SB 58 MINOR CONSUMING ALCOHOL: PENALTY  CHAIRMAN WILKEN called the Senate Health, Education and Social Services (HESS) Committee to order at 9:03 a.m. and announced SB 58 to be up for consideration. SENATOR GREEN moved to adopt CSSB 58(HES). There were no objections and it was so ordered. JOE AMBROSE, Staff to Senator Taylor, sponsor, said as per Chairman Wilken's request he met with representatives of the court system, Department of Law, Department of Health and Social Services, and the Department of Public Safety who all had something to do with the CS to SB 58 and Senator Taylor is very comfortable with this bill. Mr. Ambrose said it is surprising how little lee-way district court judges have when dealing with minors consuming alcohol. In 1995 minor consuming was moved from the juvenile justice system to district court. SB 58 was introduced to correct some problems that occurred with that move. Some kids thought the $100 fine was a joke and there continued to be repeat offenders. One of the punishments a judge had available was to revoke the driver's license which entitle the defendant to a jury trial and a public defender. So SB 58 removes the driver's license revocation from the purview of the court and makes it an administrative action by the Division of Motor Vehicles. Mr. Ambrose then reviewed the sections of the bill. Mr. Ambrose said there is startling data about the rate of minors consuming in Alaska, especially repeat offenders. These are the offenders Senator Taylor is concerned with - the teenagers who are on their 12th, 13th, and 14th offense. CHAIRMAN WILKEN asked how the success of this bill could be measured over time. JOE AMBROSE responded that question was asked about the effectiveness of alcohol treatment programs in Alaska. There was a study commissioned by the legislature at that time which came back with the result that alcohol treatment programs in Alaska are a lot more effective than some people think they were. The Division of Alcohol and Drug Abuse will be providing the curriculum for the classes. He said they would hopefully see a drastic reduction in the numbers of repeat offenders. LOREN JONES, Director, Division of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, said the sections that moved into the CS from SB 71 transfer the approval process for alcohol information schools, for both adults and minors, from the DMV to Division of Alcohol and Drug Abuse so they can set up age appropriate curriculum for minors and improve upon the current curriculum for adult services. It also gives authority to the division for that purpose. This allows them to also monitor kids who are being processed through this. The division will also use the funds available to grant to local agencies throughout the state the ability to operate the youth assessment programs. He said the grants have specific evaluative criteria to measure the reduction in number of repeat offenders. The division hopes to get the message out that there are consequences that are certain and will be monitored, that teenagers will not be able to simply walk away and do nothing about it. Mr. Ambrose said the state is in the third year that the "use it or lose it" has been in effect and between the first and second year there was not a significant increase in the number of first time offenders; there was an increase in the second and third time offenders and these are the targets of this legislation. LOREN JONES said success would be measured by the number of offenders going down in a five-year period. Number 270 SENATOR WARD asked if he knew what questions were asked of a person applying for a driver's permit. LOREN JONES replied that he did not. SENATOR WARD did not know if young citizens taking the test are currently required to actually know the answer. JOE AMBROSE pointed out that there is other information up-front that this kind of activity would place the young person's license at risk. He clarified that this bill does not propose any kind of study. It is a bill to divert kids into actual treatment programs. SENATOR GREEN asked if there was a current component in the adult ASAP program requiring those people to stay in touch even after going through the program. LOREN JONES explained that currently an individual stays until the individual has successfully completed the assignment, whether it be alcohol education or treatment. Once that process is over the ASAP function is closed. Most persons get a year probation with the court. If for some reason the individual has not completed the program, the program managers try to monitor the participants through the process until they do. Number 302 JUANITA HENSLEY, Division of Motor Vehicles, said there are several ways to educate students regarding the consequences of using alcohol. A brochure is available to all the students in all the schools and two driver improvement specialists, one in Anchorage and one in Juneau, who speak in schools. She said there is a section in the driver's manual that deals strictly with drugs and alcohol and driving. The driver's test also has specific questions that deal with alcohol. She mentioned that students usually know about the "use it or lose it" because a friend or acquaintance has been in contact with police and had his/her license revoked. The information is out there. SENATOR WARD suggested the test ask the question of how many under age young citizens have lost their license due to having alcohol in the car. He thought that would make the issue even more prominent and would not cost any money. JUANITA HENSLEY responded that she would be more than happy to work with him on developing questions on that issue; the department is in the process of revising the driver's manual. SENATOR LEMAN related an incident of a constituent of his whose driver's license was suspended for something like 10-years and he would be 30 before he could legally drive. He said he supported the law, but wanted to know if this law was really working and if there was something the division could do to be flexible in cases like this. JUANITA HENSLEY clarified that the fiscal note on whic estimated the number of students caught with alcohol to be 2,500 was in error and there are 3,900 plus now. The law went into effect July 1, 1994 and the division does not know whether it is working at this point, because at the same time in 1995 it was taken out of the criminal justice system and put into violations where the judges have no control to mandate that the person go to alcohol treatment. This bill will mandate the person be screened and go to alcohol treatment before the person's license is returned which would help them determine whether it is working or not. SENATOR WARD said the reason the 1983 drunk driving bill was as successful as it was is because it made mandatory penalties. There has to be the deterrent of penalties rather than alcohol treatment programs to make the number go down. Senator Ward did not think this message was clear enough to the youngsters now. Senator Ward asked Mr. Ambrose to let Senator Taylor know of his concern about the testing and see if it could be worked into the bill somewhere in the process. Senator Ward moved to pass CSSB 58(HES) from committee with individual recommendations and the accompanying fiscal notes. There were no objections and it was so ordered.