The WSJ ran an article recently on a new approach to DUI enforcement/punishment that was started in South Dakota a few years ago. It seems to be producing very good results by taking advantage of the way humans assess risk. From the article (bold added):
There's more in the article about implications for treating addiction in general.
Anyway, getting drunk drivers off the road is good, and this approach seems to be effective at doing it. The cost seems reasonable, and there are apparently benefits that accrue beyond highway safety.
And there's an obvious tie-in to the psychology of delayed gratification vs. spending with that last bold section, and why saving for "later" vs spending for fun "now" can be hard for many.Over the past generation, we’ve made important progress against “driving under the influence,” but the numbers haven’t dropped much recently, and the problem still costs some 10,000 Americans their lives each year.
. . . Legislators and judges have responded to repeat drunken drivers by trying to eliminate their driving—through incarceration, license suspension, ignition locks and vehicle impoundment. Their approach has been to separate the drivers from their vehicles, not from their drinking habits.
A decade ago, as attorney general of South Dakota, Larry Long saw the need for a more direct approach and launched a program called “24/7 Sobriety.” I first encountered 24/7 Sobriety five years ago, and it confounded much of what I had learned in my years as an addiction-treatment professional.
. . . .
Offenders in 24/7 Sobriety can drive all they want to, but they are under a court order not to drink. Every morning and evening, for an average of five months, they visit a police facility to take a breathalyzer test. Unlike most consequences imposed by the criminal justice system, the penalties for noncompliance are swift, certain and modest. Drinking results in mandatory arrest, with a night or two in jail as the typical penalty.
The results have been stunning. Since 2005, the program has administered more than 7 million breathalyzer tests to over 30,000 participants. Offenders have both showed up and passed the test at a rate of over 99%.
Inevitably, a few offenders try to beat the program by drinking just after a successful breathalyzer test, with the idea of not drinking too much before their next one. But people with repeat convictions for driving under the influence don’t excel at limiting themselves to “just a few beers.” They quickly learn that the best way to succeed in 24/7 Sobriety is to avoid alcohol entirely.
The benefits of the program aren’t just confined to road safety. . . . counties using 24/7 Sobriety experienced not only a 12% drop in repeat drunken-driving arrests but also a 9% drop in domestic-violence arrests. Unlike interventions that only constrain drinking while driving, the removal of alcohol from an offender’s life also reduces the incidence of other alcohol-related crimes.
. . . .It turns out that people with drug and alcohol problems are just like the rest of us. Their behavior is affected much more by what is definitely going to happen today than by what might or might not happen far in the future, even if the potential future consequences are more serious.
There's more in the article about implications for treating addiction in general.
Anyway, getting drunk drivers off the road is good, and this approach seems to be effective at doing it. The cost seems reasonable, and there are apparently benefits that accrue beyond highway safety.
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