El Cajon Municipal Court's Antabuse Counselling Program (From International Conference on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety - Seventh Proceedings, P 591-597, 1979, Ian R Johnston, ed. - See NCJ-73856)

• NCJ Number: 73887
• Author(s): T G Duffy
• Date Published: 1979
• Length: 7 pages
• Publication Format: Document
• Language: English
• Country: Australia

Annotation

The operation of the El Cajon Antabuse Program of the municipal court and the probation department of El Cajon, Calif; for serious problem drinkers who have been convicted of driving under the influence (DUI) is described and evaluated.

Abstract

Selection of offenders for the program depends upon the court's recommendation, the offender's voluntary consent, and information received from a physical examination of the offender by his personal physician. As of November 1976, over 1,200 persons have been placed on the antabuse maintenance program, and over 400 persons have successfully completed antabuse drug administration. The average drug maintenance period was about 1 year or 250 working days. A comparative analysis of program costs with the estimated alternative costs of incarceration shows that the counseling and drug administration expenses of the antabuse program cost about 12 percent of probable confinement costs. In addition, antabuse program participation has resulted in savings in welfare costs that would have accrued if offenders' families had gone on welfare following incarceration for a drunk driving conviction. Other gains include a substantial increase in the amount of fines collected from the offenders under the antabuse program as well as the indirect benefits of returning productive citizens to society. Four appendixes provide statistics on repeat offenders in drinking driver school, a summary of projected savings from the El Cajon Antabuse Program, and independent evaluations of the program's effectiveness.