Sane Asylum: Inside the Delancey Street Foundation

By Charles Hampden-Turner

From the cover: “Sane Asylum is the true account of San Francisco's De- lancey Street Foundation, where former hookers, junkies, thieves, and murderers operate their own restaurant, mov- ing company, credit union, florist shop, and high school. Author and psycho-sociologist Charles Hampden-Turner came to observe the country's most successful rehabilita- tion center and was so intrigued that he stayed for a year. Recorded here is the human drama of which he became a part; the remoldingof lives and "games" members of the community are required to play searching out their inner selves. He also provides a fascinating portrait of Delancey Street's director, "a charismatic, tough-talking, street character; a macho, irreverent Irish-Bronx ex-con named John Maher. A fascinating account forall readers, Sane Asylum is an affectionate, totally honest look at America's pioneer com- munity in social rehabilitation- one which is succeeding where all the others have failed.”

NY. William Morrow. 1977. 297p.