Phoenix House Alums Returning for a Reunion
Dozens of former convicts who are graduates of the Phoenix House drug-treatment program headed back Friday to its Santa Ana center, at 1207 E. Fruit St. But it wasn’t for counseling--just a picnic-style reunion.
Organizers say it gave the graduates a chance to be reunited with counselors they haven’t seen in years. There was another purpose as well: to promote Proposition 36, the new state law that emphasizes more treatment programs for drug addicts and less prison time.
All the returnees at the reunion were graduates of in-prison treatment programs put on by Phoenix House, a statewide nonprofit agency.
“Treatment, not incarceration, is the only answer to the drug crisis,” spokeswoman Arlene Winnick said.
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