02/28/2001 01:10 PM House JUD

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ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE HOUSE JUDICIARY STANDING COMMITTEE February 28, 2001 1:10 p.m. MEMBERS PRESENT Representative Norman Rokeberg, Chair Representative Scott Ogan, Vice Chair Representative Jeannette James Representative John Coghill Representative Kevin Meyer Representative Ethan Berkowitz MEMBERS ABSENT Representative Albert Kookesh COMMITTEE CALENDAR HOUSE BILL NO. 4 "An Act relating to offenses involving operating a motor vehicle, aircraft, or watercraft while under the influence of an alcoholic beverage or controlled substance; relating to implied consent to take a chemical test; relating to registration of motor vehicles; relating to presumptions arising from the amount of alcohol in a person's breath or blood; and providing for an effective date." - HEARD AND HELD PREVIOUS ACTION BILL: HB 4 SHORT TITLE:OMNIBUS DRUNK DRIVING AMENDMENTS SPONSOR(S): REPRESENTATIVE(S)ROKEBERG Jrn-Date Jrn-Page Action 01/08/01 0024 (H) PREFILE RELEASED 12/29/00

01/08/01 0024 (H) READ THE FIRST TIME - REFERRALS

01/08/01 0024 (H) MINUTE(TRA) Committee MINUTE(TRA) WITNESS REGISTER JANET SEITZ, Staff to Representative Norman Rokeberg Alaska State Legislature Capitol Building, Room 118 Juneau, Alaska 99801 POSITION STATEMENT: Assisted with the presentation of ACTION NARRATIVE TAPE 01-27, SIDE A Number 0001 CHAIR NORMAN ROKEBERG called the House Judiciary Standing Committee meeting to order at 1:10 p.m. Representatives Rokeberg, Ogan, Coghill, and Meyer were present at the call to order. Representatives James and Berkowitz arrived as the meeting was in progress. HB [Contains discussion of CSHB 4(TRA).] CHAIR ROKEBERG, speaking as the sponsor of HB permanently revoked, DMV can review the case and restore the license if certain conditions are met. People who are incarcerated but do not satisfy their treatment requirements will not be eligible for "good time." In addition, treatment is mandatory for offenders while they are imprisoned. There are also provisions in HB to return his or her vehicle registration plates to DMV. In these instances the co-owner of the vehicle can reregister it. These provisions will prevent a person who should not be driving from having a registered vehicle. MS. SEITZ also said that under HB Status System, is July 1, 2001. Ms. Seitz noted that the aforementioned points constituted just a brief overview of the changes encompassed by HB Number 0765 VALERIE THERRIEN, Vice Chair, Legislative Committee, Advisory Board on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse ("Advisory Board"), noted that she was also a private attorney in Fairbanks and had taught classes in criminology. She said that both she and the Advisory [Board] supported HB to keep in mind the issue of treatment. She emphasized that treatment does work. If the periods of incarceration are going to be increased, she asked members to keep in mind the costs involved in treating individuals who are incarcerated. She noted that various providers of treatment have indicated to her that they are having a difficult time providing treatment under current funding limitations. MS. THERRIEN reported that she had given a talk about DUI laws at her daughter's middle school's eighth-grade classes. She said that the children expressed concern about such issues as their friends getting caught DUI, having alcohol in the trunk, or having marijuana in the glove compartment. She noted that part of the discussion she attributed to just kids being kids, but she also noted that the children seemed very aware of the penalties of losing their driver's licenses. She said that she thought that when looking at young offenders it was important to keep in mind that sort of "handle." She also informed members that out of 80 children in the eighth grade, four of them were actively "huffing," and over 50 percent were drinking. MS. THERRIEN also reported that Fort Wainwright had recently held a "stand down," which was a base-wide training on domestic violence issues. She reminded members that much of domestic violence is caused by drug and alcohol abuse. She noted that four children have died at Fort Wainwright in the last year from abuse; subsequently, Fort Wainwright has taken a strong position with regard to ending domestic violence. She used this information to illustrate the seriousness of the issue in Fairbanks. MS. THERRIEN, on the point of treatment in jail, said that she was recently given statistics that she found to be overwhelmingly supportive of treatment. She said 20 women were given treatment and compared with 20 women who were not given treatment; the number of participants with new felony charges from the group that did not receive treatment was five, versus just one from the group that did receive treatment from the residential substance abuse treatment (RSAT) program. The number of women re-incarcerated was significantly lower in the RSAT group than in the group that did not receive treatment: one from the RSAT group versus six from the group without treatment. She followed up this information by saying that the Hiland Mountain Correctional Center RSAT program was showing great success, and she supported any provisions in HB treatment. He added that Teen Challenge is a "faith-based" program, which has a men's center in Palmer and a women's center in Anchorage. He also noted that he is on the Governor's Advisory Board on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, and has been on it for the past seven years. He acknowledged that HB said she could provide research data to support the claim that mandated treatment is successful. She noted that most of the research evidence comes from other states since Alaska has not had an opportunity to conduct much of its own research yet. MS. NADEAU said her concern with HB that the wellness court concept is an excellent tool because it puts treatment participants under the supervision of a judge. He finalized by saying he was willing to pay [taxes] in order to ensure the continuance of state services. Number 2203 CRISTY WILLER TILDEN, Program Director, Alcohol and Drug Abuse Services, Bristol Bay Area Health Corporation, spoke in support of HB Corporation serves an area the size of Ohio, and is probably the only organization that provides treatment and prevention services in the Bristol Bay area. She viewed HB 4 [limit] from .10 to .08. Laboratory and test-track research shows that virtually all drivers are substantially impaired at .08 BAC with regard to judgment; dividing attention; and critical driving skills such as braking, steering, and lane- changing. According to studies, performance decrements in some of these tasks are as high as 60-70 percent at .08 BAC. MS. CASHEN reported there was a 12 percent reduction in alcohol- related fatalities in California in 1990, which was the year the .08 BAC limit and an administrative license revocation law went into effect. The decrease in alcohol-related fatalities occurred at both high and low BAC levels, which meant that even chronic drunk drivers with BAC levels of .20 or greater were affected by the .08 BAC limit. She reminded the committee that Alaska has a high population of chronic drunk drivers. Number 0869 MS. CASHEN communicated that MADD supports HB instead of five years, will be sentenced and convicted as a felon on the third DWI. She added that by taking the chronic drunk driver off the road and placing him or her into intensive treatment programs, HB [Alaska's] drunk-driving fatalities. MS. CASHEN said that MADD realizes that changing the BAC limit to .08 is not the only answer to [the problem of] drunk driving, but [the change to] .08 will be a significant factor in educating the public on the dangers of driving while impaired. She informed the committee that the combination of changing the BAC limit to .08, vehicle impoundment, a longer look-back time on offenders' driving records, and intensive treatment programs has already been proven in several states to lower the [rate of] drunk-driving injuries and fatalities. MS. CASHEN, in conclusion, related the following facts from last summer: the person who killed her father and Martin Richard on April 19 had a record of drunk driving; Donna Hobson was severely injured on June 24 by a drunk driver with two prior convictions; Jessie Withrow was killed on July 3 by a drunk driver with six previous DWI convictions; and on July 4 a drunk driver with a revoked license and five prior convictions struck and seriously injured two girls. Ms. Cashen explained that these examples were only some of the tragedies that occurred last year, and she was bringing them to the attention of the committee because, had the provisions of HB 4, creating it. However, she wanted to remind the committee that HB 4 addresses only many resources are devoted to the indicators of the problem rather than the cause - the cause being the disease of alcoholism. She noted that someone had already made the point that there would never be enough counselors or social workers until the cause was addressed. On the point of cost, she explained that the Advisory Board had once considered doing a study on the cost of doing nothing; however, the board did not have the funds to proceed with the study. She surmised that had the study been done, it would have been very illuminating because the cost of doing nothing is horrendous. She said: Until we really bite the bullet and face the issue, we are going to continue addressing those things that are indicators. We can continue to build prisons, we can continue to take children away from their mothers, we can continue having children who are fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS). We can continue doing all those things, and addressing those with resources that are so hard to come by. It is so painful to see programs that work having to cut down to a nub, and actually, in some cases, just fold. So the question is, when do you pay for it. I submit you either pay for it now or you pay for it later. REPRESENTATIVE BERKOWITZ asked Ms. Knasiak to elaborate on her comments about programs that have worked but which have been cut back. MS. KNASIAK said that the DOC had given a presentation earlier that day about programs that were working but which were cut back. Number 0403 SARAH WILLIAMS, Substance Abuse Program Coordinator, Inmate Programs, Division of Institutions, Department of Corrections, explained that the Sixth Avenue Correctional Center had a 20- hour/week program and it has been cut back to a 5-hour/week program. She added that that facility was a key point of intervention, doing over half the bookings in the DOC each year. It provided intervention for pregnant women who were drinking, using intravenous (IV) drugs, or otherwise participating in risky behavior with regard to HIV/AIDS. The DOC had to cut the program down because it could not pay the vendors enough to provide the services. MS. KNASIAK added, on the point of whether treatment works, that when she was living in Juneau she had attended "birthdays" of people who were in recovery and celebrating sobriety, and she found it to be a most touching and uplifting experience. And while she, herself, did not have a drinking problem, she did not know of anyone whose life has not been touched by alcoholism to some degree. Number 0250 AGNES SWEETSIR said she is Athabascan; having been born in Tanana, she now lives in Galena, where she grew up. She explained that she was a social worker for 14 years at the Division of Family and Youth Services (DFYS). She noted that during an informal study she had done on her own caseload, 94 percent of the families that she served were in the system because of alcoholism. She added that she resigned her position about a year ago, primarily because she was frustrated with the lack of available treatment programs in her area. She said she hoped that as a private citizen she would be able to effect some change in the amount of resources available for alcoholism treatment. Her goal is to be able to help the people of Alaska, and, primarily, the children. She noted that she has been serving as a volunteer on the Advisory Board on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse for the last few months. She also said that she, herself, has been devastated by alcoholism; many members of her large extended family are addicted to alcohol, as well as other substances. She has had three brothers commit suicide as a result of their addictions. TAPE 01-28, SIDE A Number 0001 MS. SWEETSIR explained that one of her brothers had sought treatment diligently but no beds were available for him. Two weeks after he was released from the hospital in Fairbanks he still had not found any treatment facility that had room for him. He called his wife to tell her how much he loved her, the children, and the grandchildren; he related that he thought he was never going to get treatment, that he was causing people too much pain, and that maybe he was not worth [the trouble] anyway. Ms. Sweetsir said that her brother was a man with a lot of potential, and she surmised that if he had had treatment, he would not have hung himself. MS. SWEETSIR noted that the day after her brother committed suicide, a cousin of hers died of what Ms. Sweetsir said she believed to be an alcohol-related illness. Since then, there have been sixteen funerals in her area. The last funeral was for a two-month-old infant who was shot by someone under the influence of alcohol and possibly other drugs. She added that the boy who shot the baby is a distant relative of hers, and she was aware of the fact that his family had tried diligently for years to get him into treatment, but to no avail. MS. SWEETSIR emphasized that treatment has to be made available if the cycle [of alcoholism] is to be broken. She added that in her family, which she said she thinks is representative of many Native families and Native communities, she and her sisters have to try to find solutions for their nieces and nephews who are at risk of dying because they are left without fathers as a result of alcoholism. She said that it is very painful to have to watch and not be able to do anything to help. MS. SWEETSIR urged the committee to do all it could to make treatment available. She said HB higher demand for treatment. He asked Ms. Sweetsir for examples of areas where the growth of treatment centers can be encouraged by the legislature. MS. SWEETSIR responded that she believed that alcoholism was a family disease, and thus needed to be treated as such. She added that in her experience, treatment [for alcoholism] in Alaska is largely unavailable. She had been looking into the prospect of expanding into family treatment, where many people and many generations can be affected. Also, she said she thought it would be nice to be able to bring treatment to the people in their homes, so that all of the family can be treated. REPRESENTATIVE COGHILL said he appreciated that input. He noted that he was in favor of coercive treatment, but it was a matter of where and when [to institute it]. He commented that when offenders get treatment during incarceration, they can be taught, but when offenders leave the correctional facility there is not much available in the way of either accountability or follow-up treatment. Thus, he added, not only will there be a cost to implement [HB treatment facilities. REPRESENTATIVE OGAN said he supports the concept of treatment, but he was not sure that secular treatment would be as effective as faith-based treatment because there is a part of the spirit that is wounded and which must also be made whole. He suggested that perhaps "they" could interface with proposed faith-based treatment programs. Number 0730 ORIE WILLIAMS commented that he was 15 years sober as of today. He said he related to the disease of alcoholism as a cancer, probably worse than a cancer. He noted that the disease affects every family member [of an alcoholic]. He said that HB REPRESENTATIVE OGAN thanked Mr. Williams for sharing his personal experiences. REPRESENTATIVE BERKOWITZ thanked Mr. Williams for reminding the committee, "You can't leave people behind; the measure of who we are as a state depends on our ability to stop and help those people who can't help themselves, because, if we persist, good things will happen." REPRESENTATIVE COGHILL asked Mr. Williams to contact him at a later date to discuss the topic of aftercare. CHAIR ROKEBERG asked Mr. Williams to provide information regarding the cost and availability of treatment in the Bethel area. MS. McCABE noted that HB said she hoped that [HB 4 was held over.] ADJOURNMENT Number 1988 There being no further business before the committee, the House Judiciary Standing Committee meeting was adjourned at 3:20 p.m.

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