State struggling to keep up with DUI offenders
“We have about 6,000 arrests in the database from about 33 counties with special DUI prosecutors and it allows you to track offenders very quickly,” said William Dwyer of the University of Memphis psychology department.
The database, called Driving Under the Influence Information Tracking System, is one of several highway safety projects Dwyer’s department is managing.
Tennessee recorded 16,121 drunken-driving convictions in 2001, and of the drivers charged, 3,253 were repeat or multiple offenders.
The university programs are designed to help researchers identify common factors in traffic crashes as well as follow DUI cases through the courts.
A statewide newsletter for Tennessee prosecutors now includes a “Recidivist Wall of Shame” that focuses on repeat DUI offenders.
“I never have a shortage of them,” says Tom Kimball of the District Attorneys General Conference. “I usually have to cull through the list and say ‘OK, I can only handle this many on a page.’ It’s pitiful.”
While Kimball supports vigorous prosecution of drunken drivers, he said long-term treatment for repeat offenders is needed, too.
“It’s a very costly process trying to heal people,” he said. “Right now about all we can do is try to get them as much time in jail as we can. When they’re off the road they’re not a threat.”
Judges often order repeat offenders to get medical or psychological help for their addictions.
Claire Presley, who accumulated seven drunken-driving convictions in 14 months, got such a sentence in April in Shelby County.
She was sentenced to 150 days in jail and four years of intensive probation. Her driver’s license was revoked and she was ordered to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings four times a week.
Across Tennessee, 260 drivers convicted of four or more DUIs are serving prison time, along with 106 other inmates convicted of vehicular homicide involving intoxication.
One of those inmates is Christina Morgan of Memphis who drew a 22-year sentence for killing two 12-year-old boys and critically injuring a third while driving drunk.
The youngsters were run over while walking home from school.
Morgan, 27, had a previous drunken-driving conviction and her license had been suspended at least three times.
“I think because they get off so easily they do it over and over again until something just has to happen, like a tragedy, to stop them,” says Deborah Jenkins, whose son, Malcom Williams, was one of Morgan’s victims.
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Information from: The Commercial Appeal, http://www.thecommercialappeal.com