Complaint Review: Solutions Recovery Center - Greenville South Carolina

     Solutions Recovery Center is anything but a recovery center.  Halfway house is far too generous a term.  Temporary housing is the most apt term to describe this place and "housing" is being generous.  I lived in this hell hole for nearly eight months and it was the lowest point of my life.  Upon arrival, I was withdrawn from medication and suffered seizures as a result and was denied transportation to any medical aid.  I was not and never have been addicted to any drug.  I took my medication as prescribed, but my life fell apart because I suffered from undiagnosed Bipolar Syndrome 1 and Panic Disorder and was going through a divorce and so I fell prey to this scam and the criminals that operate it.  There is no transportation provided to anywhere but meetings and the minimum wage factory jobs they force "clients" to take and the property is miles from any grocery stores.  Theft and the sale of drugs are rampant on the property and I was told by several people that the "Directors" used illegal steroids.  I know this because the son of their steroid dealer was also a client and he confided this information to me.  He was allowed special privileges because of his knowledge of this activity.  

     Physical violence from staff towards "clients" is a common occurrence and they routinely brandish firearms and make physical threats towards their “clients.”  From the moment I walked in it was apparent that violence was a part of the Ciriaco brothers' idea of recovery.  The man that was being admitted with me had to agree that if he relapsed the directors would "beat his a*s", "hunt him down and beat the s**t out of him."  In one incident a large caliber pistol was pointed at my chest without provocation or explanation.  In another, a man was thrown from his bed early in the morning and then subsequently threatened and beaten by a staff member in a steroid-fueled rage because he had a completely appropriate conversation with the director’s girlfriend which I witnessed.  

In yet another incident, my roommate was recruited to go pay violent retribution with Craig Ciriaco to a "client" who left SRC to live at another recovery home and the man that "recruited" him.  The story was related to me by those coerced by the Ciriaco brothers to perpetrate these acts of violence.  They, as related to me, left and went to this other recovery house and kicked in the door after being refused entry and Craig threatened the man there. I have seen so many young people come through that place only to leave full-blown addicts whose lives fall into dereliction and homelessness because, I am convinced, of their exposure to this environment.  There are no services afforded the clients outside of twelve-step meetings and psychiatric and medical help is discouraged.  The treatment is inhumane and the environment is third world.  Upon arrival, you are told and coerced to accept that you are worthless and your life thus far has been meaningless.  Your only hope is Joe Ciriaco and his inane ramblings.  The long-term residents have a sort of Stockholm Syndrome whereby they believe that they are incapable of initiating any sort of change in their own lives and are made to believe that their only hope is to follow the instruction of an uneducated, unaccredited staff and I think many will never recover the ability to manage their lives by themselves.  These people make up a sort of Cadre who judge and discipline the new-comer.  They are even less educated and more incompetent than the staff and it is to these people that your recovery as a resident will depend on.  They also have a penchant for violence and aggression and humiliation of the most despicable sort.  Most of them are unemployed and were homeless before they moved to solutions.  Most of them did not graduate High School and have done a number of years in penitentiaries and most of them still use drugs.  This place taught me about drugs and their use and exposed me to it relentlessly and daily. 

     Besides these atrocities, "clients" are made to pay $165 per week for housing that is infested with mice and german cockroaches and full of black mold.  The "houses" are two bedroom, 800 sq. ft. apartments in which 4-5 men are made to live and share a single bathroom.  At one point, the toilet, when flushed would push feces through the shower drain and it was left in this stateof functionality for two weeks.  Most of the apartments lack central A/C and some lack any heating.  Also, the staff has informal contracts with employers whereby they send "clients" to work for said employers and coerce them to sign contracts to work for a period of time under threat of being evicted and their personal effects retained.  These employers I am nearly positive violate OSHA regulations and I know they violate basic labor laws.  One such company is Canopy Car Wash on Wade Hampton Blvd. in Greenville.  "Clients" who are made to work there are subjected to hours of work in the hot sun, some unhealthy and probably not capable of such work.  Often times there is no water available and no breaks are allowed.  Other times "clients" employed by Canopy go to work only to be sent home because they are unneeded or sent on four or five hours of breaks in a ten hour work day.  All of this must be endured or "clients" will be evicted with their personal items held by staff and with the understanding of possible punitive violence.  The threat of eviction is constant and these threats are made by staff and the aformentioned cadre constantly and arbitrarily.  These people are incredibly insensitive and incompetent and the director, Craig Ciriaco, is a common criminal and drug addict and has no business trying to guide other people's lives.  Solutions Recovery Center is a travesty of a recovery environment and I sincerely hope that it is shut down and these people are tried in court for the criminal activity they perpetrate daily.