Prevention of Owi Recidivism: Evaluating a State-Wide Driver Safety Plan Program.

Introduction: In Wisconsin, 30,000 to 40,000 arrests are made each year for operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated (OWI). Drivers convicted of OWI are mandated to participate in an assessment and follow a subsequent driver safety plan. This paper provides the results of a study to estimate the effectiveness of this program in reducing OWI recidivism. We are examining the likelihood of reoffending by controlling for time, prior violation, personal and geographic characteristics, and level of dependence to estimate the effects of safety plan compliance and of specific interventions. These findings will be used to review long-standing policies regarding assessment and intervention with intoxicated drivers.

Methods: We used state-wide administrative records to follow 186,023 individuals for 5 years after an OWI arrest. This yielded data on 240,714 OWI arrests among this cohort over 10 years (2004-2014). Arrest data were linked to data on conviction, driver safety plan assessments (DSPA) and recommendations, and compliance for each driver arrested during our index period. We employed multi-level regression analysis to study compliance and recidivism, including county-level variables as the second level in the analysis.

 Results: During the index period, 23% of arrests were of females; 79% were white, median age was 30, and 29% had a prior OWI violation. DSPA assessment found that 47% were assessed as “irresponsible use;” 20% “irresponsible use borderline;” 12% “dependency suspected;” 19% “dependency”; and 8% “dependency in remission.” Of 35 possible recommendations, the most frequent were outpatient treatment (42%), group dynamics (41%), abstinence (24%), victim impact panels (14%), multiple offender program (6%) and after care (6%).

 Of the initial arrests, 87% were convicted; 23% had another OWI arrest within 60 months. Those convicted without priors, white, and women were more likely to fully complete the recommended treatment. The convicted drivers were more likely to be rearrested. Drivers with full compliance were less likely to be re-arrested; those who did not enter DSPA were most likely to be arrested again. Hierarchical regression analysis is underway to estimate the preventive effects on recidivism of the DSPA.

Conclusions: Preliminary results suggest that compliance with DSPA had an impact on recidivism regardless of personal background and prior violations. We are completing analysis on the effectiveness of recommended programs on compliance and recidivism. Results will be used in state level policy development for the prevention of OWI and OWI reciivism.