Study: Devices lower repeat drunk driving rate

LANSING – For the last four years, Michigan courts have been using ignition interlocks to prevent convicted drunk drivers from becoming repeat offenders, with some positive results.

A four-year study of ignition interlocks and DWI/Sobriety Courts in the state found that people ordered to install the devices in their vehicles are less likely to drive drunk after completing probation and have higher treatment completion rates than those without the devices.

Ignition interlocks prevent a car from starting unless the driver blows into a breathalyzer and their blood alcohol concentration is below a set level. The devices require additional breath tests during the drive and also take the driver’s picture and track the car with GPS.

The study, released during a press conference today in the Michigan Supreme Court chambers, found that 88 percent of those ordered to place the devices in their cars complete treatment programs, compared to 66 percent that aren’t ordered to have the devices. The repeat conviction rate for those with the devices is 2.8 percent after probation, according to the study, about half of the rate for those given probation without an ignition interlock.

Sobriety courts are part of the state’s problem-solving courts program. It’s goal is to divert some people away from prison sentences and into treatment programs.

The sobriety court program includes random alcohol tests, meetings with the Sobriety Court team and attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings or other court-ordered meetings. With the ignition interlocks, people in the program are allowed to have a restricted driver’s license. That makes it more likely they’ll be able to keep their job and attend meetings, said Eaton County District Court Judge Harvey Hoffman.

In Michigan, 97 percent of the people ordered to place the devices in their vehicles do, according to the study. That’s a much higher rate than the roughly 40 percent nationwide that comply with similar orders, he said.

“Alcoholics usually spend several years of hard drinking before they end up in a treatment program,” Hoffman said. “So most research shows that if you’re going to address the underlying addictions of these offenders, you need at least one year of concentrated treatment.”

Hoffman started one of the first sobriety courts in the state. The sobriety court in Eaton County District Court started in 1996, followed by the Circuit Court’s version in 2000.

There are Sobriety Courts in Eaton, Ingham and Clinton counties. They’re among the 164 problem-solving courts in the state, which focus on sobriety, veterans and those with mental health problems.

“Michigan’s trial judges are not satisfied with doing their jobs the way they’ve always been done in the past,” Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Young Jr said during the press conference. Judges are committed to those courts, he added, and “innovations that result in more effective and more efficient courts.”

The goal of the program and Sobriety Court is to get help to those who need it and who haven’t been received it in the past, Eaton County Prosecutor Doug Lloyd said during a phone interview.

“We’re gatekeepers in a sense,” he said. “We can either approve or not approve of people entering. ... Generally we’re looking for individuals that we feel are going to have success in the program — individuals that haven’t been involved in the past, that have lacked the specific help to stop drinking.”