This article by Jordan Cuddemi was published in the Valley News on October 9.
[W]hite River Junction — Vermont is working to steer more people who have committed serious impaired driving offenses toward substance abuse treatment thanks to an expansion of the DUI treatment court in Windsor County.
The Vermont Judiciary recently received a $1.9 million, five-year grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to expand the existing model, which helps link certain high-risk and high-need DUI offenders with treatment services in an effort to get them back on the right track, said Treatment Court Program Manager Kim Owens.
Before the grant money came through, the Windsor Adult DUI Treatment Court Docket accepted only those who committed serious alcohol-related driving offenses. The funding has allowed the court to expand that to drugged driving-related offenders.
“There are more drug recognition experts because there is more drugged driving. We want to make sure we expand to reach the whole population who is driving and that are posing a risk to the community,” Owens said on Monday.
In addition to expanding eligibility, the program will now be offered to offenders in Orange and Windham counties in addition to those in Windsor County. Participants in Orange and Windham will travel to Windsor County for the program, which has been in existence there since 2014.
So far, the program has had promising results, according to a news release last week announcing the grant.
Eighty percent of participants in the program have graduated and participants have a recidivism rate of 20 percent, the release states. The national recidivism rate for DUI offenders is 25 percent, state officials said.
The funding will help bolster the program in several ways, including paying for additional case managers to work with the participants. There is currently only one full-time case manager for the program; the funding will allow for three full-time case managers, one in each county, said Mark Young, who is a coordinator for Health Care & Rehabilitation Services, which is a service provider for the participants.
On average, nine people participate in the program per year, a figure officials anticipate will rise to 40 participants per year.
The funding has been secured, and the program is already expanding. There are currently 18 people participating and there are six referrals pending, Young said.
Windsor County State’s Attorney David Cahill said in order to be legally eligible for the program, the offender has to have committed a serious driving offense, such as a third DUI or a second DUI with a high blood alcohol content level.
A state’s attorney — or a defense attorney — would then refer someone to the program, and a treatment coordinator would determine whether the individual is clinically eligible based on the “high-risk and high-need” criteria.
Individuals who meet both of the requirements move forward with their court case, which entails pleading guilty to the offense or offenses and being sentenced into the DUI docket, Owens said. There are then incentives for successfully completing the roughly 18-month program, such as time off a sentence.
Throughout the program, participants meet with providers and go before a judge twice a month.
Cahill said he supports the expansion of the DUI docket and thinks it makes sense to have the system run out of one court, with Orange and Windham county participants coming to White River Junction.
“It is a necessary step in order to make efficient use of taxpayer dollars, to have a hub and spoke model here. One court is serving as a specialty court,” he said.
Cahill said he hopes the model can be replicated for possession-type offenses.
The grant money also will help fund additional training for clinical staff, Young said.
Participants in Windsor and Windham counties will work with individuals at HCRS, while those in Orange will work with staff at the Clara Martin Center.
“Recidivism around DUIs — it’s huge,” Young said.
To help change that, best practices show “it’s a blend of intensive treatment … with high accountability that a court program can provide.”
“It is very hard to change your behavior without treatment,” Owens said of a specific population of DUI offenders. “This is a way that gets offenders into treatment. … There is accountability and then follow up. It just makes for a safer community.”
