Federal tax dollars are helping to pay for a controversial addiction-treatment program for prisoners in New Mexico based on Scientology precepts, the Wall Street Journal reported Jan. 19.

The Second Chance program is billed as an alternative treatment program for nonviolent offenders and uses the principals of Scientology -- such as using saunas, diet, massage and vitamins to purge the body of toxins -- to fight addiction. In New Mexico, 24 of the state's 84 district judges have referred a total of 50 clients to the program since it opened last September.

Second Chance is the only Scientology-based treatment center for inmates in the U.S. A former chief district judge from Albuquerque, W. John Brennan, is a paid consultant hired to promote the program to his former colleagues. But the current chief district judge, William Lang, doesn't want judges to make referrals to the program, saying he is suspicious of its relationship with the Church of Scientology even though program officials say there is no link.

Brennan was arrested four years ago and charged with drunk driving and cocaine possession. He first sought treatment at the Betty Ford Center, but later tried Scientology. Judge Lang also has battled alcoholism and attends 12-step meetings.

Randall Suggs, a Scientologist who is part owner of the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball teams, had provided $300,000 to launch the program, and the state of New Mexico contributed $300,000. Second Chance later received $350,000 in federal funds, but that money is about to run out. Brennan has appeared before the state legislature to request $3.6 million to fund the program.

Second Chance officials claim that recidivism rates fell to 10 percent among attendees at their program in Enseneda, Mexico. The program costs $55 per inmate per day. "There's a lot of use of sauna with the idea that you sweat out toxins in the system," said addiction expert Bill Miller, who reviewed the program at the request of the city of Albuquerque. "I don't know of any scientific basis for that. It wasn't clear to me what sort of scientific basis there was even for the conception of the program to begin with."