Justice Services Inc is a company that is contracted by the State of Arizona and is supposed to provide preventative therapy/services to individuals in relation to drug abuse, alcohol abuse, and family violence. I was referred here as a means to have charges against myself by the State of Arizona dismissed for a family violence issue.
A short synopsis of my story is that I have a child who was shoplifting constantly, sometimes several times in 1 day. I used all parenting methods available to me from grounding to calling the police and having my child arrested. I called the police, they just come out and speak to her (3 times in 1 month)... I called family services/social services and they referred me to a behavioral health agency who in turn refused services because I do not have insurance. This went on for about 9 months.
At my wits end I spanked my child and the State of Arizona charged me with felony child abuse. The court appointed attorney advised me to take their offer to attend a prevention program through Justice Services stating it would be the fastest means to resolve this and not have to continue taking time off of work, and "who knows, maybe you will get some useful information."
I agreed to this 26 week prevention program as a means to get this whole ordeal behind me, I setup my appointment with Justice Services Inc. It was explained to me that I would be attending parenting classes. Upon arriving for my scheduled appointment I was required to meet with a councelor for an "assessment" which cost me $60. This assessment consisted of a 4 page questionaire regarding how often I physically or sexually abuse my girlfriend or wife (which is completely inappropriate seeing as how I am a women and a previous victim of domestic violence). Obviously all answers to this questionaire were NEVER.
When I met with the councelor to go through the "interview" process, he asked me why I was here. I explained the situation to him, he stated to me, I went through that with my child when they were small and did the same thing you did. Then they turned around and forced me to take 36 WEEKS of domestic violence prevention instead of 26 weeks of parenting classes. Please keep in mind that I make $14 per hour and am supporting a family of 5 with no public assistance (obviously I am very broke). They tell me that these classes will cost me $20 per week for 36 weeks ($780 total, granted I do not miss a class or have to reschedule because they charge you for that too).
I spoke with the court and the court gave me an order stating that I would only have to pay half the fees, however Justice Sevices Inc refused to accept this order and is still to this day charging me full price, if I do not pay it, they will not let me in the class and they send my file back to the district attorney to reinstate my charges.
As frustrated as I am at this point, I felt I had no choice but to just do it and move on with my life. At my first class they explained the rules to me. The stated specifically to me that if it is a recognized holiday (courts closed) then there are no classes. I attended my first 9 classes and then Veterens day came, I did not go as the courts were closed that day. They called me Tuesday, the day after that class and told me that they were in fact open and that counts as the only day I can miss.
The following Friday my schedule got changed to working 10 hour shifts Monday through Friday, so I would not be able to continue Monday evening classes. I called Justice Services and was instructed to reschedule my classes and I would need to pay a $15 fee to do so. I went down to their office as soon as they opened on Tuesday morning to reschedule. The receptionist proceeds to tell me that I missed last Monday so that was my only free day, and that I missed the night before (because I was obviously at work, and they knew that) I would have to restart my classes from week 1. So far I have paid them $295 and now they are restarting my payments as well so I have to pay $780 on top of that again.
This is all very irratating... This class is costing me more than $1000 dollars when according to federal guidelines I am below the Federal Poverty level, when all is said and done I will have to attend these classes for almost an entire year, the classes are approximately 60 miles from my home, and to top it all off I get to spend an entire year in a room with batterers when I moved to Arizona to protect myself and my children from one.
I just don't know where else to turn.
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