| Chatman
Talks About Responsibility With Area Students
New
Report Shows Thousands Of Repeat Drunk Drivers Evade Court-Ordered
Penalties
 Chatman
Talks About Responsibility With Area Students
Motivational
speaker Michael Chatman returned to St. Louis County in October
to address students at four Rockwood School District middle schools.
Mr. Chatman,
whose appearances were sponsored by Grey Eagle and Anheuser-Busch’s
Department of Consumer Awareness and Education, spoke to more than
1,000 students October 7 and 8.
 He
spoke to students at Crestview Middle School in Ellisville, Selvidge
Middle School in Ballwin, Rockwood Valley Middle School in Glencoe
and Wildwood Middle School in Wildwood.
Mr. Chatman’s
"It’s Your Choice" presentation focused on self-empowerment
and personal responsibility. He helps teenagers realize that, despite
peer pressure and many other challenges they may face, underage
drinking is not the answer and that it is against the law.
 Mr.
Chatman has spoken across the United States to more than 2 million
teenagers of every economic class and ethnic background. He grew
up in a poor and dangerous section of Miami but overcame many obstacles
to become an All-American Athlete in football. He graduated with
athletic and academic honors from Southwest Missouri State University.
What
The Students Said:
- "It's
not about doing something. It's about reacting to what happens
to you or what comes your way and making the right choices."
- "Believing
in yourself is the best road you can take to achieving success.
You also have to learn to keep respect for yourself even during
bad times and you can still achieve many things and be a good
person, just like our speaker."
- "...with
my backbone, I can stand up for myself. If I respect myself I
will realize that I will make mistakes in life, but what I do
in my past doesn't have to affect my future in a bad way--as long
as I learn from it."
top
New
Report Shows Thousands Of Repeat Drunk Drivers Evade Court-Ordered
Penalties
Nearly half
of repeat drunk drivers are returned to court for failing to comply
with the terms of their sentence.
This is a key
finding from a landmark study that examines problems and proposes
solutions directly from probation and parole officers who face special
challenges in dealing with hard-core drunk-driving offenders. Often,
these officers must manage staggering caseloads, with some officers
being responsible for supervising more than 1,000 offenders.
These are the
main conclusions of a new U.S. traffic safety study being released
today by the Ottawa-based Traffic Injury Research Foundation (TIRF),
during a presentation at an annual meeting of the National Conference
of State Legislatures.
As part of the
study, researchers surveyed 890 probation and parole officers from
41 states, identifying the top problems that impede the effective
monitoring of hard core drunk drivers.
In order of
priority these problems include – non-compliance with court
orders, overwhelming caseloads and conflict between the two goals
of enforcement and rehabilitation. In terms of caseload, for example,
officers on average are responsible for more than 100 offenders,
and in a few cases the number is significantly higher – in
the thousands.
TIRF, an independent
road safety institute, conducted the survey as the last phase of
a comprehensive three-year study, "Stopping The Revolving Door:
DWI System Improvements For Dealing With Hard Core Drinking Drivers."
This unique study examines problems and proposes solutions directly
from police officers, prosecutors, judges and probation and parole
officers.
"Having
now studied the entire process for dealing with hard-core drunk
drivers, it is clear that the most immediate need is to improve
the effectiveness and efficiency of the monitoring process,"
said Herb Simpson, TIRF’s president and CEO. "Until offenders
can be adequately monitored and supervised, and penalties enforced,
public safety cannot be ensured, and there is little hope that their
behavior problems will be dealt with."
Anheuser-Busch,
which funded the study series, said it believes this research will
identify new ways to achieve further progress in the fight against
drunk driving by bringing a new focus on making the justice system
work more cost-efficiently and effectively in addressing drunk drivers,
especially hard core and repeat offenders.
"This study
shows the key to further reducing drunk driving is to make the entire
system work better," said Richard F. Keating, Vice-President
and Senior Government Affairs Officer, Anheuser-Busch Companies,
Inc. "We will focus on getting this study into the hands of
legislators, with the hope that they will take steps necessary to
shore up their drunk driving systems."
Specifically, the top three problems uncovered in the survey include:
Non-compliance:
Probation officers estimate that almost half (44%) of offenders
fail to comply, to some extent, with the terms and conditions of
their sentence.
The solution? A majority of officers agree that more frequent
contact with offenders, and more efficient communication with both
treatment and service providers would facilitate the exchange of
information and improve their ability to monitor offenders.
Caseload:
Probation populations generally have been increasing steadily for
the past several years; the DWI population monitored by probation
officers has risen even more sharply. Almost one in five offenders
on probation has been sentenced for DWI, and officers are responsible
for an average of more than 100 offenders.
The solution? A vast majority of officers want to see reasonable
limits placed on the size of caseloads to increase the quality of
supervision they provide. Even if caseloads are not restricted,
more probation officers are needed to cope with currently excessive
demands for monitoring.
Conflicting
goals: Probation officers often experience the conflict
posed, on the one hand, by the need to monitor behavior and enforce
compliance with the terms of probationary sentences, and on the
other hand, by the need to assist in rehabilitative efforts and
serve as a resource for offenders being integrated into the community.
The solution? More resources are needed to make rehabilitation
a priority for probation agencies, and, echoing judicial concerns,
officers believe more judges need education on the relationship
between addiction and offending to ensure that appropriate sentences
are imposed.
"We’ve
gone through a 10 to 15-year period in which thousands of laws were
added to the books, but now it’s time for a new era,"
Simpson says. "We need to do a better job of providing police,
prosecutors, judges, and probation officers with the tools and techniques
to make the system perform as it should."
The report was
enthusiastically embraced by leaders in the probation and parole
community.
"This study
clearly articulates the frustrations we face daily," said Carl
Wicklund, executive director of the American Probation and Parole
Association (APPA). "It does an excellent job in showing the
limited resources and other challenges we have."
"The hard-core
drunk driver knows how to beat the system," said Andrew Molloy,
APPA president-elect. "If we can improve our use of technology
and our exchange of in-formation, we can better control and monitor
offenders."
About
the Traffic Injury Research Foundation
Established in 1964, the Traffic Injury Research Foundation’s
(TIRF) mission is to reduce traffic-related deaths and injuries.
TIRF designs, promotes and implements effective programs and policies,
based on sound research. In 1991, TIRF was the first traffic safety
organization to identify hard-core drunk drivers as the top priority
for policy measures to address drunk driving. TIRF is a registered
charity and depends on grants, contracts, and donations to provide
services for the public.
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