Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 3, Nos. 2 &3, 2004, Page 164
Coercive Persuasion/Deprogramming
Unique “Cure” for Hate Crime Perpetrators Proposed
Criminal lawyer Alan Young suggests using coercive persuasion or deprogramming to
reform hate crime perpetrators. ―Just as some cancers require invasive surgery, the hate
crime needs intrusive measures. The usual out-of-sight-out-of-mind approach to modern
punishment just won't work in this case. For crimes of supreme stupidity we need Clockwork
Orange justice — strapping the hate criminal into a chair for an interminable period, and
keeping his eyes wide-open with metal clamps so he cannot escape from an onslaught of
cinematic imagery carefully designed to break his neurotic attachment to self-induced
intellectual impairment.
―In the context of hate crime, I do have some regrets that we have a constitutional
prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. I don't think coercive persuasion or
deprogramming is necessarily cruel, but as a state sanction it is unusual. However, if the
crime is unique the sanction should be also. Simply dishing out more prison time or a larger
fine is a dead-end. We need a punishment that can kick-start a brain.
―Regrettably, when it comes to punishment, our system rarely exhibits ingenuity, audacity
and courage.‖ (Alan Young, Toronto Star, Internet, 3/28/04. Young is a law professor,
criminal lawyer, and author of Justice Defiled: Perverts, Potheads, Serial Killers.)
Deeper Life Church
Accused of Exploiting the Indigent
San Antonio‘s Deeper Life Church, part of a Tampa, FL-based organization comprising 38
churches stretching from Michigan to New Mexico, is being investigated following allegations
that it closely controls and exploits homeless recruits, including children, especially in its
fundraising efforts.
A Deeper Life spokesman said recruits, whom he called volunteers, spend all of their time
memorizing the word of God, except when they‘re sleeping, or collecting money for the
church ―to help women and children.‖ Deeper Life calls itself a fund-raising entity rather
than a church, although it files returns to the IRS as if it were a church, which means local
authorities cannot investigate the organization‘s finances.
The Deeper Life founder is mail-order minister Melvin B. Jefferson, who trains the
church‘s pastors. Members live in rickety housing while Jefferson and his wife live in an
8,400 square foot home, fly a private jet, and own five cars, including a Bentley.
Marjorie Suggs, of SAMM Ministries, who has worked with former Deeper Life members,
says one family was evicted from church housing when parents refused to take their
children out of school for the yearly pilgrimage to Florida required of members. In 1997 and
1998, four church officials and the church corporation were found guilty in a $20,000-a-
month food stamp fraud case in Florida the church accepted food stamps as offerings and
then cashed them in at Deeper Life-owned meat markets. A number of children have been
removed by Child Protective Services from the San Antonio establishment because of
parental neglect. (Rachel L. Toalson, San Antonio Express-News, Internet, 6/21/04)
Faith Temple Church of the Apostolic Faith
Charged in Exorcism Death
A Milwaukee jury has found school janitor and part-time minister Ray Hemphill guilty of
felony child abuse in the death of an 8-year-old autistic boy, Terrence Cottrell, Jr., from
whom he tried to exorcise demonic spirits that allegedly caused the child‘s autism. The
death was ruled a homicide by suffocation ―due to external chest compression.‖
Coercive Persuasion/Deprogramming
Unique “Cure” for Hate Crime Perpetrators Proposed
Criminal lawyer Alan Young suggests using coercive persuasion or deprogramming to
reform hate crime perpetrators. ―Just as some cancers require invasive surgery, the hate
crime needs intrusive measures. The usual out-of-sight-out-of-mind approach to modern
punishment just won't work in this case. For crimes of supreme stupidity we need Clockwork
Orange justice — strapping the hate criminal into a chair for an interminable period, and
keeping his eyes wide-open with metal clamps so he cannot escape from an onslaught of
cinematic imagery carefully designed to break his neurotic attachment to self-induced
intellectual impairment.
―In the context of hate crime, I do have some regrets that we have a constitutional
prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. I don't think coercive persuasion or
deprogramming is necessarily cruel, but as a state sanction it is unusual. However, if the
crime is unique the sanction should be also. Simply dishing out more prison time or a larger
fine is a dead-end. We need a punishment that can kick-start a brain.
―Regrettably, when it comes to punishment, our system rarely exhibits ingenuity, audacity
and courage.‖ (Alan Young, Toronto Star, Internet, 3/28/04. Young is a law professor,
criminal lawyer, and author of Justice Defiled: Perverts, Potheads, Serial Killers.)
Deeper Life Church
Accused of Exploiting the Indigent
San Antonio‘s Deeper Life Church, part of a Tampa, FL-based organization comprising 38
churches stretching from Michigan to New Mexico, is being investigated following allegations
that it closely controls and exploits homeless recruits, including children, especially in its
fundraising efforts.
A Deeper Life spokesman said recruits, whom he called volunteers, spend all of their time
memorizing the word of God, except when they‘re sleeping, or collecting money for the
church ―to help women and children.‖ Deeper Life calls itself a fund-raising entity rather
than a church, although it files returns to the IRS as if it were a church, which means local
authorities cannot investigate the organization‘s finances.
The Deeper Life founder is mail-order minister Melvin B. Jefferson, who trains the
church‘s pastors. Members live in rickety housing while Jefferson and his wife live in an
8,400 square foot home, fly a private jet, and own five cars, including a Bentley.
Marjorie Suggs, of SAMM Ministries, who has worked with former Deeper Life members,
says one family was evicted from church housing when parents refused to take their
children out of school for the yearly pilgrimage to Florida required of members. In 1997 and
1998, four church officials and the church corporation were found guilty in a $20,000-a-
month food stamp fraud case in Florida the church accepted food stamps as offerings and
then cashed them in at Deeper Life-owned meat markets. A number of children have been
removed by Child Protective Services from the San Antonio establishment because of
parental neglect. (Rachel L. Toalson, San Antonio Express-News, Internet, 6/21/04)
Faith Temple Church of the Apostolic Faith
Charged in Exorcism Death
A Milwaukee jury has found school janitor and part-time minister Ray Hemphill guilty of
felony child abuse in the death of an 8-year-old autistic boy, Terrence Cottrell, Jr., from
whom he tried to exorcise demonic spirits that allegedly caused the child‘s autism. The
death was ruled a homicide by suffocation ―due to external chest compression.‖
