<b>UNM RESEARCHER TO PRESENT RESULTS OF STUDY ON SAN JUAN COUNTY DWI

August 29, 2003

UNM RESEARCHER TO PRESENT RESULTS OF STUDY ON SAN JUAN COUNTY DWI PROGRAM

University of New Mexico Professor and Researcher Gill Woodall will present the results of a study completed by the Center on Alcoholism, Substance Abuse and Addictions (CASAA) of a promising program that combines incarceration and treatment for DWI offenders in San Juan County on Thursday, Sept. 11.

The program, which includes a mock “Happy Hour” starting at 4 p.m., will be held at the Albuquerque Marriott on Louisiana and I-40. It is sponsored by the DWI Resource Center and the Behavioral Health Research Center. Drunk drivers who completed the unique treatment program were less likely to be arrested again for DWI, according to the UNM study. Started in 1994 in Farmington by a community that was tired of the high human and economic costs of DWI, the program focuses on first and second-time offenders.

Patterned after a Maryland model, the program incarcerates participants for 28 days in a minimum security facility and provides individual and group treatment that is culturally appropriate for its participants, most of whom are Navajo.

“The program’s sweat lodges and talking circles were appealing to all participants,” says Woodall, “Our studies now show that the program works equally well for all ethnicities. Overall, we’ve found that the San Juan program is a potential model for the rest of the region.” One reason is the program’s proven tendency to prevent re-arrests, which some chalk up to its monitoring and care of participants for an average of six months after release.

Whether the cost of the innovative program (about $400,000 per year for approximately 1500 people) justifies the benefits it produces will be the subject of the next stage of the federally funded CASAA study.

“The San Juan program offers an interesting model right here in our own backyard that law enforcement, policymakers and judges should hear about,” says Linda Atkinson, director of the DWI Resource Center. “The data is beginning to show that a focus on first time offenders pays off in more ways than one.”

For more information on the program call Linda Atkinson at 881-1084.

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