Deborah Becker

This businessman, Vincenzo Muccioli, thought he had a solution.

He started this community on his family's farmland, but it was very strict and people were forced to stay.

Muccioli received a suspended sentence at one point for chaining residents so they didn't run away.

I met with 60-year-old Paolo Severi, who spent about three years at San Patrignano in the early 1990s.

Here he is speaking through an interpreter.

But San Patrignano had a lot of support across Italy, a lot of wealthy benefactors, and it kept expanding.

But Muccioli got into more trouble and even was charged with covering up a San Patrignano resident's murder.

He died disgraced in 1995, but the program continued and gradually evolved into a more voluntary, gentler program with more oversight.

It's now treated more than 26,000 people around the world, and it's been a model for other smaller programs in other countries.

There isn't really a program that goes on for years or certainly that has the variety of vocational training.

There was once a huge therapeutic community in the United States, the first of its kind for heroin addicts.

It was called Synanon.

It's been the subject of many books and movies, including one back in 1965.

The parallels between Synanon and San Patrignano are really interesting.

Synanon was also founded by a charismatic leader.

It amassed enormous wealth through donations and the work of residents.

But then it evolved into a cult.

By the 1970s, it had started calling itself a religion.

It formed its own army.

And it really went downhill.