GROUP THERAPY WITH ADULT OFFENDERS ON PROBATION AND PAROLE

Abstract

The BARO Civic Center Clinic is an agency unique in the history of therapy in America. It is the only full time, duly licensed, privately endowed mental hygiene clinic devoted exclusively to the treatment of adult offenders under psychiatric auspices in the United States. It was organized almost a decade ago by a group of public spirited citizens including its present Chairman of the Board, the Honorable Edward S. Silver, District Attorney of Kings County, and New York State Parole Commissioner, Edmond FitzGerald, former Chief Probation Officer of the Kings County Court. The professional functioning of the clinic is under the direct supervision of the eminent forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Ralph S. Banay. The clinic is located in a handsome 15 room suite in the heart of the Borough Hall neighborhood, accessible to all means of transportation. It is equipped with tape-recorders, physical examination paraphernalia, a psychogalvanoscope, a group therapy room wired for sound adjoining an observation room containing a one-way mirror, several large conference and individual interviewing rooms, a kitchen with stove and refrigerator, oil paintings on the walls, a tastefully furnished waiting room, modem desks and electric typewriters - i n short, it is an up-to-date agency located in a suitable plant for its function of rehabilitating adult offenders of New York City.