Collaborative Justice

Peer Courts Target DUI Intervention and Prevention

On March 29, 2006, the Collaborative Justice team hosted a project kick-off symposium at the Administrative Office of the Courts in San Francisco for the DUI Intervention and Prevention Strategies Program, funded through the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS). Peer courts were chosen as the focus of the program because they target at-risk juveniles and have proven successful in modifying self-destructive behaviors while improving decision-making skills through peer interaction and community service. The symposium was the first step in developing a curriculum on driving under the influence for teens appearing before a court of their peers. The curriculum will address the dangers of driving while under the influence of alcohol or drugs and will serve as an educational component within peer court or teen court. The curriculum is also being designed for use in other school programs statewide.

Symposium participants (l-r): Judge Darrell Stevens (Ret.), Judge Stephen V. Manley (Superior Court of Santa Clara County), Judge Richard Vlavianos (Superior Court of San Joaquin County), and Judge J. Richard Couzens (Ret.).

Funds from the grant have been distributed to eight peer courts throughout California. They are: the superior courts of Fresno, Humboldt, Orange, Placer, San Joaquin, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, and Sonoma Counties. The first curriculum-planning meeting brought together peer courts and partnering agencies to lay the foundation for the project. The planning committee consisted of judicial officers, Probation Department representatives, and other stakeholders, such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Friday Night Live, the California Highway Patrol, American Automobile Association, National Youth Court Center, National Drug Court Institute, and Phoenix Houses of California, as well as educational consultant Karen Vierra.

DUI technical experts (l-r): Marie Haddad (American Automobile Association), Helena Williams (California Highway Patrol), Dr. Jim Kooler (Friday Night Live), Michael Brown (Mothers Against Drunk Driving), Kristen Daugherty (National Drug Court Institute), Tracy Godwin Mullins (National Youth Court Center), Laura Morfin (collaborative justice coordinator of the Superior Court of Orange County)

"Best practices" and "lessons learned" from the mentor courts will be made available through a series of training workshops to be held next year. These training workshops will be conducted at the AOC regional offices. In the second year of the grant program, 15 peer courts will be selected, through a competitive request for proposals (RFP) process, to implement the curriculum. OTS expects this grant initiative to decrease the 32 percent rise in alcohol-related DUI fatalities since 1999 (Annual Report of the California DUI Management Information System, 2004).

A Youth Summit is planned for August 7-9 at the University of California at Santa Cruz at which youth court participants and staff from around the state will gather to discuss the future of peer courts. The next DUI prevention and intervention meeting will be part of this three-day summit and will involve peer court teens in planning the curriculum.

For inquiries regarding the California DUI Intervention and Prevention Strategies Program or the Youth Summit, please contact Patrick Danna at patrick.danna@jud.ca.gov or Huong Bui at huong.bui@jud.ca.gov.