Officials laud success of 24/7 program

It’s a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week success.

Now in its fifth month, the 24/7 Sobriety Program — through which the alcohol levels of DUI offenders are tested daily to ensure they refrain from drinking — is providing the kind of results predicted by its supporters and borne out by a prior 17-month pilot program.

The program was approved by the Montana Legislature in 2011.

According to statistics from the Montana Department of Justice, of the 21,209 tests administered statewide since the full program began on Oct. 1, 2011, there have only been 77 failures. That’s a success rate of 99.6 percent.

Test results in Flathead County mirror the state success rate of 99.6 percent: Out of 991 tests, there were four failures.

“The goal, of course, is to keep multiple-DUI offenders alcohol-free as a way of keeping them in the community and out of jail,” Flathead County Sheriff Chuck Curry said. “In that respect I think it’s working very well.”

Program participants in the Flathead either report to one of two locations in Kalispell twice each day for breath alcohol testing or have constant monitoring through a bracelet that measures blood-alcohol levels through the skin.

Breath testing costs $2 per test and can be completed at two locations for Flathead County participants — Providence Community Corrections and Glacier Center for Families, both in Kalispell.

For those participants who live too far away to make it to those locations, the transdermal Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitor (SCRAM) bracelet is the other, albeit more expensive, option. The bracelets bring an initial cost of $190, which covers installation and two weeks of testing. After that, the cost is $10 per day, which must be paid in advance.

The cost for testing is billed to the participant, so no taxpayer money is used.

Dexter Levandoski is the program manager for Compliance Monitoring Systems, which provides the SCRAM bracelets used in Flathead County. Levandoski explained that the bracelets provide testing every half hour for a total of 48 tests per day. They store the information throughout the day and then upload it at night.

As part of his duties, Levandoski maintains contact with sheriffs whose departments oversee local implementation of the 24/7 Sobriety Program. Before the program was adopted, he testified at legislative hearings discussing its potential.

“The participating counties have been great,” Levandoski said. “Implementation has gone very smoothly, and the Attorney General’s Office has done a good job setting up training.”

He said he was not surprised that the 24/7 Sobriety Program has been so successful in Montana. Compliance Monitoring Systems already has provided SCRAM bracelets for similar programs in South Dakota and North Dakota.

“In South Dakota between 2005 and 2011, they had a 64 percent decrease in alcohol-related motor-vehicle fatalities due to this program,” he said.

Levandoski said that is what he sees as the main goal of the program, targeting “hard-core drunk drivers” and making roads safer for everyone else.

“It’s about keeping the roadway safe and keeping our friends, family and children out of harm’s way,” he said.

Offenders can be placed in the program at the behest of the judge handling their case, so long as it is their second or subsequent DUI conviction. They can be required to participate pre-sentence until they are sentenced and then for any length of time deemed worthy by the judge, within sentencing limitations.

“It allows both pre-sentence and post-sentence testing, and I think that’s an important aspect of the law,” Curry said. “Not only does it allow them to get out of jail sooner, it helps with jail overcrowding, helps them to retain jobs, and helps them to continue to be productive members of society with the caveat that ‘we are checking on you.’”

Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock lauded the program’s success.

“The results of the 24/7 Sobriety Program continue to be enormously positive,” Bullock said. “This program works. It doesn’t cost taxpayers a dime. Our communities are safer, and repeat DUI drivers not only stay sober, they stay out of jail, go to work and can be with their families.”

Bullock added that Flathead County and Curry were among the first to get involved — joining on the first day of the program — and called local results “a testament to Flathead’s successful program.”

Reporter Jesse Davis may be reached at 758-4441 or by email at jdavis@dailyinterlake.com.