Aye Batter Batter

For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been attending “alcohol/drug addiction education” classes. Not to learn how to get addicted to alcohol or drugs – that would just be silly – but rather as group counseling sessions (usually mandated by a California court) aimed at helping addicts to quit their addictions. I’m only there as a “good will” gesture suggested by my lawyer in order to get an obstruction of justice charge dropped – I am not an addict. That being said, I’ve decided to give you, the reader my analysis of just how useless I believe these sessions would be for me if I were an addict. To sum it all up, I believe these court-mandated counseling sessions for fee are just one more of the seemingly endless pieces of bullshit that our government (well, the California government at least) has decided to force on the citizens to allow the self-assuming superior people a false sense of helping others. Let me explain…

First off, let me sum-up what I have been able to learn about how “the system” here in California works. The way it goes is that, if you get busted for some sort of drug/alcohol related crime (mainly possession and DUI), there is a possibility that the court will give you the option of attending these “educational” group sessions rather than going to prison. What the odds of getting this option are is still unknown to me; however it appears that where you get busted as well as who you get busted by seems to have some impact on this happening. Of course since I’m using these sessions for a court case in Colorado, I did not experience this procedure first-hand; however it doesn’t take a genius to realize that a large majority of people presented with this choice would opt for the counseling, right…? One would think…

There’s a little bit of a twist to the counseling option though – it’s a “pay for” service. This means that, if you’re interested in taking the “education”, you need to be willing and able to pony up some cash. It’s $30 per session plus a registration fee. In my case, the registration fee alone was $260. Whether this is a conventional amount or some sort of “special” pricing they came up with for my unique case (it brought my total amount due with the eight sessions to an even $500) I am unaware; however since the typical court-ordered counseling is either a 16 or 24 week stint (one class per week), the pricing for this option can easily get out of reach for many people. So basically what we have here is a government run court of law giving “get out of jail free” cards only to those that can afford them. Isn’t it ironic … don’t ya think?

To add to this irony, the government gets absolutely none of the money that is paid for these classes – none! There are actually institutions in California that have somehow arranged it so that courts can “strongly suggest” people pay them for their services else go to jail. Courts can mandate that somebody either purchases a service being offered by a private institution or go to jail. Am I the only one who finds this fascinating? I mean yeah, there are strict rules that need to be adhered to in order to complete this counseling; but it sure beats going to prison! So basically you’ve got private institutions that have obtained the right to have people forced by the courts to buy their services. And the worst part about all this is that their services (at least as far as I’m concerned) don’t work…

Why do I say this? Well for many reasons. The first of which is the number of people in the classes I’ve been attending that have “been here before” … for quite a few, many times. Several of the students have even been to prison already and are using this option as a change of pace. For this spin through the judicial revolving door they’ve decided to take a much more expensive, somewhat more scenic route. If nothing more than positive results were used to justify the existence of these non-prison options, I seriously doubt they would be around much longer. But then what would we do with the sudden influx of people in need of incarceration? Is this no more than a way to keep prison populations down?

The main reason however that I believe these classes don’t work is based on the fact that I’ve been attending them for some nine hours now and have learned absolutely nothing. It’s exactly what I was expecting it to be – well intentioned people spouting out dime-store philosophy to a completely uninterested audience. Most (if not all) of the people are only there to stay out of jail and it’s extremely difficult (even for those with actual educational training) to teach those uninterested in learning. Having some former addict (and I do believe all of the instructors are former addicts) attempt to explain basic societal mores that I’ve been well aware of since elementary school to me seems like little more than an insult to my intelligence. Throw in their biased views on philosophy being taught as “must dos” and it becomes downright frightening.

But you can’t blame the people administering these classes. I do believe that they are actually trying to help. Unfortunately, the problem is not this counseling. The problem isn’t even the government giving people the option to buy their “get out of jail free” cards. I believe that the real problem we are facing today is the lack of responsibility shown by a large portion of the American people. Mix this in with an unrealistic need for vengeance upon the unknown for crimes that the media is doing their best to often times glamorize, slowly stir in an attempt to reach uniform consistency and let set.

What we end up with is what we currently have in California: laws becoming stricter with respect to drugs of all varieties and tolerances asymptotically approaching zero for those that try to test these law’s boundaries, prisons getting overcrowded with more and more three-strikers to the extent that alternatives need to be found quickly and finally the government mandating citizens to purchase services from private institutions else join the crowds already in prison. Has our society really come to this? Are many of the crimes committed actually worthy of the punishment they’ve incurred? I seriously doubt it…

Now you might be wondering exactly what I’m getting at here and I wouldn’t blame you at all for that – I’m kind of curious myself… It just seems to me that something needs to change. Perhaps we should get rid of the “three strikes” rule and go back to evaluating the severity of a crime on a case by case basis? Seems to me like that might just open up the possibility for a ton of new jobs considering the number of cases prosecuted each and every day. Maybe we should take a lesson from many of our friends across the pond and learn to start tolerating an individual’s decision to use drugs as long as nobody else is endangered. When you think about it, how is this any different than the use of alcohol…? Maybe we should instill the value of personal responsibility in our children so that these issues never arise.

I actually don’t know and am not about to claim that I have any answers. I will say however that the experiences I’ve been going through the last couple of months sure have posed a lot of questions…

bis später,

Coriolis