Narcotics Anonymous has a longstanding program for outreach to prison inmates through its H&I committees (for "hospitals and institutions"). Freddie Aquino, NA World Service Office (WSO) staff member, has been coordinating cooperative contacts between the California (USA) Department of Corrections (CDC) and the state's seven NA regional organizations for nearly four years.

The state of California, with a total population of 32 million, has a huge prison system—and, of course, many prisoners incarcerated for drug-related crimes. NA and the CDC began coopera-tive planning for a national corrections conference in 1992, which was coordinated by Ron Filiault of the CDC Office of Community Resources and Jim L'Etoile of the CDC Office of Substance Abuse Programs. Planning for the conference went quite far, but the event fell through at the last minute for lack of funding. In the interim, communications continued between WSO and the CDC.

Planning for a February 1995 conference at which we made a presentation led to further cooperation between California prison system officials and Narcotics Anonymous. Three meetings between CDC employees, Alcoholics Anonymous leaders, and NA staff and volunteers were held from May through July 1995. All three parties discussed and developed a plan to resolve problems they had encountered in bringing H&I panels into California prisons. Issues included scheduling, facilities, getting NA literature inside for presentations, security and health screenings, relations between NA volunteers and prison staff, and the different identities and missions of AA and NA. The results of these meetings are being written up for inclusion in the CDC volunteer program manual.

If NA Update readers have any story ideas on cooperation between their organization and local or world Narcotics Anonymous, we would like to include them in future issues. Please write us.