Early last year Hennepin County created a new specialty court that targets people with serious alcohol issues who are likely to drink and drive, time and time again. Results are now in for the first year of this new DWI Court and they show an impressive trend.
Over 100 repeat DWI offenders have entered the new DWI Court and only one has been convicted of re-offending. That compares to a 60 to 80% rate of re-offending, called the recidivism rate, for repeat DWI offenders using the traditional probation supervision model. Before DWI Court a very large percentage of repeat DWI offenders were likely to go back to their old ways, to the danger of us all. Now, through DWI Court many offenders have gone on to productive lives, holding down good jobs, while repairing their family rifts.
From a taxpayer standpoint, these early results from DWI Court present equally good news. The traditional probation supervision model costs all of us taxpayers about $80 to $100 dollars per day, for the mandatory 90 days of incarceration. Instead of up to $100 per day for weeks on end, the supervision component of the DWI Court costs the taxpayers about $2,000 per participant. As a further boon to taxpayers, Judge John Holahan, who leads the court, procured a significant federal grant to cover most of the court side costs through 2009.
The bottom line: the new DWI Court is enjoying great success in keeping repeat DWI offenders from drinking and driving, while doing so at a fraction of the traditional supervision model for responding to this serious problem. How? DWI Court's success begins with the man who led the effort to establish such a court, Judge Holahan. As Judge Holahan has said, "We'd like to have offenders maintain sobriety. But if we have to choose between sobriety and stopping them from drinking and getting behind the wheel of a car, we will choose the latter every time."
To that end, DWI Court involves intense supervision. Once repeat offenders have been admitted into the program, they are placed on a rigorous schedule of judicial supervision for at least 18 months. During the first 6 months of Phase I, the participants must come to court each and every week to have their progress monitored. During the next 6 months of Phase II, they come to court every other week, and during the Phase III, they return every 4 weeks. Those who are doing well receive praise from the judge, while those who are not doing well receive sanctions.
Nor could the new court be successful without the cooperative efforts of local prosecutors, the public defender's office, private lawyers, community corrections, and many others in the community who are equally committed to freeing our streets of repeat DWI offenders.
This new DWI program benefits all of us in yet another significant way. Repeat offenders lose their license, but typically continue to drive without a license or insurance. Thus, when they harm an innocent victim, there is often no insurance coverage. As part of the DWI Court program, agreements have been reached with the Commissioner of Public Safety that allow the participants to reinstate their licenses on a limited basis in half the time, which allows them to drive to work, court, AA, and aftercare, but with significant safeguards for the public. In order to obtain their limited driving privileges, the offenders must have insurance and use an ignition interlock that monitors alcohol consumption and prevents them from driving if they have been drinking again.
The DWI Court is one way in which the Hennepin County court in partnership with other participants in the criminal justice system is striving to reduce recidivism rates. Repeat offenders are a very legitimate concern. They add to the court's already extremely busy caseload, represent a constant drain on our decreasing resources, and are often demoralizing to those of us who work in the justice system and seek an answer to the question: "Why can't the criminal justice system do something to stop criminals from offending time and time again?"
Should its success continue, DWI Court may prove to be one answer to that question.
For further information, please visit Local Hennepin County DWI Attorney.
http://www.mncourts.gov/default.aspx?siteID=4&page=3276&fontsize=0
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