1. 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

2. New Mexico Total & Alcohol Involved Crash Deaths, Legislative and Administrative Actions,

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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

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

11. 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

12. Recommended Treatment Levels

13. Type of Offense in New Mexico July 1999 – June 2003

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

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

16. 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.

17. Match Rates

18. 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

19. 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.

20. 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

21. 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

22. 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

23. 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

24. 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