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Butte County Superior Court

Honorable Darrell Stevens
655 Oleander Avenue
Chico, CA  95926
(530) 879-3312

Butte County, California has just over 200,000 citizens.  It is located in the north central valley of California, approximately 70 miles north of the state capital, Sacramento.  The area is predominantly rural.  The economy is agriculturally based.  The County has five major population areas, distributed in distinct areas of the county.  The largest population is found in the Chico Urban Area (90,000).  Chico is the home to California State University, Chico.

The abuse of alcohol, and specifically the risk presented by the drinking driver, has long been an issue faced by Butte County.  The Court takes a variety of approaches based upon the judge's assessment of the offender's situation to address this public safety issue.  In assessing each Driving Under the Influence (DUI) offender at the time of sentencing, the judge considers the number of prior DUI convictions, the blood alcohol level, the pattern of alcohol use, and other alcohol-related offenses such as "minor in possession" and "public intoxication."  Based upon these factors, the sentence would then include mandatory attendance at Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meetings, a test and search clause, frequent court reviews, possible referral to the County's Alcohol and Drug Services program or residential treatment, and in some cases the ingestion of Antabuse or Naltrexone.  The Court mandates AA logs be kept by the defendant and provided to the court at each review hearing.  An intoxication analyzer (breath) is also frequently used in court during review hearings if there is a question about an offender's compliance.  These orders may be made as part of a grant of either formal or informal probation, or as a condition of the defendant's release on his own recognizance.

In 1996, Butte County Probation and the Butte County Superior Court teamed with members of the community to begin the ReVia Project.  ReVia (generic name: Naltrexone) is a medication utilized for many years as a highly effective opiate treatment.  Because of this, Naltrexone reduces or stops cravings experienced by alcoholics and allows treatment to be effectively delivered.  Initially planned as a 90-day trial project, Naltrexone quickly demonstrated value for a specific population of offender: the repeat drinking driver.  Based upon that first series of cases, the ReVia Project was extended.  It is now approximately two years out, and the results appear distinctly promising.  In some cases, the results have been astounding.  A preliminary review of the data reveals that ReVia is far and away the most successful method of dealing with high blood alcohol, repeat drunk drivers.

Essentially, ReVia functions as a tool to aid recovery and treatment.  It is not a "stand alone" treatment.  While being utilized by these recovering alcoholics, ReVia functions in two manners: (1) it blocks cravings (2) if the offender does drink, there is no pleasure derived from drinking alcohol.  Thus, if an alcoholic is sincerely working on behavior changes through treatment, true progress can be made.

Butte County recently received a Local Law Enforcement Block Grant which will be dedicated to creating a "Naltrexone Track" in the County's existing Drug Court Program.  The Probation Department will add an additional officer to the Drug Court staff who will provide intensive supervision and case management.  This will combine the strengths of Drug Court, while allowing for the expansion of the Naltrexone caseload.

Click here to see Recidivism Rate Graph

Recidivism
August 6, 1998

Formal Probation
Out of 17 repeat DUI offenders:

3 have re-offended	17.65%
1 is out on warrant	5.88%
Average priors:	3.06
Average B.A.	NA

AA
Out of 51 repeat DUI offenders:

8 have re-offended	15.69%
7 are out on warrant	13.73%
Average priors:	1.14
Average B.A.	1.1753

Antabuse*
Out of 17 repeat DUI offenders:

4 have re-offended	23.53%
Age Range:	22-48
Ave. Age:	29.6
Male:	94%
Female:	6%
White:	65%
Hispanic:	35%
3 are out on warrant	17.64%
Average priors:	1.29
Average B.A.	.1866
Average duration in the program:	6.8 months
Average time since completion (7-98):	6 months
Average time from completion to re-offense:	1 month

ReVia**
Out of 31 repeat DUI offenders:

**All numbers are totals of those who have successfully completed the respective programs.

Next DUI Court:  Hancock County, IN

This web page was created by the American Council on Alcoholism 
to serve as a resource for information about DUI courts.

This page was last updated on 4-30-2003.