Questioning The Profit In Loss High Court Studies Businesses That Evaluate, Treat Duis

Idaho’s drunken drivers support a little-known, multimillion dollar industry that includes $900 classes in anger management and violence.

Last year, 8,579 Idaho residents were convicted of misdemeanor and felony DUI. In almost all of those cases, the offenders paid fines and court costs, which are funneled into schools, highways, courts and other state departments. Many also paid private, for-profit companies for evaluations, counseling and treatment.

And with a bill to lower the blood-alcohol limit for drivers from 0.10 percent to 0.08 percent just a signature away from becoming law, most officials agree arrests will climb, funneling more money into state and private coffers.

The Idaho Supreme Court has begun to study management and costs of the growing private industry built around DUI offenders, said John Peay, director of information systems for the court.

“It’s one of the things that has grown up over time in looking for alternatives to putting these people in jail,” Peay said.

When people are arrested for DUI, the court requires them to pay $40 to $150 to a private company for an evaluation to determine the level of alcohol or drug use. The judge uses that evaluation to sentence the offender.

The state sets guidelines, but no cost range, for the mandatory evaluations. And there are no standards on costs or quality of the court-ordered treatment.

“They are all over the field and all charge different amounts of money,” Fourth District Magistrate Carolyn Minder said.

Typical charges a DUI offender faces include a fine up to $1,000 and court costs of about $60. Every offender may hire an attorney, and most do, Minder said. Attorney costs range from $500 to $1,500.

Most offenders are required to pay to take some combination of driving school, DUI education classes, anger management classes and domestic abuse counseling.

And many judges favor having DUI offenders hear the stories of people affected by drunken driving during a $30 panel discussion, and pay various fees to perform community service.