Question by Maricopa County: Do you feel sorry for this illegal or was justice served?
He was one of 107 Mexican men who had started out that morning in shackles at the York County Prison and had been placed by immigration officials on a chartered plane at Harrisburg International Airport for a flight to the border. The journey was part of a now daily exodus that has made the south-central region of Pennsylvania a critical hub in the federal government’s efforts to deport undocumented immigrants.

Now 37, Mr. Cruz had not been in his native country since crossing illegally more than two decades before. He was leaving behind his parents, siblings, a young daughter he hardly knew and a seven-year prison stint in Virginia that followed a 2002 night of binge drinking and a hit-and-run crash. He had no clothes except his brown prison jumpsuit and a pair of blue slippers.Mr. Cruz, who became a devout Christian during his time in prison, plans to continue his religious studies and spread the word of God as a Mennonite missionary in his homeland.When Mr. Cruz crossed the border as a teenager in the 1980s, it was “kind of easy,” he said last month while awaiting deportation. The United States had far fewer border patrol agents than it has today.

His parents were already living in Los Angles, and Mr. Cruz wanted to join them. Most of his four brothers and three sisters would make similar journeys.

After a decade living on the west coast, the family decided to move to Harrisonburg, Va., to get away from the growing dangers of gangs and crime in Los Angeles. In Virginia, Mr. Cruz found work in a poultry factory, where he put turkeys on hooks before they were slaughtered.

By then, Mr. Cruz’s older brother had developed a drinking problem. Mr. Cruz, a regular churchgoer, initially resisted such temptations. But he soon started drinking with his brother.

“It was just little by little,” he said. “Then I was an alcoholic.”

The pair also smoked marijuana, despite admonitions from their parents. Mr. Cruz attended rehabilitation programs, but he didn’t have any success until he left his family to live on his own in Phoenix.

There he met Rosario Mendoza, a devoted Christian who helped him recover from his addictions. She also persuaded him to reconcile with his parents and return to Virginia. Mr. Cruz brought Ms. Mendoza with him, and the couple had a daughter named Paula.

Mr. Cruz also reconnected with his old group of friends, and he again started drinking and using drugs.

In November 2002, an intoxicated Mr. Cruz tried to drive home after watching a boxing match. He struck a woman’s car and kept driving before crashing again. He woke up in the hospital with a broken shoulder and neck and chest injuries. He later learned that the woman in the car had been pregnant and suffered a miscarriage.

During his first night in prison, Mr. Cruz tried to hang himself with a sweater. Guards put him under suicide watch.

At the prison health clinic, a nurse gave him a Bible and told him, “I’ll be praying for you.”

Her words provided comfort. Mr. Cruz resolved to change. He pleaded guilty to criminal charges and accepted a 10-year prison sentence and the loss of his visa to stay in the United States, which his parents had helped him get a decade before.

At Green Rock Correctional Center in Chatham, Va., Mr. Cruz immersed himself in Christianity, attending Bible study and theology classes sponsored by Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University. He served as a translator at weekend services for other Latinos in the prison.

Best answer:

Answer by Tom
No. I feel justice was served. He is, after all, an ILLEGAL immigrant.

Add your own answer in the comments!

Question by Angie: Will medicaid pay for alcohol rehab in Utah?
If you had a brother, sister, son, or daughter that needs help. Would you do anything you could to help them? This is a disease!

Best answer:

Answer by raysny
No. Although alcoholism is considered a disease by some, it is treated as a behavior by the government.

http://askjan.org/media/alcohol.html#ADA

Most rehabs are 12step-based, based on AA. Rehabs have a slightly better success rate than Alcoholics Anonymous which is estimated to be about 5%, the same as no treatment at all. People who fail in AA and 12step facilitation tend to fall harder than those who were not exposed to 12step treatment, which teaches people they are powerless to do anything about their addiction, that even God cannot cure alcoholism, only grant a daily reprieve from the desire to drink.

Dr. Brandsma found that A.A. increased the rate of binge drinking, and
Dr. Ditman found that A.A. increased the rate of rearrests for public drunkenness, and
Dr. Walsh found that “free A.A.” made later hospitalization more expensive, and
Doctors Orford and Edwards found that having a doctor talk to the patient for just one hour was just as effective as a whole year of A.A.-based treatment.
Dr. George E. Vaillant, the A.A. Trustee, found that A.A. treatment was completely ineffective, and raised the death rate in alcoholics. No other way of treating alcoholics produced such a high death rate as did Alcoholics Anonymous.
http://www.orange-papers.org/orange-letters85.html

What works? A summary of alcohol treatment research:
http://www.behaviortherapy.com/whatworks.htm

“About 75 percent of persons who recover from alcohol dependence do so without seeking any kind of help, including specialty alcohol (rehab) programs and AA. Only 13 percent of people with alcohol dependence ever receive specialty alcohol treatment.”
Alcoholism Isn’t What It Used To Be:
http://www.spectrum.niaaa.nih.gov/features/alcoholism.aspx

Give your answer to this question below!

Question by Maryy: What percent of rehabilitated people actually are cured?
ok so this is for a project….
does anyone know what percent of rehabilitated people get out and dont do the same mistake agian??? (i.e.- they would use drugs daily, went to rehab, then when they got out they quit completly)
i searched yahoo, google, and ask jeeves. i did all of my project and this is just a small part of it wich isnt really gonna be graded so keep your useless coments to yourself

Best answer:

Answer by raysny
Rehabs often claim amazing results, but the reality is less than spectacular.

According to Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_addiction
“The effectiveness of alcoholism treatments varies widely. When considering the effectiveness of treatment options, one must consider the success rate based on those who enter a program, not just those who complete it. Since completion of a program is the qualification for success, success among those who complete a program is generally near 100%. It is also important to consider not just the rate of those reaching treatment goals but the rate of those relapsing. Results should also be compared to the roughly 5% rate at which people will quit on their own. A year after completing a rehab program, about a third of alcoholics are sober, an additional 40 percent are substantially improved but still drink heavily on occasion, and a quarter have completely relapsed.”

That estimate is based on information from Dr. Mark Willenbring of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and in my opinion, optomistic.

” About 80 percent of addiction patients will relapse, studies suggest, and long-term success rates for treatment are estimated at 10-30 percent.
“The therapeutic community claims a 30 percent success rate, but they only count people who complete the program,” noted Joseph A. Califano Jr., of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University. “Seventy to eighty percent drop out in three to six months.” ”
http://www.addictioninfo.org/articles/1633/1/Little-Evidence-that-Costly-Treatment-Programs-Work/Page1.html

90-95% of rehabs in the US are 12step-based. The rest are Scientology or religion-based.

The 12step treatment method has been shown to have about a 5% success rate, the same as no treatment at all:

Although the success rate is the same, AA harms more people than no treatment:
1) Dr. Brandsma found that A.A. increased the rate of binge drinking, and
2) Dr. Ditman found that A.A. increased the rate of rearrests for public drunkenness, and
3) Dr. Walsh found that “free A.A.” made later hospitalization more expensive, and
4) Doctors Orford and Edwards found that having a doctor talk to the patient for just one hour was just as effective as a whole year of A.A.-based treatment.
5) Dr. George E. Vaillant, the A.A. Trustee, found that A.A. treatment was completely ineffective, and raised the death rate in alcoholics. No other way of treating alcoholics produced such a high death rate as did Alcoholics Anonymous.
http://www.orange-papers.org/orange-letters85.html

1) http://www.orange-papers.org/orange-effectiveness.html#Brandsma
2) http://www.orange-papers.org/orange-effectiveness.html#Ditman
3) http://www.orange-papers.org/orange-effectiveness.html#Walsh
4) http://www.orange-papers.org/orange-effectiveness.html#Orford
5) http://www.orange-papers.org/orange-effectiveness.html#Vaillant

Add your own answer in the comments!

Question by Angie: Will medicaid pay for alcohol rehab in Utah?
If you had a brother, sister, son, or daughter that needs help. Would you do anything you could to help them? This is a disease!

Best answer:

Answer by raysny
No. Although alcoholism is considered a disease by some, it is treated as a behavior by the government.

http://askjan.org/media/alcohol.html#ADA

Most rehabs are 12step-based, based on AA. Rehabs have a slightly better success rate than Alcoholics Anonymous which is estimated to be about 5%, the same as no treatment at all. People who fail in AA and 12step facilitation tend to fall harder than those who were not exposed to 12step treatment, which teaches people they are powerless to do anything about their addiction, that even God cannot cure alcoholism, only grant a daily reprieve from the desire to drink.

Dr. Brandsma found that A.A. increased the rate of binge drinking, and
Dr. Ditman found that A.A. increased the rate of rearrests for public drunkenness, and
Dr. Walsh found that “free A.A.” made later hospitalization more expensive, and
Doctors Orford and Edwards found that having a doctor talk to the patient for just one hour was just as effective as a whole year of A.A.-based treatment.
Dr. George E. Vaillant, the A.A. Trustee, found that A.A. treatment was completely ineffective, and raised the death rate in alcoholics. No other way of treating alcoholics produced such a high death rate as did Alcoholics Anonymous.
http://www.orange-papers.org/orange-letters85.html

What works? A summary of alcohol treatment research:
http://www.behaviortherapy.com/whatworks.htm

“About 75 percent of persons who recover from alcohol dependence do so without seeking any kind of help, including specialty alcohol (rehab) programs and AA. Only 13 percent of people with alcohol dependence ever receive specialty alcohol treatment.”
Alcoholism Isn’t What It Used To Be:
http://www.spectrum.niaaa.nih.gov/features/alcoholism.aspx

Add your own answer in the comments!

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