Here & Now

Counties Testing Biomarkers To Combat Drunken Driving

Police Officer:

“You’re under arrest for operating the vehicle while under effect of intoxicants. OWI . . . Hands behind your back . . . “

“Driver, place your keys out the window!”

Frederica:

Wisconsin hovers around 30,000 drunk driving convictions every year. A third of those are repeat offenders.

Jeff Rupert:

“Yeah. I have four DUI’s or OWI’s for . . . All of the times I didn't get caught for drinking and driving. I’m lucky with four.”“

Kathryn Foster:

“The highest I’ve seen in my court was 11. Well, actually I think I had a 12. I did have a 12. They are just really kind of hopeless people.”

Frederica:

To say nothing of the havoc and harm they wreak on themselves and others.

Police Officer:

When did you stop drinking today?

Frederica:

There’s a lot of time, money and effort poured into the patrolling, for arresting, convicting, incarcerating and treating of repeat drunk drivers.

Defendant:

Doing something that I realize I hadn’t been dealing with.

Judge:

You know why we told you that you need a new sponsor, right?

Frederica:

Judge Kathy Foster currently presides over Waukesha County’s alcohol treatment court, which started in 2006. Third and fourth offense drunk drivers come before her.

Defendant:

I’ll do anything to stay sober. This is the first time in 10 years that I’ve ever experienced sobriety, and I love it.

Frederica:

The court — the first of its kind in the state — emphasizes treatment

within the construct of strict adherence to rules, including being sent back to jail for breaking them. Its mission: to reduce the number of repeat drunk drivers.

Foster cites successful stats: reducing the percentage of graduates of the court who re-offend from near 35% to 8%.

Kathy Foster:

There isn’t much else in the criminal justice system that can reduce recidivism that way.

Frederica:

But in some counties they’re trying a different tack:

[sounds of blood test and nail clipping]

Worker:

Go ahead and clip your nails for me.

Frederica:

County alcohol assessors, who manage the driver safety plans required of people convicted of OWI, are clipping nails and taking blood. Nails can show heavy alcohol consumption going back three months.

Jodi Baker:

So what the law says is if we get a positive, that means this person drank enough to be drunk. That’s all we need to know.

Frederica:

Oneida County is among seven Wisconsin counties which entered into a pilot program using

something called “Biomarker” testing….testing used successfully throughout Europe, and now tried here. Dr. Pamela Bean is research director at Rogers Memorial Hospital in Oconomowoc, and leading the “Biomarker Project.”

Pamela Bean:

With the regular blood alcohol or urine alcohol it takes a few hours for the levels to go away. When we’re talking about these alcohol bio markers, it takes a period from 3 to 4 weeks to 3 to 4 months.

Chris Hartlep:

It’s a positive. Something’s not right. So it helps actually break their denial system.

Pamela Bean:

Let’s say there is a person who is absolutely denying that they have ben drinking alcohol, buttheir alcohol biomarkers are extremely high. Well that means that person not only is in denial, but also has been drinking very heavily.

Frederica:

And what happens next in the pilot counties is more individualized treatment and counseling.

Chris Hartlep:

Do we need to increase and go from individuals and groups to a day treatment. Or, if there’s been a significant change where the levels are fairly significant, the person starts owning it a little bit more. Do we need to take a look at inpatient?

Frederica:

Jeff Rupert has taken his last Biomarker test after inpatient treatment and 12 months in the testing and counseling program.

Jeff Rupert:

It definitely keeps you accountable. You got to weigh out what’s more important:a drink or your license, and your job, and your career, you know.

Frederica:

Rupert had his license revoked for five years due to his repeat drunk driving. He’s got it back now…along with sobriety and a good-paying job.

Jody Baker:

It used to be I’d do an OWI assessment. Refer the to treatment. I was done with tem. And now I get to see them two more times.

Frederica:

Baker calls these little interventions from her that result in larger treatment interventions when needed.

Pamela Bean:

And so what that allows us to do is to have those very high risk offenders undermore strict supervision. with the proper treatment support for an extended period of time.

Frederica:

Pamela Bean says findings from pilot programs show that between 60 and 80-percent of the time, the driver enrolled in biomarker testing has changed the drinking behavior. Stopping or reducing consumption.

[Courtroom sounds]

Judge:

Anyone who chooses to do that, by the way, I think more of them.

Frederica:

But Biomarker testing might not work for every jurisdiction. We first visited JudgeFoster’s Alcohol Treatment Court, because Waukesha had tried Biomarker testing as part of the pilot program. But they no longer use it. Partly because biomarkers show heavy drinking going back months– and the Waukesha Court relies on real-time, sometimes daily tests.

Judge Foster:

We used it initially, as we were getting going. Keep in mind that we’ve made a lot of changes in our program. You’re not doing your program right if you’re not changing to keep up with science, the evidence-based practices.

Frederica:

Waukesha has gone to methods like ankle bracelets that monitor alcohol consumption 24/7…and an arrangement with local police departments that allow for daily breath tests as needed. Because Foster says testing is one of the best measures to promote sobriety.

Police Officer:

What were you drinking at the restaurant?

Driver: Beer

Frederica: And so, it’s a brave new world in the fight against repeat drunk driving. Combining new science and techniques with new treatments and therapies. All in an effort to knock Wisconsin out of its first in the nation standing in the number of drunk driving convictions. TheBiomarker project is working with legislators in efforts to adopt the testing statewide…supporters of the testing hope to appeal to the high cost of incarceration compared to a 12-month testing and treatment program. The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism collaborated on our report.