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SHANNON,
13 In 1992 I was placed at the Emily Griffith Center Larkspur location at the age of 14. I spent about a year there. The reason for placement was a sexual offense done when I was 13 in California. Basically I engaged in sexual acts with 3 neighborhood boys ages 13, 11, and 8. All of which were done consensually as admitted by the other boys themselves, meaning there was no physical force. Upon placement I was placed in the sex
offender treatment
program at the Griffith Center. While I can't say that every tactic
used by the
Griffith Center in the course of their "treatment" effort was
unreasonable, I believe that the treatment provided in its totality was
definitly not mainstream. Every day the treament was intense and mind
altering.
Writing stories many pages in length about what I did sexually to
people
and extrapalating on how I accomplished access to your victims. As
if,
manipulation and coercion was used on a continual basis throughout my
childhood.
Although, this form of treatment was helpful in the long run as it
helped
identify behaviors that I used that I was not aware may have
contributed to
gaining access to my victims...the use of this information was
detrimental to
my sanity at age 14. Take the above with the use of a Sex
Offender Creed which
had to be read publicly within the groups daily: "My Name is _________
among other things I am a sexual perpetrator. I did sexually
perpetrate:
(insert names of victims and actions done) etc." The staff members
continually
challenged you to come up with new victims constantly no matter the
circumstances or issues involving the offenses. Several youth in the
program
constantly made up victims and offenses just to appear that they were
complying
with the treatment. All of which would be used against the youth in
court at a
latter time if they failed treatment. The program also used colored jumpsuits to
publicly identify
High Risk behavior in the youth at the program. Orange Jumpsuits for
runaway
risk youth. Green Jumpsuits for Anti-Treatment youth. Blue Jumpsuits
for
sexually unaccountable youth. For a youth struggling with their
sexuality if
they engaged in a sexual act with another youth they were placed in the
blue
jumpsuit. They were more or less stigmatized with being Gay. Among other treatment forms was the use of
the
Plethesmograph. Myself and another youth, which I still have contact
with after
all these years, were the first ones in the program to ever do this
form of
treatment. It involved putting a rubberband appearing contraption
hooked up
through a computer around your penis while you sat in a dark room with
your
pants to your ankles listening to various audio recording stories. The
goal was
to measure your arrousal to deviant and non deviant material. Although
as a 14
year old with his pants to his ankle in a room anything touching the
penis
presented an arousal. After the Plethesmograph an intense barrage
of a form of
treatment called Covert Tapes began. Basically, you had to create a
sexually
deviant story outloud on tape. The goal was to get as aroused as
possible while
doing these tapes in the planning stages of an sexual offense (the
manipulation, coercion, etc.) but just before the actual act you
switched gears
attempting to disuade your arousal by making up an event that curbed
the
arousal such as: just before raping someone a police car drives by the
alley
you were in and flashes it's lights toward you. The weirdest part of
these
covert tapes is it made me 1.) Believe I was dangerous; 2.) Had me
fantasize
about things I never considered; 3.) Had me on tape talking about doing
these
crimes which I've never done and never will do all of which would end
up in
court one day if I failed treatment. The use of a sex offender cycle was used at
Griffith Center
which signified that you would always be dangerous no matter what. The
use of
tools to prevent sexually acting out were extreme in some cases. I once
went on
a trip to the movie theater with the youth group and was required to
wear a
A.R.M. (Accountablility Reminder Mechanism) Band. Supposedly this would
remind
me that I was a sex offender and needed to watch my behavior. It was a
florescent colored band you wore around your arm. Several youth that I was at the Griffith
Center program with
were hospitalized for suicide attempts and psycotic episodes of some
nature.
For a young mind having to deal with the fact that you are so dangerous
and
will never change at all was a tough thing for some people. Especially
when the
treatment made you exaggerate your risk. The living environment was also a bit
intrusive. You were
assigned 3 to a room and no 2 people could be alone in any room
together alone.
There was a pay phone that could be used on occassions located right
next to
the staff booth so they could listen in on conversation. The staff
appeared to
like catching parents supporting their kids too much and would hold
phone
therapy sessions on occassions to confront the parents. Mail both
incoming and
outgoing was monitored by staff members. Access to television was
denied...in
fact I don't recall ever seeing the news or TV and had very little idea
what
was going on in the world. There was one time they did show us a rated
R movie
though. It was about a little boy getting raped, I forget the name
of it though.
Masturbation material such as magazines pictures (yes, they actually
encouraged
this) had to be approved and initialled by staff members before you
could take
them into the bathroom to do what most teenage boys would do. They also
required that you sleep with shorts on. No undergarments could be seen
exposed. The last thing I'd like to touch on is that
at the age of 14
I was declared to be a pedophile by the psychologists at the Griffith
Center.
When I failed the treatment by running away this helped the court
sentence me
to the California Youth Authority, along with all the covert tapes and
other
writings I had produced for them. The most interesting thing was that I
became really familiar with the requirements to be diagnosed a
pedophile. One of
which at the time was that you pretty much had to be 16 years of age
and
engaged or thinking about people significantly more underage than you. Shannon
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