ADAPT, is this a joke?

I was assigned to ADAPT (Alcohol and Drug Education and Prevention Team) through VASAP.  This is a more intensive program designed to provide additional education for an offender and prevent alcohol and drug relapses.  I landed in this program thanks to my BAC certificate.  As you may have seen in my other posts, my certificate was thrown out in court because of a medical condition that greatly exacerbates breathalyzer results.  This doesn’t matter to VASAP.  Ironically, one of VASAP’s initiatives is to acquire state-of-the-art equipment for their district and train law enforcement on its use.  This would mean that VASAP representatives would be well-versed in what can skew a breathalyzer test and my medical condition, among many others, is commonly known as a problem for these units.  VASAP doesn’t care if you were able to prove in court that you have one of these medical conditions, which makes no sense to me. 

At my VASAP intake appointment, they scheduled me for what they were calling ‘my first class’ for ADAPT a week later.  However, when I arrived at the ‘class’ I learned that I was actually there for yet another intake appointment and this did not count as one of the 20 classes I would have to take.  I find this ridiculous.  I went to two VASAP appointments to get registered and now I’m in another appointment to register for ADAPT before I can take a single class.  It had been almost 2 months since my conviction- why is this such a prolonged process?

At the initial appointment, the Director of the ADAPT program had me fill out more paperwork.  It was the same information I’d already filled out with VASAP-three times by then- and they were all working from the same file, so I’m not sure why there was so much redundancy.  I talked with the woman about my situation and she suggested I call my case manager to see if I could get out of ADAPT.  But she warned me that my case manager was ‘old school’ and probably wouldn’t do anything to change my situation.  This reminded me of my trial where I was stuck with a surly judge and dependent upon someone’s mood to determine my outcome.

My case manager told me that I would have to remove my certificate from the court’s documentation for her to consider changing her decision, but she had never seen anyone do this before.  To do this, my lawyer told me that I would have to go back to court and plead my case…again.  Since the costs of going back to court are greater than the amount for the program, I figured it wasn’t worth my time even if it would prove that I’m correct.  So, I’m going to stick it out with ADAPT.  I do feel kind of bad about that because maybe if I’d won this point, I could have helped others facing the same problems.  But I’m not rich, so I have to let it go.  Money plays a BIG hand in what happens to you after a DUI arrest, I should note.  And that’s just a sad fact. 

So, I’m going to ADAPT.  According to the documentation I’ve received both from ADAPT and VASAP and what representatives  have told me, this program, like VASAP, is supposed to be there to help people with problems or potential problems with drugs and alcohol.  However, through my own experiences, I’m learning that both programs are really designed to waste your time, take your money, babysit you during your probation, and remind you over and over again that you were convicted…..as if I need to be reminded.  Maybe I’m a minority, but I already remind myself of this about every five minutes.  I feel ashamed, humiliated, sad, angry, and generally down about the whole thing.  It’s been hard to keep my chin up.  I have to constantly tell myself that I’m not a bad person.  But the point is, when the handcuffs were put on, that was all I needed to convince me that I will never take even a single drink and drive again.  Of course, in my situation, even if I had not had a single drink, I would have still had a false reading on the breathalyzer that might have landed me in jail, anyway. 

Last week, I went to my first ADAPT class.  It was an absolute joke.  My counselor, let’s call her Ann, has problems with focus and hearing (she says ‘Huh?’ a lot).  She’s a very nice, kind woman with good intentions.  I was in her office for about five minutes before I realized this was not going to be what I thought.  When I’d heard about VASAP from the reps at that office, I was told that it was classroom instruction for alcohol education and safety.  I thought, ‘Well, if I have to go through this, maybe I’ll learn something new’, trying to stay positive.  When I was assigned to ADAPT, I did freak out at first because I was upset that I was being lumped in with people that probably did have an alcohol problem.  I do not. But, again I hoped to learn something new and get something out of this.  My very first impression of my counselor and the class has taken this hope away from me. 

I was in Ann’s office and she asked me to provide a receipt to prove I’d paid my initial $75 to the program director the week before.  I showed it to her.  Why this was necessary, I don’t know.  The director had a copy of the receipt in my file.  Then Ann asked me to write down my phone number and an emergency contact on a piece of paper.  This was the fourth time I had to write this out and all of this was in the file that she held in her hand.  Why did I need to furnish this yet again?  She asked if I had any questions and I said I did.  I wanted to know about the AA commitment.  She told me that I had to go to one meeting per week.  I asked what we needed to provide proof of attendance and she started to say something about getting a paper from AA, but she interrupted herself and asked ‘Do you hear a phone ringing?’  I was a little dumbfounded and told her ‘No, I don’t’.  She started laughing and said she hears that a lot, but it’s usually nothing.  I tried to get her back to answering my questions, but she talked over me and sent me out to sit in the classroom.  I figured that maybe if I was patient, she’d address this during the class.

I took a seat at the end of a row.  There was a man in front and to my left and a man at the other end of the row to my right.  They were very jovial fellows and talking about their situations.  Apparently, they have a lot of friends that were also convicted of DUIs, but in another district and none of them were sent to VASAP, let alone ADAPT and this was a mix of first-time and repeat offenders.  I started getting annoyed with this.  I had my suspicions already that I had been given a raw deal based on my experiences at the trial, and here was potential confirmation.  If I’d had a different judge or was convicted in another district, there was a good chance that I would never be in VASAP or ADAPT.  Now, this goes against what I learned from the VASAP website that implies all DUI offenders are sent to VASAP.  Well, as I mentioned in another posting, the courts and related programs seem to use or not use so-called ‘standards’ as it suits them. 

As I was sitting there, listening to their amusing banter, several others came in and one-by-one they went into Ann’s office to make their weekly payments.  There were five others and I was the only female.  I checked my cell phone and saw it was already 7pm.  A few minutes later, Ann came out and began speaking to us about the program.  She affirmed to us newcomers that each class was $20 and payment was due each week.  She also said that there would be two additional counseling sessions at $35 each and at least four urine tests (also $35), though she never said how these would be arranged.  She told us that the $75 we already paid covered the first two classes.  One of the men in the class asked if the remaining $35 went towards a session or urine test, but Ann said ‘No, that was the ADAPT intake fee’.  Immediately, the other newbies started swearing and saying things like ‘rip-off’ and ‘scam’ and ‘What did I pay VASAP $375 for?’  Instead of taking control and explaining this further, Ann used this moment to explain how little money she made from the program.  She laughed and said she made $7k last year and I really think she expected us to sympathize.  She was wrong.  The others started throwing questions at her about this.  One man said ‘You made $7k last year for two hours a week?  Well, that’s a good side business!’  I agreed.  I had been thinking about looking for a second job and this started to look like pretty easy money to me.  Ann said that she made little, but the counselors did pretty well.  Wait, she had told us she was a licensed counselor…so who was she talking about?

The class eventually settled down and Ann began talking about the AA option.  You could do 20 weeks and 20 AA meetings or 30 weeks and no AA meetings.  The others were muttering things like ‘waste of time’ and ‘boring’.  I already guessed which option I would take.  I had no intentions of spending any additional money or time on this program, so AA was looking pretty good.  There was an angry, young man in the second row that asked ‘What is AA and how much does that class cost?’  Ann explained to him that it was free, but you can make a donation, and that it wasn’t a class.  I was surprised because this fellow was there on his second DUI conviction, but he didn’t know what AA was?  Not only did I suspect he had been living under a rock his whole life, but this reaffirmed my suspicion about the so-called ‘standards’ regarding being assigned to VASAP.  Even if this fellow hadn’t been to ADAPT, VASAP still requires a minimum of 10 AA meetings.  So, it looked like he was one of the ‘lucky’ ones that had not been assigned to VASAP after his first conviction.

My paperwork from VASAP had listed a third alternative- 25 weeks and no AA requirement.  So, I asked Ann about this.  She started to explain, but another man walked in.  He sat down and Ann started joking with him; apparently he’d been through this program at least once before because she was familiar with him.  This went on for about ten minutes before she refocused on the class.  She said ‘What was I talking about?’ a few times and then gave up and told us that we would now watch a video.  So much for getting my question answered….I figured I’d wait until after class to talk with her when maybe I could get her to focus again.

Ann handed the remote to the man that had just walked in.  She turned the TV on and fumbled with the sound.  As she did so, another latecomer walked in.  He went straight to her office.  Once Ann was content with the settings, she went into her office and closed the door behind her. 

What happened next solidified my fear that I was, indeed, in hell.  The video started and what came on?  The Dr. Phil Show.  OH MY GOD.  It was bad enough I was going to have to spend 20 hours of my life in this program and an additional $600-700, but I have to be subjected to Dr. Phil on top of that??  And as the program began, everyone except me and the fellow in the row in front of me turned to their cell phones and started texting and making phone calls.  Every so many minutes, one or another would get up and go to the restroom and half of them started breaking into bags of food (even though there is a sign that reads ‘no food or drink in class’).  Eventually, the man in Ann’s office joined us and he, too, began playing with his phone.  He and the fellow with the remote began a loud, sustained conversation that lasted the entire program.  And when the commercials came, the fellow with the remote sped through them as well as part of the program.  The man in front of me protested and the man with the remote began to chastise him saying ‘You WANT to watch all of this?  You WANT to be in here longer than you have to?’  He had a point, but I couldn’t help thinking that Ann might realize what was going on if we managed to watch a 40 minute program in 25 minutes. 

At about midway through the program, the man with the remote announced to everyone that he had a method to cheat on the AA portion of the requirements.  He said Ann was to give us a form and we would make copies of it.  Each time we went to a meeting, we had to write down what the topic was and what we learned and hand that in afterwards to Ann.  He said you could just make it up, no one would check it.  I started to tell him that Ann told me something different, but he just kept going on about his foolproof method of cheating.  He also informed the class that he would sell us his urine for $35 a pop.  The angry, young man asked ‘Does the powdered urine work here, too?’ Though I find this highly entertaining, I couldn’t help from realizing that this was absolutely absurd.  And where was Ann during all of this?  Everyone was incredibly loud and Ann’s office was right there beside us, but she didn’t hear this? 

Towards the end of the program, the man with the remote told us that we needed to get something out of this.  Ann would come out and ask us questions about it, so we had to be prepared.  This was preposterous.  After all, he was making the most noise and it was hard to hear anything and he was speeding through most of the program.  I started to say something about that, but I decided that I would refrain from comment at least until my second class.  A few minutes later, the second latecomer went outside the room to take a phone call. 

At this point, the man in front of me went into Ann’s office.  I had heard him whisper that he had switched from Wednesdays to Thursdays, but now was considering switching back because he didn’t want to deal with all the negativity.  I could only guess that he was telling her about the chaos in the classroom, but I wasn’t sure.   He came back a few minutes later and then Ann came out of her office.  She looked around the room and noticed the missing man and asked where he was.  Someone told her he was outside, so she started to head out the door. She saw that the fellow with the remote had his phone in his hand and announced ‘You can’t use cell phones when you’re in here’.  The others put their phones down, but as soon as Ann left the room, they picked them back up. 

A few minutes later, the video (thankfully) ended and we sat around waiting for Ann to return.  When she did, one of the men asked where the other guy had gone.  ‘His ride is here’, she said, and this prompted some swearing from the others because he had shown up 30+ minutes late and left early.  The man with the remote stood up and said that he was supposed to get a ride from the man that left and Ann told him to go ahead.  This prompted more swearing because we all knew he was lying- I’m sure even Ann knew this.  As soon as he was gone, she half-apologized for the behavior of the two guys that left.  She said they were always a little disruptive, but tonight was particularly bad and she didn’t know what was going on.  Maybe a little supervision would have been in order, Ann, rather than sitting in your office with a closed door if you know they have these tendencies. 

Ann told us that sometimes she asked questions about the programs, but I gathered tonight was not one of them because she began to explain her methodology.  She said that most of the time we’ll watch videos, but every once in a while she will lecture.  This was just great- she confirmed that every Thursday I’ll be subjected to this absurdity.  She said that some counselors make everyone turn their chairs into a circle and talk, but she found over the years that this was offensive to people, so she used videos instead.  That seemed pretty lame to me.  We’re each paying quite a bit of money and this is what we get? 

Ann interrupted her train of thought and focused on the angry, young man in the front row.  She wanted to know what was wrong because his expressions were betraying his hostility.  He explained he was pissed off for having to be there.  He went on to say that if it wasn’t for a deer, he wouldn’t be there.  He’d been out drinking one night and on the way home, five deer jumped out from the side of the road.  He hit one of them and his truck rolled three times.  He’d walked two miles to find a police officer and was found to be above the legal limit.  He blamed the whole thing on the poor deer.   Now, Ann had an opportunity to change the subject and limit his tirade, but instead she kept it going.  She wasted another 15 minutes of our time talking about this with him.  Frankly, I didn’t care.  From his own admission, the man had definitely been drunk, and to me, that’s that.  On top of this, it wasn’t his first offense.  I had no sympathy for him and I didn’t want to hear his excuses- especially on my time.  Ann was trying to tell him that it was the drinking that caused the problem, but he didn’t want to hear it.  In his mind, if there was no deer, he wouldn’t have had a problem.  In my mind, the deer could have been a person.  Would he have given a shit if it had been?  Or would he still be sitting there saying ‘If it weren’t for that person, I wouldn’t be here’?  Ann took the moment to tell us that by the end of the program, she generally asks everyone to come up with one problem that they have with drugs and/or alcohol.  The angry, young man again started on his tirade trying to say he didn’t have a problem with either.  Ann used more time to try to help him see he did, but it was going nowhere.  Eventually, she started telling us about the time she hit a deer (this had nothing to do with alcohol) and how dangerous dark roads are.  I started shaking my head.  It was time to go.  This was ridiculous. 

Finally, she stopped and said that we would be having a double class the following week because she would be out of town the week after that.  We were expected to be there by 5:45pm and would stay until the normal time (8pm).  We would watch a movie.  She said it was a ‘Hollywood movie’ as if that would make us feel better about an extra hour in class.  It was all I could do to keep from rolling my eyes.  Great- 2 hours in these uncomfortable chairs with these annoying people.  And it seemed a bit unfair.  If we missed a class, it meant tacking another week onto our program, but if she missed a class, it meant 2 hours of class instead of one.    On top of this, she told us that the Dr. Phil Show we’d watched that night was a three-part program.  We had just watched the second part and when she got back in town, we’d see the third.  In other words, the torture would be continued.

She dismissed us and I jumped into her office to ask her a question.  There were a few others waiting and I didn’t have much time, so I asked her what would happen if we couldn’t make an AA meeting one week- could we double up the week before or after?  She said she simply expected us to make 19 meetings (what happened to 20?) and just asked that we not do them all in a row.  But we never did find out how to prove we went, so I have to wait until the next class to ask about that. In the meantime, she had told us that we were expected to go to a meeting between this class and the next.  Well, whatever, I’m going- I’ll figure it out later.

My experience thus far comes to one simple conclusion:  This is a joke.  Who came up with this crap and who thinks this serves some kind of useful purpose?  I realize that a conviction means punishment, but couldn’t they make the punishment a little more useful not only to us, but to society?  VASAP’s primary function is to promote highway safety.  How is ADAPT helping them to achieve this based on what I’ve seen so far?  And how does this type of class serve their other purpose to help people that really have a problem?  Will watching Dr Phil really help people come to terms with their alcohol and drug problems?  Will watching a ‘Hollywood movie’ help?  Maybe one person in a million will see the light of day from these programs, but not the average person in my class, especially if every week we’re left alone in a room with no counselor making sure we’re paying attention.  I saw the VASAP class on my way into the room that night.  They were sitting at desks with paper and pen and it looked like they were having a real class.  That’s what this should be like- give us something to do, something where we can use our minds, and come to terms with what we went through and try to discourage us from doing it again.  I’m the only one in my class that’s there for a first offense.  Isn’t that a pretty big clue that maybe the system is a little screwed up and not achieving its goals?