Get Involved: Hardcore Drunk Driving Judicial Education Project
Effective Sanctions, Creative Sentencing, Changed Behavior
Each state is required to have a Judicial Educator. Almost every state has an annual judicial education program to serve as an in-service training forum to update the judges in case law and provide strategies on how to more effectively manage their case load. The National Association of State Judicial Educators identified this forum as an ideal vehicle to reach the majority of each state’s judges who hear DUI cases. As a result the Hardcore Drunk Driving Judicial Education workshop has been included and presented in 36 state judicial education programs.
This award-winning Hardcore Drunk Driving Judicial Guide highlights effective strategies, tactics, and programs that can be implemented across the nation to reduce this dangerous problem. It is designed to serve as a resource for judges and judicial educators as they address the complexities of reducing drunk driving in our communities. The following are key elements presented in the guide:
- Role of judicial leadership
- Importance of a comprehensive approach, in dealing with hardcore drunk drivers, that includes: swift identification, certain punishment and effective treatment
- Role of effective sanctions, strong case management and administrative structure as tools for effective adjudication of the hardcore drunk driver
Drawing from the advisory panel’s wealth of expertise and broad range of successful DWI adjudication experiences, we created an aggressive judicial education initiative. Each judicial conference workshop emphasizes interactive learning techniques employing a panel of judges, subject matter experts, and a judicial educator.
This unique format has created an interactive, supportive learning environment during which judges are encouraged to articulate their systemic frustrations with DWI adjudications. They are then instructed on how to practically apply the Guide’s recommendations to help reduce impaired driving recidivism. To learn more about this program, contact Ron Engle, Director, Traffic Safety, The Century Council at (202) 637-0077 or judicialeducation@centurycouncil.org.
The Role of the Judiciary
"Hardcore drunk driving is not just a criminal issue. It is a public health issue second to none. We must change the role of the judge in order to be effective. We need to educate judges about the fact that it is ethical to treat a crime as an illness too. Judges should be willing to make an investment in offender’s lives if offenders will make the same investment in themselves."
Judge Robert Pirraglia at the National Hardcore Drunk Driver Project's judicial summit
Challenges and Obstacles Faced by Judges
"Each court has restraints. The question is, what can we do despite these constraints to creatively sentence DWI offenders? What programs and ideas transcend limitations?"
Tom Langhorne, NASJE president, at the National Hardcore Drunk Driver Project's judicial summit
Effective Strategies: Building the Box
"Probation is an important aspect of managing the offender. It keeps him on the hook since the sentence is just dangling before him. Probation is the key to a court being able to do something about recidivism."
Judge Karl Grube at the National Hardcore Drunk Driver Project's judicial summit
