Court Review: Volume 40, Issue 2 - Judicial Report on the Adjudication and Sanctioning of Hard-Core Drinking Drivers

Impaired driving is the most frequently committed crime in America. It has been an issue of debate and concern for the judiciary, as courtrooms across the country hear cases involving a majority of the 1.4 million annual DWI arrests. Since the early 1980s, concerned citizens have lobbied for and won considerable changes to the way these cases are approached from a public-policy perspective, often resulting in legislative initiatives and changes in criminal practice. Until now, however, little comprehensive research has been conducted on the implications of these system-wide changes for criminal justice professionals. In December 2002, the Traffic Injury Research Foundation—an independent road safety institute—released a report concerning the adjudication of DWI cases and the sanctioning of hard-core drinking drivers. Its findings were based on the views, insights, and opinions of more than 1,000 judges across the country. The report is part of a multiyear research initiative designed to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the criminal justice system by highlighting key problems in each segment of the system and recommending practical, costeffective solutions. Two earlier reports addressed problems in the detection and apprehension of hard-core drinking drivers, and the prosecution of these offenders. The foundation recently released the final report in July 2003, which addressed monitoring by probation and parole. In addition to funding provided by a charitable contribution from the Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc., the involvement and participation of several thousand criminal justice professionals across the United States—representing law enforcement officers, prosecutors, judges, and probation and parole officers—made this unique initiative possible. By identifying key problems and recommending practical solutions derived from prior research and validated by the experiences of thousands of professionals participating in the study, the initiative underscores the need for systemic improvements. As a starting point, this series of reports serves as a valuable sourcebook. It provides direction to criminal justice and traffic safety professionals at national and state levels. It also guides agencies in addressing concerns and in strategically reviewing existing policies. This research has received considerable support, cooperation, and interest from a wide variety of individuals as well as key national agencies. These groups include the Highway Safety Committee of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the National Traffic Law Center of the American Prosecutors’ Research Institute, the National District Attorneys Association, the National Association of Prosecutor Coordinators, the Conference of State Court Administrators, the American Judges Association, the National Judicial College, the National Center for State Courts, the American Probation and Parole Association, and the National Criminal Justice Association

A Guaranteed Basic Income for Canadians: Off the Table or Within Reach?

Pilot projects in the past that have experimented with a Guaranteed Basic Income (GBI) in Manitoba and Ontario, and a recent study of the feasibility of a GBI in British Columbia, indicate that provinces are not in an ideal position to successfully implement an affordable and effective GBI. However, a GBI implemented by the federal government, financed by eliminating the GST credit and lowering personal tax exemptions, could be both effective and affordable. It could also do so without requiring the elimination of those provincial social assistance programs that are more deeply targeted toward people’s needs. By using its revenue powers, the federal government could create more fiscal capacity for the provinces to provide other cash and in-kind social supports, allowing for greater provincial benefit targeting. The federal government’s centrality in designing and implementing tax structures and collecting tax revenue make it singularly suitable for administering and delivering a GBI. Financing the GBI by eliminating the modest GST credit and lowering the current basic personal income tax exemption could provide a significant reduction in the rate, depth and intensity of poverty in Canada, without imposing an excessive tax burden on Canadians. If provinces use the GBI as a replacement for certain less-targeted provincial social assistance income transfers, the freed-up payments and reduced caseloads could also allow provinces to target more effectively those needs not addressed by the GBI. The recent COVID-19 pandemic exposed longstanding gaps in Canada’s income- support frameworks, with lower-income workers facing exceptional economic vulnerability. At the same time, the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit proved edifying in terms of how to best design a basic-income program. In addition, the federal government’s experiences with the poverty-reducing impacts of the Canada Child Benefit, the Old Age Supplement and the Guaranteed Income Supplement have moved Canada closer than ever to a workable GBI. While it comes with additional costs, those costs will be less burdensome than many GBI skeptics might believe. They must also be put into perspective, by comparing them against the costs of current and, in many cases ineffective income transfers and, just as importantly, against the human cost of leaving more Canadians living in poverty

Harriette Simpson Arnow, 1908-1986

A documentary film on southern Appalachian author Harriette Simpson Arnow. Directed by Herb E. Smith for Appalshop Productions in 1987

Evaluation of Beginner Driver Education in Oregon

Although driver education (DE) is widely accepted as an effective teen driver safety measure and widely available in the United States, Canada and elsewhere, evaluations have generally failed to show that such formal programs actually produce safer drivers. To address the issue of safety effects as part of a larger investigation, two studies were conducted to examine whether the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT)-approved DE program was associated with reductions in collisions and convictions. In the first study, DE status among a relatively small sample of teens who completed an online survey was not found to have a significant effect on collisions and convictions. In the second study, of a much larger population of teen drivers, DE status was associated with a lower incidence of collisions and convictions. On balance, this suggests that the safety effects of DE are either neutral, based on the results of the first Oregon study, or cautiously optimistic based on the results of the second study. The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of making improvements in DE that are evidence-based, and the need for further evaluation to establish that improved and new programs meet their safety objectives