Yolanda is a Chula Vista mom who once loved carousing with mortgage industry colleagues and started drinking every day while going through a divorce a few years ago.
Even after her third DUI arrest, she didn’t think she had a problem with alcohol.
“I just thought I was unlucky (to get caught),” said the 40-year-old woman, whose last name is not being used to protect her identity.
But now, about 18 months after that arrest, Yolanda feels lucky. Lucky she didn’t hurt or kill anyone while driving drunk, and lucky to have been one of the first people in San Diego County offered “DUI Court,” a pilot program in the South County Regional Court for people arrested for DUI a third time.
This week Yolanda became the first DUI Court graduate in a ceremony in front of family members and representatives from the County’s criminal justice system in a South County courtroom.
“I can tell you, you won’t see me here again,” the nervous but beaming woman with dark-rimmed glasses said.
DUI Court offers a very different sentence than most typical third DUI cases. Normally, the third DUI offense carries a sentence of 120 days in jail. Once out of jail, the offenders are not normally supervised by a probation officer or required to seek treatment.
And too often, these chronic drunken drivers end up back in jail or in a serious DUI crash, said Gonzazlo Mendez, a supervising probation officer with the County’s Probation Department who oversees a Felony DUI Unit and who helped start the pilot court.
“We were seeing the same people in and out,” Mendez said.
How DUI Court Works
After Mendez and Deputy District Attorney Cally Bright learned about successful DUI Courts in other counties, including Orange County, at a Northern California training a few years ago, they worked with their departments , Superior Court Ana Espana, the Public Defender’s office and the County’s Health and Human Services Agency to pilot a DUI Court in the South Bay.
DUI Court is a voluntary program designed to prevent future drunken driving by holding offenders accountable and creating incentives for them to address their substance abuse issues. In the program, the defendant agrees to plead guilty up front and then goes to jail on a 30 day sentence.
Once out, the participant is fitted with SCRAM bracelet, which is a round-the-clock alcohol monitoring device, and enters an alcohol treatment program. The participant must attend a court hearing to monitor his or her progress about once a month. The participant is also subject to searches and surprise visits by a probation officer.
Mendez said he and another probation officer visited Yolanda almost 20 times at her home.
If participants fail the terms of their probation and use alcohol, they can be sent to jail. But for Yolanda, the combination of wearing a device that detects alcohol in sweat, the threat of jail, and the treatment program motivated her to stay out of trouble and to see her life anew.
“I was meeting with people who were in worse situations than me; they had lost their kids,” Yolanda said of her experience in treatment. “People were telling me, ‘I wish I had what you had.’ Working with them and helping them helped me get more motivated.”
After about 15 months on probation and after finishing treatment, DUI Court participants complete their legally-required 120-day sentence with home confinement. They are allowed to go to work, and Yolanda did.
The Lasting Benefits
Now finished with DUI Court and sober for over a year, Yolanda said she doesn’t miss drinking, and she can’t believe how much easier life is without alcohol. Her son and daughter were both struggling in school at the time of her arrest, but they’re doing well now, Yolanda said. She knows it’s because she’s giving them more time, and worrying them less.
The DUI Court may involve less time in custody, but in many ways it’s harder than merely serving the time, because offenders have to submit to monitoring, return to court and work to overcome their substance abuse issues, said Mendez.
But when the drunken driver is willing to participate, evidence shows DUI Courts can help increase public safety while benefitting people with addictions and their families, Chief Probation Officer Mack Jenkins said at Yolanda’s graduation.
“We reduce crime, because they’re not going to get another DUI, they’re held accountable, and they get help for their substance abuse and move on with their lives,” Jenkins said.
Deputy District Attorney Bright said, so far, the pilot court for 10 offenders is showing promising results. Seven people, including Yolanda, are working through treatment and probation. Three have dropped out.
But, said the prosecutor, she is not surprised that some have decided to drop out and serve jail time instead. Like Mendez, he said DUI Court was “way more work.”
Bright sees the consequences of chronic drinking and driving in DUI cases she prosecutes, which include deadly DUIs and DUIs that have caused terrible injury. She said she hopes the DUI Court model will grow beyond the South Bay and eventually accommodate more offenders and prevent them from causing drunken driving tragedies.
“I think this should be the future,” Bright said.
Other collaborative court programs that include intensive monitoring and treatment being piloted in San Diego County include the Behavioral Health Court for mentally ill offenders and Re-entry Court for repeat, non-violent criminals. Drug Court for people arrested for non-violent drug crimes is established in all four of the County’s Superior Courts.
Chief Jenkins said collaborative courts all include a caring judge who oversees each case and believes justice means more than just jail time. In DUI Court, Judge Espana supports the program and encourages Yolanda and other participants as they work their way through their sentence and treatment.
“It takes a caring judge who uses the power of the robe to hold offenders accountable and help them turn their lives around,” Jenkins said.