Monitoring Drinking

Abstract

Individuals convicted of driving while impaired (DWI) are high risks. They are two and a half times more likely than the average driver to be the drinking driver in a fatal crash and are responsible for approximately 1,000 alcohol-related fatalities each year. According to traditional means of control, DWI offenders have received jail time and have had their licenses suspended, but jail is expensive, and license suspension has not proved sufficiently effective. Recently, aided by new technologies, courts of law have begun to monitor offenders to ensure abstinence from alcohol and to control their driving through vehicle alcohol interlocks, which require a breath test to start a car. This paper describes these new monitoring programs and discusses the safety, health, and legal issues that they present. Aside from vehicle interlocks, most of these new technological methods have yet to be evaluated, but initial data appear promising. They suggest that even individuals dependent on alcohol can meet the requirements of alcohol-monitoring programs. However, the need for counseling assistance is likely to increase the role of court treatment programs to handle DWI offenders. If monitoring programs prevent recidivism, a new era may begin: current emphasis on license suspension and jail time for drivers convicted for drinking may give way to monitoring programs to control risky driving, with the potential to lower costs to government and reduce intrusion into the lives of offenders.