Daily News from New York, New York • 148

Mmlmlism (NEWS foto by John Puprer A A young alcoholic takes a look into his future at A A Intergroup office Treatment obtuse approach of the courts to this problem." Mrs. Marty Mann, executive director of the National Committee on Alcoholism, meeting at the Pushed by JVlurtagh (This is the last' of a series on Alcoholics Anonymous by a NEWS reporter sent behind the AA scenes to bring up to date its 19-year-old success story.) By JOHN WEBSTER Throwing an alcoholic into jail is tantamount to giving', a peron a prison term because he suffers from diabetes. An alcoholic is not a criminal. Frequently, he is an exceptionally high type of individual who suffers from an allergy to alcohol. For him.

"one drink is Um many a thousand are not I for Victim of the laws against drunkenness, "Night after night, in one city after another, we find the police picking tip drunks on the streets and locking them up in the 'drunk tank. In the morning they are re- leased or sentenced to a short term in jail, only to be picked up again soon after their release. Many of these chronic drunks have records of several hundred arrests." A Merry-Go-Round; Jail To Skid Row to Jail Consider what this does to the alcoholic, lie seeks refuge Skid Kow and is brought back for another jail term the moment he slips. I This can result only in despair and frustration that will drive him back to the bottle the moment he is free again. Magistrate M.irtagh has attend-; ed more than a score of AA meet-i ings during the last year.

In ad- dition, he studied the subject of alcoholism for a month last year at the Yale Center of Alcoholic Stud-: ies. I As a result, once every two weeks an AA meeting is held in one of the courtrooms at 100 Centre a spot near the Bowery. The choice tt location is designed to bring in prospects from Skid Row. The first such meeting several weeks ago was heavily attended by AA vol- jKntem and prospects. We hope to build up a really large membership in this particular unit." said Murtagh, "and I think the word is getting around to men who were completely devoid of hope.

"I think that A.Vs group therapy is the best answer to the problems of these men and women and we are trying to link our Hart Island rehabilitation project to the A A for bct results." Homeless Men's Shelter Draws Mcsfy Alcoholics i. About 15,010 men and women are arrested for alcoholism in New York City every year. Many of these are chronic reieaters. They khutv. gyuuty and ho ptlfSily.

be Possibly the Lest example of the humility that AA seeks to instill in its members is Bill the self-effacing surviving founder. This former Wall Street -broker once addressed an AA meeting that packed the auditorium of the Engi neering Society Building W. 39th St. For an hour he told his fellow AAs of the transgressions, the personal sins of omission and commission against AA's 12 Traditions the same he and Dr. Bob, his co-founder, had set up as a guide.

Resisted Temptation To Commercialize AA Among other things, he told how in the early days he had been tempted to set up a foundation and a society for alcoholic recovery, endowing the movement with his own name to make money out of it. He said that each time he was tempted to follow the get-rich-quick pattern, he was dissuaded by (NEWS foto by Bill Quinn A new A A "bones up" before a meeting on the AA message to alcoholics. an inner voice that brought him face to face with the realization that what he had found was God-given, that it must be shared and could never be used for selfish purposes. That "inner voice" has been heard by more than 150,000 recovered men and women. When an AA speaks of someone wbo has not yet sought help, he says, "He hasn't heard." But many have heard.

More are hearing. And if they listen to that small inner voice, they'll know happiness in the sobriety they can get through-the aid of I 'i tween Bowery and jail. They seldom live with their families. Those who have been married are either separated or divorced. Most cannot jobs.

The first change in the method of dealing with these alcoholics came hen Home Term Court was established in 1046. The second and most significant change came in 1'JoO, when the Department of Welfare opened Hart Island as a shelter for homeless men most of them alcoholics. Says Murtagh: "We naively hoped that the Department of Welfare was about to relieve us of the necessity of deahng with many of these lost souls. We were, of course, quickly disillusioned. The men lacked even the initiative to avail themselves of the opportunity to be rehabilitated, tew volunteered to take the cure.

To prevent abandonment of the Hart Island program, the court intervened. After conviction on a disorderly conduct charge, the judge deferred sentence. Social workers went to see the alcoholic and asked if he would care to volunteer for the cure. "On the day of sentence in Pro bation Court, the judge was advised as to the men who qualified and wished to volunteer. These men were given a 60-day workhouse sentence which, however, was suspended on condition that thev submit to rehabilitation." Hart Island follows the AA formula in most respects.

There is rood food, good housing, recrea tional facilities. Chaplains of the three principal religions vists regularly. Meetings are conducted by AA. Barracks Without Bars On Rlkers Island. Too Similar treatment is available at Rikers Island.

Instead of hous ing the alcoholic behind escape- proof steel bars, the Department of Correction has erected barracks and recreation rooms. Again AA is cooperating. The Hart Island project has been a success and continues to grow. In the fir.4 full year of operation 1951 there were 067 admissions. In the folowing year, 1U164 were admitted.

In 1953 more than 2,000 men took advantage of this modern, humane program for treatment of the dread disease of alcoholism. "We have blindly acquiesced to a barbaric system that gave us prison bars as the therapeutic approach and denied us even the most modest staif to inquire as to the nature of the problem," says Murtagh. "I have seen men readjust them-, selves to society after years on Skid Row in some measure at least through AA. I feel, too, that the Skid Rows throughout the country came into being because Hotel Statler today, estimates there are 4,000,000 problem drinkers in this country. They and the various tensions and problems they create con- tute one the nations largest health problems and perhaps its greatest social and welfare prob lem.

"Yet communities and the nation a3 a whole are helpless, just as the alcholic is helpless to control his drinking, until the public clearly understands how these 4,000,000 alchoholics differ from the 61.000,-000 normal drinkers," Mrs. Mann said. Public Must Understand How an Alcoholic Differs "The public cannot begin to solve the problem until education enables them to distinguish the victims of the progressive disease 'alcoholism from persons whose reaction to alcohol is based upon ability to control the amount of intake. She added: "To the alcoholic, the cost of refusal to admit that he cannot control his drinking, that he is sick and should seek treatment, is progressive disease ending in early death. To the com munity, the cost of failure to combat alcoholism is incalculable.

In terms of money alone, the disease is estimated to cost an annual $1,000,000,000." Speakers at the National Com-mit sessions will include Dr, Paul H. Stevenson of the Na tional Institute of Mental Health, Dr. Selden D. Bacon, director of the Yale Center of Alcohol Stud ies; Ernest E. Shepherd, admin istrator of the lo.

Ida Aicononc Rehabilitation Program and others, including Mrs. Mann. There will be discussions on "Behind the Scenes with an Alco holic," with Dr. John L. Norris, medical director of the Eastman Kodak presiding.

There will be experts on neurology, psychiatry and other subjects aligned with aleoholism. It is a far cry from the two men who began AA almost 19 years ago. It will be quite differ ent from the approach used towaid the problem drinker only a few short years ago a medieval concept of the disease that is still prevalent in many part3 of the country despite the rapid growth of AA. The new A A is asked to take a big shot of humility to counteract the arrogance that goes with the alcoholic personality and often is its most c'ominant characteristic. "Don't be a phony," we overheard one woman sponsor tell her candidate.

This is a "must" in AA. enough." Io.ssidy one of the first to recognize thin fact Wiw Chief Magistrate JohnM. Murtajrh. who has made a tudy of alcoholics and is steps to integrate the judicial framework with AA in an effort to insure that al-roholics receive treatment in-s-tead of punishment. The traditional criminal court is Hot the answer this problem.

ays Murtagh. Punishment is not a xtlution. Social courts are bring John M. Murtagh "WoutJ yon jail Tsia.ie to icalire that they Tiot he concerned with the c.rTm-e. 1 ut with whether the sufferer requires special rare.

"These is an ever-inn easing recognition that is primarily a nitUi.al n-ial problem, rather than a p-nul rie." Murtagh said. "Nevertheless, in every -ity in the country this )n is 1-eing "dealt with by Vena! law. And this tutw UhslaTtd-irig the fact that there is nodreari-r example the futility of using penal sanction to solve a iCjgreLilejn than the enforcement i yi 'V- I M-jfc j. (, mt.