kALAMAZOO (WKZO)– They are among the most dangerous people in our community and a simple program that some might call “coddling criminals” is keeping them from maiming and killing others, and from becoming a burden on society.
They are drunk drivers, they are addicts and left unchecked and untreated, they are a danger to society.
The Michigan Supreme Court has just released a report that shows that the combination of a Sobriety Court program and an ignition interlock can reduce repeat offenses to about one percent.
The Justices held a statewide teleconference in coordination with a number of local Sobriety Courts, including the one in Kalamazoo, to release the findings.
Judge Vince Westra, who runs Kalamazoo’s Sobriety Court, says drunk driving suspects have to be eligible before they are assigned to the specialized court. A drunk needs to be a real threat to society with at least a couple of drunk driving arrests.
Judge Westra says in addition to being a high risk, they also have to be a high need, someone who has a job, a family and a life that motivates them to want to go through the rigorous course of treatment the court is about to impose as an alternative to jail.
An ignition interlock only allows a car to start if the driver can prove they are sober. They do that by blowing through a tube into the device which can tell if there is alcohol on their breath.
The Sobriety Court began before the interlock devices were available, and they had some success. Westra says the addition of the devices has increased the drunks who complete the program from about 66% to 97% because they can drive. It makes it easier to manage.
Many might think that there is only one place for repeat drunk drivers, and that’s behind bars, and any other treatment will undermine the deterrent effect of prison.
Let’s review. Not only does the Sobriety court allow repeat criminal offenders to hang on to their lives, avoid jail and punishment, but now they have figured out a way for them to keep their drivers licenses too. Judge Westra says it will pay off.
Westra says it’s going to cost taxpayers 25 to 35-thousand dollars a year to incarcerate a drunk driver, who will come out of jail at the end of their sentence and head straight for the liquor store.
In the Sobriety court, the offender picks up the costs, and it’s considerably lower than the cost of a year in a cell.
They come out as productive citizens, treated if not cured of the disease that got them in trouble in the first place, not as hardened criminals.
Judge Westra thinks that’s a pretty good deal, not only for the ex-drunk, but for taxpayers.
Governor Snyder said in a major address on Criminal Justice Reform earlier this week that the state needs a lot more programs just like this one, and others designed to provide other alternatives to jail, because the “get tough” policies of the 80’s and 90’s have done nothing but fill up our jails with many people who don’t need to be there and strained the state’s finances.
That means there could be more drug courts, veteran’s courts and mental health courts in our future to divert those who need treatment rather than incarceration.
There will always be a place in our prisons for sociopaths and hard-core criminals who are beyond rehabilitation.dddddddddddddddddd
