Life after a DUI conviction

Editor’s note: The following story is part 3 in a three-part series on drunk driving. This week, we explore what happens to individuals after they’ve been convicted of driving under the influence. To read parts 1 and 2 in the series, visit www.chesterfield observer.com and search the archives for “DUI.”

Greg Vasiliou, state program coordinator with Draeger Safety Diagnostics, demontrates how to use an interlock device. Draeger installs court-ordered interlock devices on vehicles. Page Dowdy/Chesterfield Observer In her role as executive director of the Virginia Alcohol Safety Action Program’s (VASAP) John Tyler chapter, Maureen Earley interacts on a daily basis with county residents who have been convicted at least once of driving under the influence of alcohol or illegal narcotics.

She’s heard every excuse you could imagine, and then some. Her response is always the same: The sooner you take responsibility for your actions, the sooner you can make the necessary changes to get your life back on track.

Technician Kevin Pegram installs an interlock device on a vehicle. Page Dowdy/Chesterfield Observer “Denial is big among DUI offenders,” Earley said. “We do have people who take responsibility for themselves, learn their lesson and we never see them again, but others would rather argue or complain. They don’t really think what they did is that big of a deal.”

Virginia’s ASAP network is comprised of 24 local offices that utilize a combination of treatment and education in an effort to reduce the number of alcohol-related accidents on the commonwealth’s highways.

The nation’s lone statewide court-related DUI intervention program, VASAP also allows judges to divert thousands of first-time offenders who would otherwise require taxpayer dollars to incarcerate.

An alternative to jail

As a condition of probation following a conviction for DUI, an offender is usually given a restricted driver’s license and then must report to their local ASAP office within 15 days. An initial meeting with a case manager includes a mandatory evaluation to determine the nature and extent of the person’s alcohol addiction.

If it’s a first DUI, and the offender’s bloodalcohol content was 0.15 or lower, he will be enrolled in a 10-week alcohol awareness class. Offenders with multiple DUIs on their records, which comprise roughly 50 percent of John Tyler VASAP’s clients, are referred for mandatory outpatient treatment by a licensed provider in the Richmond area. First offenders with blood-alcohol levels over 0.15 are also required to undergo mandatory treatment.

“Ninety-nine percent of second DUI offenses are [committed by] alcoholics. The chance of them re-offending is pretty high if they don’t have treatment,” Earley said. “The bottom line is they need something or they’re going to kill someone – themselves or others.”

Virginia’s ASAP programs receive no taxpayer dollars and are funded completely by fees paid by participants. Every DUI offender pays a $300 fee – the amount, as Earley noted, hasn’t increased in 25 years – and a separate $75 intervention fee.

Offenders also must pay for their own treatment. Since some don’t have health insurance, or their policies don’t cover treatment for alcohol dependence, local providers have set up their fee structure so that it doesn’t cost much more for uninsured participants than it does for those with insurance.

When everything is factored in, completion of ASAP requirements can be an expensive proposition. But the financial cost pales in comparison to the consequences offenders face for failing to comply with the terms of their probation.

If a restricted license is the carrot judges offer to DUI offenders to entice them to stay on the right side of the law post-conviction, the stick is the very real possibility that they’ll go to jail if they don’t follow through with what they’re supposed to do.

“If you test positive for alcohol while you’re in ASAP, if you get new driving violations, if you don’t show up to your meetings, then you’ll be brought back before court on a show-cause as to why you shouldn’t serve the time that was suspended on your original DUI for violating the terms of your suspended sentence,” said Melissa Hoy, an assistant commonwealth’s attorney in Chesterfield.

Added Earley: “Many of our judges in Chesterfield are rehab-oriented because they know throwing people in jail doesn’t help deal with the underlying problem, but there are times when you know someone needs jail time because he’s just not getting it.”

Kicking the habit

When you’re dealing with a chemical dependence on alcohol, sometimes even the threat of jail isn’t enough to keep DUI offenders from drinking again. Some offenders find their way back behind the wheel of an automobile and are stopped again for drunk driving before they even complete their ASAP requirements.

The reality that some repeat offenders wind up causing fatal traffic accidents finally spurred Virginia legislators to place greater emphasis on keeping these drivers off the roads.

Prior to the 2009 General Assembly, only offenders who were convicted of DUI twice within a five-year period or were convicted once with a blood-alcohol content over 0.15 (nearly twice the legal limit) were required to have an ignition interlock device installed in their cars as a condition of a restricted license.

In February, lawmakers approved a bill expanding the ignition interlock requirement to anyone convicted of more than one DUI within a span of 10 years. They also passed a bill that makes it a Class 1 misdemeanor for a multiple DUI offender to operate an automobile without a court-mandated ignition interlock device.

“The whole idea of interlock is to not give somebody a second chance,” said Chesterfield Del. Sam Nixon who voted for both measures. “It’s very unfortunate that people keep doing this over and over again. They won’t stop doing it until somebody physically stops them from driving a car.”

Earley said interlock devices are an especially important tool in the effort to contain DUI offenders who aren’t able to kick their need for alcohol even after completing a treatment program.

“That’s alcoholism,” she added. “It doesn’t always take just one time.”

Technology helps the cause

An ignition interlock device is a small, hand-held, one-piece alcohol sensor, roughly the size and shape of a cordless telephone. The device is wired into a vehicle’s electrical system and requires a breath test before the vehicle can be started.

The driver blows into the device, and it measures alcohol in the breath. If alcohol is detected above a .02 threshold (well below the legal limit of .08), the ignition interlock unit will prevent the vehicle from starting. Once the driver is allowed to start the vehicle, the device will require random rolling retests to make sure the driver isn’t drinking alcohol while driving.

If the driver fails a retest, or declines to submit to one when required, the device will cause the vehicle’s headlights to flash and the horn to honk intermittently until the vehicle is turned off or the driver successfully takes the retest. If the vehicle is turned off, the unit will require the driver to pass a test before the vehicle can be restarted.

The device contains a small computer that records all start attempts, the results of all tests, and the results of all rolling retests. It also records the time of day the vehicle is started and the time of day the vehicle is turned off.

Once a month, the offender must take the vehicle to an ASAP service center, where a technician downloads the recorded data from the interlock into a central computer. If any violations were committed in the previous month, a report is forwarded to the case manager or probation officer for review.

If the offender fails to appear for monitoring, the interlock unit is set to “lock out” after a grace period of five days. If this happens, the vehicle will not start, and the offender must tow the vehicle to a service center at his own expense.

Offenders must pay $100 per vehicle to have the device installed, as well as a monthly fee of $80. Since the device must be installed in every automobile registered to the offender, the price tag can get steep even if the person regularly drives only one of his family’s cars.

“Basically what we’re saying is, ‘If you want a restricted license to drive to and from work, medical appointments or your children’s activities, that’s fine. We’ll give it to you, but you have to pay for the interlock,’” Hoy said. “As far as a learning curve, sometimes that’s all it takes, for people to know the expense of having to pay that.”

Between the human toll and financial impact, it’s not always possible to quantify the cost of a conviction as a learning experience for DUI offenders. By utilizing ASAP classes and technological advances such as ignition interlock, the criminal justice system is trying to prevent people from making the same expensive mistake more than once.

“This program,” Earley said, “is about changing behavior.”