Relating to support for therapeutic courts for repeat driving while under the influence offenders.

This House Concurrent Resolution recognizes therapeutic courts and their effectiveness in treating alcoholism, particularly in regards to Driving Under the Influence (DUI).

In 2001 there were 85 traffic related fatalities. Over half of them were directly related to drunk driving. The cost and effectiveness of dealing with Drunk drivers in the conventional court system is prohibitive to say the least.

Therapeutic Courts on the other hand have a proven success rate as well as being significantly cheaper for the state. Conventional incarceration methods cost roughly six times as much as treatment from therapeutic courts.

HCR 29 encourages the Department of Law and the Public Defender Agency to actively participate in the startup of therapeutic courts in communities where there is a large population of DUI offenders and local support for therapeutic courts.

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