Every year more than 2,000 people are arrested in Monterey County for drunken driving, and about 600 of those arrested are expected to be nabbed again for the same crime at one point in their lives.
It is an unsettling trend Monterey County Superior Court Judge Sam Lavorato has seen over the years – and one he aims to change starting on Oct. 30.
Thanks to a $350,000 grant from the state Office of Traffic Safety, Lavorato will be able to launch a year-long pilot program for a DUI court. It will be the eighth such undertaking in the state.
Defendants who partake in such programs are 65-percent less likely to be re-arrested for driving while intoxicated.
“The hope is that we can intervene before something more serious happens,” Lavorato says.
With the help of probation officers, prosecutors, defense attorneys and substance-abuse counselors, the court will be able to provide treatment and supervision this year to 39 defendants, who are second – or third-time misdemeanor offenders.
In the future – and if funding is granted to continue the DUI court – Nona Medina, the DUI grant director, hopes to take in more defendants to help treat addictions on a larger scale.
Managing Deputy District Attorney Ed Hazel says this effort could save law enforcement agencies time and money, but only if the program helps ensure that defendants don’t drive drunk again.
Data shows that 65 percent of people arrested in the county for drunken driving are Latino. Most of the rest, Medina says, are white. Individuals under the legal drinking age comprise nearly 10 percent of DUI arrests countywide, and 43 percent are between ages 21 and 30.
If arrested or convicted for a felony DUI – meaning an individual has three or more DUI misdemeanors or the driving resulted in injury or death – the defendant will not be eligible for the program. Felony DUI arrests in the county have fluctuated from year to year, reaching a record high of 90 felonies in 2009.
Those selected to participate will still serve their mandatory sentences, plus five years on formal probation, but the benefit will be that treatment will be provided to them while they serve their time in home-confinement.
Most convicted drunk drivers already serve time at home, but none are required to do a treatment program – only a Department of Motor Vehicles course.
Lavorato says he is open to welcoming undocumented immigrants and those already sentenced, if they meet the program’s requirements.