My First DIVERT Interview

Divert While Informed is intended to give a view from the inside of Harris County's Direct Intervention using Voluntary Education, Restitution and Treatment program (DIVERT), a new form of probation available to first-time DWI offenders. As the program is largely untested, with much of the information available coming from official documents, this blog is designed to give potential enrollees an idea of what DIVERT is like from the perspective of a participant. For the purpose of this first post, I will assume that the reader is already familiar with the basic criteria and requirements of DIVERT.

Recently I went in to 49 San Jacinto for my preliminary DIVERT evaluation. After paying the ridiculous fee of $202 to the 6th floor cashier (you would think that you'd pay for the program AFTER being accepted - crazy, I know) I proceeded down to the 4th for my testing and interview. The first step in the evaluation is the Substance Abuse Life Circumstance Evaluation (SALCE), a 98 question scantron-based test. Most of the questions demand yes/no answers. According to ADE, the distributor of the test, SALCE "measures the respondent's test taking attitude, a measure of how appropriate responses are to survey items" and evaluates "[a]lcohol and other drug use based on DSM-IV and ASAM Guidelines." The SALCE is available at http://www.adeincorp.com/salce.htm but is only distributed to trained treatment professionals. The test is specifically designed to determine whether the taker is exaggering his/her attitude and personality traits, so take caution if you decide to lie on this test. SALCE also seeks to determine durg/alcohol dependence, asking questions such as have you ever blacked out from drinking, has your drug use/drinking caused family problems, frequency and amount of use, and so on. In my interview, responses to these types of questions were flagged and followed up on by the interviewer in person, e.g. she asked my to describe the time I blacked out from drinking. When you sit down with the SALCE in front of you, it should be relatively straightfoward which questions are the major indicators of abuse. The SALCE also asks attitude/character type questions such as "Do you always go out of your way to help strangers?" or "Do you ever become frustrated when people ask favors of you?" Careful how you answer these questions - if you come off as a saint you risk being described as naive and self-aggrandizing, as in this sample report: http://www.adeincorp.com/salce_report.pdf. If you go the opposite route, you end up like me; my interviewer noted that I had an unusual tendency to portray myself in a negative light. Short of viewing the SALCE itself, I suggest you at least examine the example report I linked to directly above.

The next test given was a form from the Institute of Behavioral Research at Texas Christian University. The TCU forms, along with the scoring guides, are hosted here: http://www.ibr.tcu.edu/pubs/datacoll/datacoll.html. The test given to me seemed to be a specialized form consisting of both the "TCU Criminal Thinking Scales" and the "TCU Treatment Motivation Scales" combined - see http://www.ibr.tcu.edu/pubs/datacoll/Forms/ADC/08(ADC)MOTFORM.pdf and http://www.ibr.tcu.edu/pubs/datacoll/Forms/cjsurveyct.pdf. These forms test "Problem Recognition, Desire for Help, Treatment Readiness, Treatment Needs Index, and Pressures for Treatment" and "Entitlement, Justification, Power Orientation, Cold Heartedness, Criminal Rationalization, and Personal Irresponsibility" respectively. Both demand ranged responses in which one can strongly agree, strongly disagree, or fall in between these extremes. Now let me just say that these forms are obviously biased toward the status quo. The "criminal thinking" test has prompts such as "bankers, lawyers, and policians get away breaking the law every day." I am entirely convinced they do, but if I strongly agree with this, am I thinking like a criminal? Does it stike anyone else as unfair that your political attitudes can disqualify you from the DIVERT program? And might Texas Christian University possess a moral or political slant of one kind or another? Regardless, now you have links to the forms, so I suppose you can make yourself look as obedient or as criminal as you wish. (Disclaimer: I am of course not encouraging dishonesty, this is for informational purposes only, etc. etc.)

After completing this form, I then filled out several sheets of personal and contact information. Along with address, marital status, and the like, the forms asked me to list the names, numbers and addresses of my close friends, my landlord, and my place of business. It also asked me to list my income and the amount of rent I pay, my type of vehicle and license plate, etc. Finally the forms also included the types of drugs I'd tried and my frequency of use. Many of these questions seemed quite invasive - "Hello ma'am, this is Officer Friendly, I'm calling about your habitually drunk tenant in apartment 3."

Next came the formal interview. Off the bat, the interviewer threw presumption of innocence out the window and requested that I describe in detail the circumstances of my arrest. The interviewer asked me questions about where I lived, and told me that I had lost points for having moved numerous times in the last year, noting that it "showed instability." The interviewer asked me about my friends and neglected the right to free association by subtracting points because one had previously been arrested. I was again asked about my drug and alcohol habits, and the flagged SALCE questions mentioned above were harped on. I was asked if I had ever been in treatment. Throughout the interview, I was told to "relax" and "open up" whenever I expressed concern about my answers being used against me in a subsequent trial. The interviewer informed me that a summary of my test results and interview would be sent to the prosecutor. At the close of the interview, I was forced to sign a waiver stating that I understood that my casefiles could be subpoenaed by the prosecution in their entirety. My main regret from the first session is not reading this document closely enough - it was difficult to concentrate on, as the interviewer repeatedly assured me that it was just a "standard form."

Finally, I was escorted to the lab for urine testing. I discovered that the DIVERT program uses DrugCheck NxStep OnSite urine tests, which according to the company website (http://www.drugcheck.com/cup_dc.html) is available in products ranging from a 4 drug to a 12 drug screen, plus adulterants. I was unable to tell how many panels mine contained, so it is probably best to err on the side of caution. Keep in mind that the bathroom is covered in mirrors, and the door is left open during testing.

If anyone out there has questions about the interview process, please comment and I will respond promptly.