Topic: criminal courts

A first offense can actually represent the product of a longstanding, well-established pattern of behavior.

A big fine, for instance, isn’t necessarily a better deterrent than a lesser one that is administered quickly and effectively.

It’s not just what you present to your client — it’s how you present it. By following a few simple rules, you get better results. It’s not a perfect system, by any means. But it should improve outcomes.

Having a judge or a parole officer holding the big stick on them may be enough to get them into treatment, but it’s usually not enough motivation to get them beyond the minimum of compliance.

If estimates are correct that a typical offender has driven under the influence between 60 and 100 times prior to first arrest, it’s clear the actual problem is far, far greater than arrests alone can document.

It seems to me that a successful approach to DWI must be based on the assumption that drunk drivers are a diverse population.

One state estimates around a fifth of offenders are rearrested within three years of the prior conviction. Expand that window to five or ten years and the rate is likely substantially higher.

Public perceptions of how we should and shouldn’t treat offenders often result in less than optimal solutions both for the addict/alcoholic and for the victims and the larger society that must pay.

If the clinicians view the PO as an outsider with the potential to interfere with treatment, there will be inevitable conflict.