It is a full moon on a Saturday night in Newport Beach, California. Every crime except murder increase during a full moon and tonight is no exception. Jim, a tattooed and weathered man in his late fifties, or maybe is early thirties, its hard to tell with recovering drug addicts and alcoholics, is sitting at his station in a building which has come to be known simply as the “Center” when his Motorola cell phone/two way radio beeps loudly. Jim reaches into his holster, pulls out his cell phone and holds it up to his ear in one swift motion. He presses down on the talk button and waits for a beep. “Yeah, this is Jim.” Another loud beep. “This is Mark, I’m over at the 48th Street house and there’s no sign of Scott.” Jim sighs, “It’s still only ten minutes past curfew, swing by on your way back from sweeps and check again.” Beep. “I asked his roommates if they knew where he was and they were being quiet about it.” Jim’s mind starts racing and he immediately shifts gears. “Alright, I was worried about this. I think he went off with Sabrina after the meeting tonight. They were acting strange, and I knew something was up.” Beep. “So what do you want me to do?” Beep. “Search his room, leave a note on his bed for him to call me, and make sure you keep your phone on. I’ll get back to you.”
Jim sits back in his chair and thinks for a moment before dialing a number on his phone. “Hey, this is Jim, is Sabrina there? She isn’t. Where is she? You don’t know.” Jim’s tone takes on a knowing sarcasm. “You know where she is, so just tell me. Is she with Scott? That’s what I thought.” Jim switches back to his radio and beeps John, another field agent who is always out on the streets patrolling the local area. “Yeah John, this is Jim, I need you to hunt down Scott and Sabrina, it looks like they’re running. Remember that Scott has overdosed on Heroin three times before he came to us so be ready.” Beep. “I think I know where to look for them. I’ll take care of it.” John signs off. Not twenty minutes go by before a John’s signature black Chevrolet pulls up in front of the Center and Scott and Sabrina, two white, middle-class twenty year olds, spill out onto the sidewalk. John gets out of his car smiling as Sabrina vomits into the gutter. “Where did you find them?” Jim asks. “They were trying to hitchhike their way back from a bar in the next town. They didn’t put up much of a fight. They knew they were caught. It looks like Sabrina just tried heroin for the first time.” Sabrina moans as she bends over at the waist in anticipation of further rebellion from her stomach. Jim beeps someone with his radio and only a beat goes by before Mark’s voice can be heard. “Did you find them?” “Yeah John just brought them back, but they’re going to need a ride to detox.” “I’ll be there in five minutes.” Jim slips his phone back into its holster with a smile. Then, turning to Scott and Sabrina, he says, “You should know by now that you were going to get caught. Now you’ll have time to think about your actions at the Ranch.” Jim looks at Scott who is hanging his head in shame. Sabrina looks worse. Jim bends down to check her vitals. “I feel like I’m going to die,” Sabrina manages to get out. “Not tonight you won’t. You’ll be alright,” Jim says. Within ten minutes, two field agents pull up in front of the Center. The man loads Scott into his car, the woman takes Sabrina. Within the next hour, both clients will be packed and moved out of their houses in Newport Beach. They will spend the next week in two different lock down facilities specializing in harder to reach Steps Treatment Center clients. A strangely unique drug and alcohol treatment facility, STC takes pride in their covert tactics and control measures.
When The Betty Ford Center is mentioned in conversation, most people know what it is. And lately, Promises in Malibu has been featured in the media because of its famous clients. But these are just two of the many 28-day inpatient drug and alcohol rehabilitation facilities that have sprung up all over the country. One of these is the low-profile STC, a unique facility that began in 1986 and is now one of the largest and most complicated rehabilitation centers in the United States. The facility boasts one of the highest success rate in the country. But there are questions about the effectiveness of a program that is as enigmatic and unrestrictive as STC. To many outside observers in the recovery industry, STC is a mystery, called into question ever since its inception many years ago. This is the subject of the inquiry: How does the treatment program work? Does the open format work as effectively as they claim it does? An investigation of the inner organization will discover whether this type of drug and alcohol rehabilitation program can maintain the kind of daily observation and monitoring that other facilities find imperative to treating the addict.
