Recidivism Among DWI Offenders in New Mexico (Preliminary Results) Judith S. Harmon, MA Michael Landen, MD. MPH Injury and Behavioral Epidemiology Bureau Division of Epidemiology and Response Laura Ring Kapitula, PhD, Behavioral Health Research Center of the Southwest 30th Traffic Records Forum July 26, 2004 Nashville, TN

New Mexico Total & Alcohol Involved Crash Deaths, Legislative and Administrative Actions, 1980 - 2002

Purpose Demonstrate how convicted DWI offenders are tracked in New Mexico Describe how data analysis is achieved on convicted DWI offenders within the county DWI programs A brief look at recidivism of convicted DWI offenders

Court Screening Process for DWI Offenders in County DWI Programs in New Mexico Defendant arrested for DWI and arraigned Screening at pre-trial conference Screening at sentencing with recommendations Screening recommendations Defendant Sentencing tracked through Screening entered into database sanctions by county DWI program Screening & Tracking data sent to Office of Epidemiology quarterly

The Datasets Citation Tracking System (CTS) Information on all DWI Citations since 1986 is tracked by the Department of Motor Vehicles in the DWI Citation Tracking System. Contains personal identifiers, DWI arrest, administrative action and court information. Pulled biannually for analysis purposes by Division of Government Research at UNM

The Screening and Tracking data (S&T data) DWI Screening and tracking data collected at the county level between 7/1/99 and 6/30/03 on DWI offenders. All data sent to the State DOH where it is cleaned and combined into one statewide dataset. Contains: Demographic information NEEDs, a standardized alcohol and substance abuse screening instrument. Tracking information on the sanctions assigned. Court information Start, completion and termination dates as well as type of sanction. Agency where sanction was carried out.

Probabilistic Data Linkage Ideal for linking data with imperfect personal identifiers. Makes use of information contained in the frequency distribution of matching variables. Can be carried out using Automatch software developed by Matthew Jaro.

Why Link? To get DWI arrest histories on individuals in the Screening and Tracking data. To fill in gaps between the CTS and S&T files. To get information on recidivism. As time goes by more complete information on recidivism will be available. To get an estimate of the proportion of individuals convicted of DWI who are being screened and tracked in each county.

Demographic Characteristics Of DWI Offenders in New Mexico July 1999 – June 2003 80% Male 52% Hispanic US Census bridged race population estimates 41% Hispanics in New Mexico in 2003 Median Age at screening is 34 years old 71% graduated from high school 41% have never been married 16% are unemployed New Mexico Department of Labor 2003 shows 6% unemployment

Percentage of Offenders Assigned to Santions in New Mexico July 1999 – June 2003

Alcohol & Substance Abuse Characteristics Of DWI Offenders in New Mexico July 1999 – June 2003 Median Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) level was .15g/dl 31% obtained their alcohol in a bar before getting arrested 81% stated alcohol was their only drug of choice 26% never used alcohol on a regular basis (at least once a month) 23% of offenders between 21 – 34 years old used alcohol once a month

Recommended Treatment Levels

Type of Offense in New Mexico July 1999 – June 2003

DWI Convictions by Type of Court in New Mexico July 1999 – June 2003

Number of Completions of Sanctions By Court Type July 1999 – June 2003

Recidivism Defined as a re-arrest for a DWI anytime after the reference court date. Reference court date is the court date that most closely corresponds with the screening date. Recidivism rates are calculated as the number of individuals repeating in a given time period divided by the number of individuals with follow-up times greater than or equal to that time period For example, the one-year recidivism rates are only calculated with individuals who have at least one-year of time between their reference court date and the latest posting date on the CTS, January 7, 2004.

Match Rates

Data Definitions Offenders in the S&T data that linked to a record in the CTS file with a court date Offender was 18 years of age or older Offender had a screening date between July 1, 1999 and June 30, 2003 Offender linked to a citation in the CTS with a screening date within six months of the court date Offenders with multiple records in the S&T data, the record with the earliest screening date that met the criteria above A total sample size of 30,450 was used for analysis

Data Definitions (Continued) The covariates used for analysis Male, race/ethnicity, age, marital status, high school graduate, employment status, BAC from the CTS, income, location the liquor was obtained, number of prior DWI convictions, screening in a rural county and the court type Only data from individuals with complete information on all variables were included in the analysis.

Recidivism Model on Time to Re-arrest Defined as how likely to experience an event, given that it has survived to that time A main effects only model including all demographic variables, and indicator variables for all assigned sanctions

Characteristics of First Offenders and Multiple Offenders Who Recidivate Male Native American Recidivism decreases with age Single Earns $10,000 a year or less No difference between offenders with regard to court type Offenders in urban areas more likely to recidivate No difference in BAC levels for recidivism No difference between offenders with regard to where they bought their alcohol Three or more prior convictions have a greater likelihood of recidivating Treatment levels do not indicate a need for inpatient or outpatient treatment Male Hispanic and Native Americans Recidivism decreases with age. Single Earns $10,000 a year or less No difference between offenders with regard to court type No difference between offenders with regard to rural vs. urban areas BAC levels are above 0.15g/dl Obtained their alcohol at home, a social gathering or a store Treatment levels indicating a need for inpatient or outpatient treatment

Conclusions Linkage of CTS and S&T provides information on convictions not captured by S&T Linkage provides comparison for agreement between CTS and S&T data BAC Levels Number of Prior DWI Convictions Results show males, Native Americans and Hispanics more likely to recidivate Recidivism decreases with age Offenders with a BAC of .15g/dl or higher more likely to recidivate

Future Directions for Analysis and Data Bases Further analysis of linked datasets to examine sentence completion and recidivism, as well as sanction combinations to reduce recidivism A web-based screening and tracking system will be operational within the next year (2004 – 2005) All data from 1999 to present will be uploaded into web-based system Additional data fields to track offenders from arrest to final disposition of sentence will be included in web-based system

Future Directions for Linkage Continue linkage between Screening and Tracking Data and Citation Tracking System Data Link Citation Tracking System Data, Screening and Tracking Data with Behavioral Health Services Division of New Mexico DOH, treatment data for picture of outcome of treatment recommendations Continue to link older data with current CTS data to look at recidivism of DWI offenders for the long term