RAP Reports First Death Since Opening 56 Years Ago

The death this month of a patient at RAP, Inc., a highly regarded addiction treatment center in Northeast, has shaken its local leadership and intensified friction with the out-of-state nonprofit that assumed its management nearly a decade ago.

The death of Karlton Sparrow on Aug. 5 marked the first time anyone has died in RAP’s care since founder Ronald C. Clark opened the center’s doors in D.C. 56 years ago, according to several RAP board members, including Clark’s son. They said RAP never lost anyone while building a reputation over the decades as a grassroots, hands-on drug addiction center that welcomed anyone and offered a holistic approach to treatment.

“The death itself for me, personally — as a board member and my father’s son — was terrible,” Paul Clark told The Informer. “It was deeply emotional, and I didn’t even know the guy.”

District police said they were summoned to RAP’s facility in the 1900 block of 4th Street NE shortly after 9 a.m. to assist D.C. Fire and EMS on a medical call for “a cardiac arrest.” Sparrow, who was found unconscious and not breathing, was pronounced dead at the scene. The brief police report says he left behind a necklace and 28 cents in his pocket.

Sparrows’s death, whose cause is pending determination by the D.C. Chief Medical Examiner’s Office, brought to the fore long-simmering tensions between RAP’s local leadership and Gaudenzia, Inc., a Pennsylvania-based nonprofit corporation that took over management of the center in 2014.

Members of RAP’s local leadership team say Gaudenzia has ruled the D.C. clinic from afar in high-handed fashion, making important decisions without consulting local officials and diluting the culture that distinguished RAP’s approach to addiction treatment, including a willingness to accept anyone 24/7. Gaudenzia, which entered a management agreement with RAP when RAP was seeking to stabilize its shaky finances, has also been less than transparent about its own finances, board members said.

“This is the first time someone has died in the care of RAP,” said RAP board member Othello Mahone. 

Mahone, who is a former D.C. government housing official, accused the nursing staff under Gaudenzia’s control of “apparent negligence” in Sparrow’s death by failing to monitor him properly during an acute medical crisis. Mahone said the lapse was symptomatic of other shortcomings with Gaudenzia and that the time had come for RAP to terminate its management agreement with the larger nonprofit organization.

“Gaudenzia has just mismanaged things,” Mahone said. “And they don’t come and consult with the board. They just do stuff.”

RAP board chair Charles C. Stephenson said Gaudenzia’s plan to shut down RAP’s emergency detox program next month for financial reasons, despite opposition by local RAP leaders, was typical of its approach. 

“It’s a very instrumental part of the program,” Stephenson said.

‘RAP Can’t Just Disappear’

RAP — which stands for Regional Addiction Prevention — has been a D.C. fixture since 1970. The visionary behind it was Ronald C. Clark, a Los Angeles native who got mixed up in heroin as a young musician.

As a recovering addict, Clark first worked in Nevada’s prison system before heading a clinic in New York, The Washington Post reported. He arrived in D.C. to establish a treatment center in the middle of a heroin epidemic. 

What Clark had in mind was not just switching people from heroin to methadone but ridding them of drug addiction through a holistic approach to treatment. Grounded in the black power movement, Clark also educated clients about systemic racism and the struggle for civil rights. One of his first buildings had served as local headquarters for the Black Panthers. 

“At RAP, Clark pioneered a therapeutic approach to addiction aimed not just at detoxing the body but also the mind,” The Washington Post columnist Courtland Milloy wrote in 2019.

RAP’s doors were open 24/7 to anyone in need. Days began with drum circles and ended with drumming. Residents met for group therapy, partook in reading lessons, job training, and presentations on nutrition, and received emergency and transitional housing assistance and help managing HIV. They performed community service, picking and distributing fresh vegetables from local farms or shoveling snow for elderly neighbors. Clark arranged visits from poets, artists and musicians. In the early years, even cigarettes were outlawed. Over the decades, the drug of choice on the streets changed from heroin to crack cocaine to PCP, and eventually fentanyl. 

But RAP adapted and hung on, despite occasional funding struggles, particularly during COVID. 

Recovering RAP clients often became RAP employees counseling others.

In his 70s, however, Clark began looking for organizations with deeper pockets to partner with RAP and carry on its work. He learned about Gaudenzia through a trusted friend there and signed the management agreement in 2014. Clark died five years later of a heart attack. He was 83.

Norristown, Pennsylvania-based Gaudenzia, Inc. — which takes its name from a legendary racehorse whose against-the-odds victory in the Palio was popularized by Marguerite Henry, the author of “Misty of Chincoteague” — is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to treating substance abuse.

Gaudenzia serves more than 20,000 people a year and operates 49 locations in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia, according to its fiscal 2025 annual report. It has annual revenues of more than $120 million, including more than $31 million from government grants and contracts.

Gaudenzia Foundation, Inc., which raises funding for the operation, reported nearly $7.2 million in revenues and more than $68 million in total assets in fiscal 2023, according to its most recent filing with the Internal Revenue Service. Other public filings show that Gaudenzia’s upper echelons include more than a dozen executives whose six-figure annual salaries total more than $3.5 million a year, including: former ex-officio chief executive Dale Klatzker ($507,961); current chief executive Deja Gilbert ($307,582); and chief information officer Michael Anderson ($213,000).

Asked about Sparrow’s death and the many concerns raised by RAP officials, Gaudenzia spokeswoman Sherrie Cintrella declined to comment.     

Paul Clark said Sparrow’s death this month has spurred local leaders to reassert more control over the treatment center. But he said he’s also hopeful that the incident will help RAP and its bigger partner find ways to work together better.

“I fear for the future,” he said. “RAP can’t just disappear.”