Counseling Assessment

A few days after the initial meeting with my probation officer, I arrived at a small brick building in downtown for my counseling assessment.  Frankly, I had no idea what to expect.  I wasn’t sure if I was going to get a real child sex offender assessment or whether it was just going to be an interview. I walked in and providing them with my name and was asked to wait.  I waited for about 10 minutes and small framed women walked out and asked me to come into her office.

I was asked to sit across from her and she sat behind her desk.  She didn’t say anything at first and just browsed through a file that was open on her desk in front of her.  After a few minutes she looked up and asked if I knew why I was here?  I responded yes and told her it was a condition of my probation to attend anger management classes.  She nodded, and then asked me to tell her my story from start to finish.  She wanted to her about that initial night of the accusation and about what had occurred since.  As she finished talking, I was suddenly struck by how cold this women was.  She showed no emotion, provided no small talk, and frankly seemed to say the minimum amount of words necessary.  She did not seem friendly in the least bit.

I told her my story and she listened intently, often asking me to pause while she wrote down what I was saying.  She explained to me that it was necessary for her to write down almost to the word what I was describing.  She paused a few times as well to ask questions about the story, and seemed surprised more than once with my answers.  When I finally finished almost an hour later she looked at me and said “That’s some story.  Is is true?”  I responded “Absolutely” and she nodded.  She said this was the first time in her few years of doing this that she had her a story with as many “issues and questions” as mine had.  I noticed as we talked a bit that one of the folders on her desk was a copy of my case file, including the child’s medical report.  So she knew the story already.

She then reached into her desk drawer and pulled out a form and asked me to read and sign-in.  The form was a “Sex Offender treatment permission form”.  In surprise I handed it back to her immediately and said that is not what I am here for.  She replied that it was just a standard form and since I was here to take anger management training as part of her larger sex offender training program, I would be required to sign it.  I explained that I was not trying to be difficult, but that I was not going to sign a form that had “sex offender” on it in any way shape or form and that by doing so, I would be admitting myself as a sex offender, which I am not.

We discussed it for a few minutes, and I basically told her politely but firmly that this wasn’t going to work, and I would need to meet with my probation officer again to discuss this further and possibly even my attorney.  She sighed, and turned on her computer and asked me to give her few minutes.  She finished typing and a document came out of her printer.  She handed it to me and said “Hopefully this will meet your needs.”  At the top it said “Anger management consent form”.  I read through it, signed it, and thanked her.  She proceeded to get up and explained to me that the first class was next Tuesday night and she expected me to be there.  She said classes start at 7:30pm, if I was more than 5 minutes late, the door would be locked and I would not be allowed in and considered absent.  She also informed me that each class cost $35, payable in cash.  What? She then said that not paying or not showing up to class is considered a probation violation and that she would inform my probation officer.  Nice.

So now, in addition to the “victim” compensation, and the monthly probably fee, I now have to pay a $35 per class counseling fee.  Neither the probation fee or counseling fee was mentioned to me when I agreed to the plea.  I mean, I wasn’t going to go hungry over it or anything, but each time something like this came up, it made me realize that my whole case was really about money.

I left, thinking the assessment had been far easier than I thought it was going to be.  I basically just told my story, answered a few questions and was done.  As I drove away thoughts about the class began the wander in my mind.  I was really nervous about the class and the people who would be in it.  Would their stories be like mine or would they admit to their crimes?  In a few days, I would find out.