A local program looking to stop drunk driving passed through a second set of graduates on Aug. 22 at a commencement ceremony at the Independence Township Library.
52-2 District Court’s Sobriety Court, a state granted program to rehabilitate repeat drunk drivers, celebrated the completion of the 18-month program.
‘If you get the (alcohol) addiction under control, they won’t drink and drive,? Fortinberry said. ‘They (graduates) are people who will remain sober.?
Fortinberry and fellow District Court Judge Kelley Kostin run the program in conjunction with an associated probation officer.
Within the program, participants can be working in different phases. Because the program admits participants on a quarterly basis, there can be as many as 50 people working to finish their requirements.
‘We have to keep it small to keep it effective,? Fortinberry said.
Participants are involved with the program for a 24-month time period and if anyone were to relapse during the program, they would be place back to the previous stage in the process.
The program is divided into three phases. Each phase of the program gives the participants, repeat drunk drivers without violent offenses on their records, ‘intense probation oversight,? Judge Dana Fortinberry said.
The program’s requirements include random testing for alcohol, community service activities, regularly scheduled court appointments and frequent visits to a probation officer.
‘It’s pretty intense,? Fortinberry said.
She noted that participants are meeting these requirements without being able to drive their cars, since their driver’s licenses are revoked for their offense.
The program graduated seven participants in May of this year as part of the inaugural class.
Drug treatment programs of a similar nature were begun by a judge in Miami, Fla. in 1989 and have grown to number more than 2,000.
Fortinberry said statistics show that sobriety courts and similar drug court programs boast a 94 percent success rate, while traditional probation is successful 33 percent of the time.
‘Everyone told him he was crazy,? Fortinberry said. ‘Everybody wants to do it because they see that it works.?
Sobriety Court was formed in November 2004 at 52-2 District Court and took a year and a half to setup. This is the third and final year for the state grant that funds the sobriety court.
‘I definitely would like to see it continue for many years because it works,? she said.
Fortinberry said there is a foundation of private citizens who also help raise money for the program.
When the program was in the planning stages, Fortinberry and co-founder Judge Michael Batchik decided which criminal offenses were predominant in the area. Fortinberry said there were more than 500 cases of drunk driving and one-third of them were repeat offenses.