Resources
The Joint Century Council-NASJE Hardcore Drunk Driver Judicial Guide Project: Putting the Brakes on Repeat DUI and High BAC (Blood Alcohol Content) Offenders
by Thomas N. Langhorne, Esq.

As The Century Council-NASJE collaborative Hardcore Drunk Driving Judicial Guide multi-year project tapers down, NASJE members will be encouraged to learn of the project’s many proud success stories.

The first of it kind in many respects, this national judicial education project represents a comprehensive effort to provide state judges skills that enable them to swiftly identify, punish with certainty, and effectively treat hardcore drunk drivers. It also marks the first occasion in which most of America’s leading judicial education stakeholders collaboratively directed their collective resources towards effectively addressing this compelling public safety problem.

Thirty nine of the fifty states invited the Hardcore Drunk Driving Judicial Guide project to their respective statewide judicial conferences. Several of those states invited our project back for command performances. In total, between four and five thousand state and local judges possessing subject matter jurisdiction over DUI/DWI cases attended our workshops. While those figures are indeed impressive, our original goal was to reach all fifty states’ judicial conferences. Nevertheless, a significant portion of American trial judges learned how they can apply innovative judicial strategies that are proven to reduce DUI/DWI recidivism rates by changing DUI/DWI offenders’ long term behavior.

This ambitious judicial education effort was borne out of American judges’ and public safety officials’ frustration with a growing judicial education gap existing in most  American state court systems: Specifically, a surprising dearth of judicial education programs existed that specifically addressed impaired driving cases’ complexities or provided judges the necessary skills, knowledge and abilities to effectively adjudicate impaired driving cases. Moreover, judicial educators and the judges they serve recognized that effectively adjudicating the DWI offender, especially the hardcore offender, is one of the most complex challenges facing today’s courts.  Impaired driving cases regularly present intricate legal, technical and medical evidentiary issues and confounding evaluation, monitoring, sentencing and treatment challenges. Additionally, recent studies evaluating the justice system’s processing of DWI caseloads consistently identify judicial education as a potential solution to realizing more efficacious DWI adjudication

This Judicial Guide project is entirely free to the inviting state judicial conferences. Faculty travel expenses are paid by the project. Every attending judge receives a highly evaluated, free Hardcore Drunk Driving Judicial Guide with recent supplements from The National Judicial College, The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, The National Association of Drug Court Professionals, NHTSA and others.

Our collected anecdotal evidence from each state indicates the workshop attendees not only learned but more importantly, changed their judicial attitudes and practices concerning DUI/DWI adjudications. Letters, emails and telephone calls from our Judicial Guide workshop attendees to our advisory panel members and faculty were nothing short of inspiring.

Fortunately, evaluating the project’s success won’t have to rely exclusively upon such anecdotal evidence. The Century Council-NASJE Judicial Guide Project made a substantial investment in conducting outcomes evaluations and measures. Using the Kirkpatrick Four Level evaluation model as its basic foundation, our formal evaluation phase will soon produce an extensive evaluation report for all judicial educators to see. In this fashion, every American trial court with DUI/DWI jurisdiction can apply lessons learned from our Judicial Guide project. Those thirty nine states who invited us to their judicial conferences are especially eager to learn how they can practically adapt the evaluation report’s findings.
 
Few, if any, judicial education related projects with which I have been associated have made such concrete, positive contributions that impact public safety. However, as most of you know, I am also an admitted, shameless promoter of NASJE. As this project pulled me to all corners of our country, I am equally pleased to declare that the Judicial Guide project brought unparalleled national exposure to NASJE. I can safely add that as a result of this project, thousands of judges can actually explain what NASJE is and what it does. This increased national recognition will provide NASJE significant collateral benefits as NASJE decides to broaden its strategic collaborations with other prominent, national organizations.

Additionally, about one year into this ambitious project, CNN televised a segment dedicated to showcasing the Judicial Guide project. It was aired on at least two occasions. During the CNN airing, not only was NASJE mentioned, but its logo and the Hardcore Drunk Driving Judicial Guide were prominently displayed.

Moreover, the Hardcore Drunk Driving Judicial Guide project also brought NASJE additional national acclaim last August by winning the coveted Governors’ Highway Safety Association’s prestigious Peter K. O’Rourke Special Achievement Award. Each year the O’Rourke award is given to that year’s outstanding project promoting highway safety.

It should be well noted that The Century Council assumed all of the presenters’ travel-related costs associated with attending these states’ and national judicial conferences.  Moreover, every judge attending the workshops received a free copy of the Judicial Guide and substantial supplemental materials. In that regard as well, The Century Council assumed the entire cost of printing, shipping and distributing the Judicial Guides to conference attendees.  Moreover, every judicial educator in the United States received a copy of the Hardcore Drunk Driving Judicial Guide and was encouraged to integrate the Judicial Guide’s principles and practices into their annual statewide judicial education conferences.

 The project enjoyed formal collaborative partnership support from many prominent national organizations including The National Judicial College, The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, The National Drug Court Institute, The National Association of Drug Court Professionals and The National Association of State Judicial Educators. These organizations became united in focusing their considerable expertise towards a single aim- provide judges across the country the necessary skills and concrete solutions that hold promise for reducing DWI recidivism in their localities.

The Hardcore Drunk Driving Judicial Education workshop was universally rated as the best or one of the best conference programs at every statewide judicial conference in which it participated. Many state Supreme Court Justices introduced the project’s seminar to their statewide judicial conference by encouraging state court judges to treat drunk driving as a compelling public safety and criminal justice priority. The project therefore enjoyed the vocal support of the leadership of state courts and elevated the fight against drunk driving to an even higher court priority. Notably, state court justices subsequently wrote letters of gratitude to the project representatives, expressing their appreciation for the seminars’ positive contributions to their states’ fight against drunk driving.

In conclusion, we have witnessed a countless number of judges who have a newfound optimism in and enthusiasm for their role in combating drunk driving. Armed with promising, new judicial strategies and a sense for renewed community leadership, judges are indeed amending their views on drunk drivers and rethinking their sentencing strategies. NASJE is immensely grateful for The Century Council’s immeasurable support, leadership and guidance throughout this project’s short but successful tenure.

Clearly, the judicial branch and the public it serves benefited significantly from the Judicial Education Project. Equally certain is the fact that saved lives have resulted from judges’ newly adopted attitudes and skills accruing from this project.

Tom Langhorne has devoted his professional life to improving justice and the courts since 1983. He was director of Judicial Education for the Supreme Court of Virginia from 1993 until 2002. He has served as faculty and consultant to the National Judicial College, the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, and the International Conference on Judicial Training, as well as presented for various state judicial education organizations. The United Nations recently selected Tom to lead an international delegation to Serbia to evaluate the progress of Serbia’s democratic reforms. Tom’s consulting practice focuses on conducting learning needs assessments, curriculum and outcome measures development, strategic planning, and change management. He is a past president of NASJE.

Return to Top

Copyright 1999-2008, National Association of State Judicial Educators
Contact Web Developer

This Website is updated quarterly by NASJE.
The opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Association of State Judicial Educators.