News / Education
Narconon drug rehabilitation ‘can do’ spirit was born with its founder
Bill Benitez set the standard when he returned to prison voluntarily to help his fellow recovering addicts
But Narconon was only a few months old at that time, and Bill believed the program might collapse if he didn’t return to complete his sentence. Therefore, rather than petitioning for immediate release, he requested a smaller sentence which would allow him to work on Narconon. The Court acquiesced and re-sentenced him to four to six years which left him sixteen months to serve. Bill returned to prison and continued to develop the Narconon rehab program to its full capacity. As Bill stated later, “It was the best, but toughest decision I ever made in my life -- I would have loved to walk away from that court a free man.”
Reporters from the Arizona Daily Star secured permission from Warden Frank Eyman to interview this inmate who had requested to return to the walls. The Daily Star printed a two-part series on Narconon in August 1966. Phoenix TV Channel 10 News also took its cameras to the prison to interview Bill and Narconon’s ‘students.’
Bill completed his prison term and was duly released in October 1967. He soon moved to California to found the first Narconon residential drug rehabilitation program. He and his staff continued to receive help and guidance from L. Ron Hubbard, on whose work Benitez had based this new ‘raise-your-abilities’ approach to full recovery from alcohol and other drugs. Scientologists and other volunteers pitched in to spread the good word. Nothing less than worldwide expansion resulted with the Narconon network now comprising 150 centers and groups in 50 countries.
In 1981, with Narconon well established and its own staffs running their centers, Benitez returned to Arizona to be hired as Inmate Liaison by former Arizona Department of Corrections Director, Ellis McDougall. He became Hearing Officer for the Corrections Director at Central Headquarters on inmate complaints. Benitez never ceased to be proud of Narconon, “Sure, I started Narconon,” he reminisced once, “but its success and expansion are due to the dedication of so many staff and volunteers throughout the world who have labored to make the program’s benefits available to everyone in need. Staff and volunteers’ compensation is in knowing they are providing society and its children a better environment in which to live. My thanks go to them.”
Up to 1999, when Benitez died of natural causes, it was a network tradition for program executive directors worldwide to call Bill’s home on Narconon’s birthday (February 19th) and share the continuing wins and successes of rehab graduates, many of whom Bill knew personally.
You may listen to a recently rediscovered Benitez drug education and rehabilitation lecture at “About Benitez” at http://www.narconon.org.
