Columbia Center for Oral History Portal > Oral history interview with Ronald Williams, 2014
Creator: | Williams, Ronald | Project: | Phoenix House Foundation oral history collection. (see all project interviews) | Phys. Desc. : | Transcript: 109 pages sound file : digital preservation master, WAV files (96 kHz, 24 bit) | Location: | Columbia Center for Oral History | Full CLIO record >> |
Biographical NoteRonald Williams is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Stay'n Out. In 1967, he, along with five former addicts, left the detoxification unit of Morris Bernstein Institute (now Beth Israel), moved into 205 West 85th Street and started what would become Phoenix House. He is the author of the Phoenix House philosophy still read today. Williams has continued to develop and work with the therapeutic community approach pioneered at the Phoenix House and is a leader in the field (particularly in prisons)
Scope and ContentsRonald Williams narrates his early life in a West Indian neighborhood in Harlem and his pathway to substance abuse, incarceration, and, eventually the Morris Bernstein Institute. He describes leaving the Institute with a group of addicts to found Phoenix House. He gives particular attention to the therapeutic community method as it was conceived during Phoenix House's initial stages, and its predecessors. Williams also speaks on Phoenix House's importing of Synanon personnel, and that strategy's effect on the organization
SubjectsAccess ConditionsCopyright by the Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York, 2014
| |