When the Centralia Police Department dropped out of the statewide 24/7 Sobriety pilot program in November, department leaders praised its success rate, but confessed that the experimental program was simply too expensive to maintain.
“Most of it came down to cost,” said Cmdr. Stacy Denham. “The jail sentences were so lengthy it took an immense amount of money to house them. The idea is to get them sober, not get them incarcerated.”
The department didn’t abandon the program entirely, but created its own “Safe and Sober” program on a similar principle, with lower associated costs.
Only months after its inception, Centralia’s new and improved program served as a model for the successful Washington state House Bill 2700 to amend the law that governs the original 24/7 Sobriety program.
“They basically took what we were doing and wrote it into law,” Denham said.
Centralia now plans to rejoin the program when the changes to the law go into effect on June 9. Other police agencies have also expressed interest in the program, according to the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs.
The Centralia Police Department began participating in the original 24/7 Sobriety program, with the help of WASPC, in March 2014.
Participants in the program, who have been arrested on charges of driving under the influence, are required to check in with the police department twice a day — in the morning and evening — for a breath test to confirm that they haven’t had any alcohol. The program is a condition of release from jail, both pre- and post-conviction, imposed on qualifying DUI offenders by Centralia Municipal Court.
For a first violation under the original program, participants got a written warning. A second violation resulted in a two-day jail sentence, a third violation in a five-day sentence, a fourth in 10 days. Pre-conviction participants were remanded to jail until their cases was resolved after a fifth violation, and post-conviction participants served the remainder of their sentence — up to a full year in jail.
The final penalty wound up being the most expensive. An analysis of their budget near the end of 2015 showed that the department was in danger of being on the hook for hundreds of thousands of dollars in jail costs if all of the participants failed the program.
With those budgetary constraints in mind, the Centralia Police Department met with other stakeholders, such as local attorneys and judges, and created a new program with the same testing and sobriety requirements, but with reduced penalties.
“We dramatically reduced the amount of jail time somebody would receive for a violation … and it has dramatically reduced the amount of money we’re spending on jail costs,” Denham said.
Under Centralia’s new version of the program, participants get a written warning for one violation, and minimum sentences of one day in jail for a second violation, three days in jail for a fourth, and seven days in jail for all subsequent violations.
Denham said the penalties are still “stiff” and still work to deter drinking among its participants.
“We’re not getting the 8, 9, 10 violations,” he said. “What we’re seeing is a trend that the majority of people will get one violation.”
About half of those get a second violation, and half again get a third. The violations drop off rapidly after three or four, he said.
Denham said the penalties are designed to be a deterrent for drinking, but not so severe that a person might lose his or job or have even more trouble getting his or her life on track.
The program currently has 21 people testing each day, and a total of 32 signed up, some of whom haven’t yet started the program, or who have a warrant for not showing up for testing.
Meanwhile, WASPC was keeping an eye on Centralia’s new approach to the program.
“We would hate folks to not use the program because it was too rigid and wouldn’t work for their agency,” said Jamie Yoder, member outreach and programs manager for WASPC.
WASPC was able to use Centralia’s positive experience with the revamped program to influence the changes to state law created with House Bill 2700, she said.
Denham also met with Washington state Sen. Mike Padden, of Washington’s 4th Legislative District on the program and testified in front of the House and Senate, he said.
“I would say the feedback we got from Centralia and the feedback we got from participants ... really demonstrates the 24/7 (program) is of value,” Yoder said.
“I had an opportunity to interview a number of the participants from Centralia and I was really pleased with their feedback.”
WASPC had a 24/7 Sobriety Program summit in early May, which Yoder said was well-attended by area law-enforcement agencies, attorneys and judges, and included speakers on similar programs around the country.
Yoder said she has a meeting scheduled with agencies hoping to learn more about the program.
“We have the potential of helping a lot more people,” Denham said.
“I would like to see the program … expand to encompass all of Lewis County or at least the west side of Lewis County.”
