educational sessions, peer sessions, encounter groups, daily work structure sessions, cinema and extra therapeutic schemes.

D stage: twice a week therapy.

All members of the program have additional sessions with psychologists and social workers. In addition there are family meetings with social workers and once a month a therapeutic group meeting for relatives.