If you can go to any other place, do it.
I had a DUI and was required to attend some sort of classes. I actually thought that perhaps counseling would be good for me because at the time (I was 21) I was abusing alcohol terribly, unfortunately help was not to be had here.
PROS:
I had a meth addict and a heroin addict in my 20+ person class which reminded me I never wanted to ever get mixed up in that stuff
CONS:
- The more information you gave them (this private for profit company) the longer your counseling sentence was I was required to have 65 hours stretched out, once a week so almost a full year (so if this is court ordered don't be honest - minimize everything)
- You can never miss a single class, or change when your class takes place or you have to restart
- They can change your class / time if they choose
- They give you these little receipts to prove you attended but they stress these receipts aren't proof that you are actually there (I guess it's to prove you paid?) this process also takes about 10-15 minutes
- After successfully completing my classes (which were of very little value), I received a call from them saying I would have to restart because I missed a class July 4th. I explained this was impossible and that i had attended ever single one.
They said their records indicated that I was incarcerated at this point and couldn't come - which was also not true. I explained to them it was July 4th a public holiday and they didn't have a class that day. The lady said that she couldn't verify that, I asked her to please reference a calendar and she said she didn't have one.
Four more phone calls back and forth and they finally called both of the people who conducted my classes (they switched my schedule halfway through for some reason I am unaware of) and luckily they were able to verify that I had attended all of them.
So nearly
$1,000 of money 65 hours of sitting in a room of 20+ people, with most of the time used by a person high on meth and a homeless heroin addict, gained me probably an hours worth of knowledge total I could have easily obtained in a high school health class or 30 minutes on Wikipedia.