New program aims to stop drunk driving with longer treatment
By Daniel Silliman
The Clayton County Driving Under the Influence Court, one of only 13 in the state, is now under way.
County residents convicted of two DUIs within five years or three or more in their lifetime may be sentenced in state court to undergo 12 months of treatment, supervised by regular visits to a probation officer and a judge.
“Society doesn’t benefit from having people who are useless alcoholics in their midst,” said Clayton County State Judge Linda S. Cowen. “My hope is that we’re going to reduce the number of repeat offenders. If they become productive, we bring a person who is a working taxpayer back into the world.”
The state program began with a study, five years ago. A grant-funded pilot program in three Georgia counties explored the concept of reducing DUI recidivism by increasing extensive treatment and establishing a court-enforced support structure.
According to Cindy Mullen, Clayton’s DUI Court coordinator, the three-county pilot saw recidivism rates drop by more than 50 percent.
The judges involved with the test were so excited by the results, Cowen said, they were almost begging other state judges to consider the idea of DUI court.
Cowen said the study shows repeat offenders who have gone through the DUI court are three times less likely to drive under the influence of alcohol in the first year and four times less likely to repeat in the second year.
“Many of these folks don’t have much back-up,” she said, “so for them to have a judge say to them, ‘I sincerely hope that you succeed,’ that gives them the incentive and the encouragement.”
The program increases accountability and lasts long enough, Cowen said, that many of the graduates have been successfully treated for their alcohol problems.
The program is being funded for the first four years by a one-time federal grant. A coordinator position has to be created and filled, but that is the only cost.
Mullen, the coordinator, said the list of things required by the program often overwhelms the offenders who receive the DUI court sentence, but the length of the list is vital to the program’s success.
“They give me looks. Like, deer-in-the-headlights looks. Puppy dog looks. I really don’t care. We want to get you involved in treatment long enough that you stay. In about three months, the attitude is really different,” she said.
The program is not an alternative to jail time, but an extended and intensified probationary period. A normal probation for a DUI is 16 to 25 weeks, Mullen said. In this program, the probation and treatment period lasts 52 weeks.
The goal is for the person to realize the problems drinking has caused them.
“They don’t put the puzzle together,” Mullen said. “We don’t put all the pieces together for them, but we put all the pieces out on the table and make them look at them. We make them go to treatment and we make them participate. The longer they stay, the better the chance they will put it together.”
The program has the ability to make the world safer, Cowen said. It has the ability to save lives — the lives of alcoholics and the lives of their victims.
“I’m looking forward to celebrating success instead of just wallowing in failure,” she said.
