Revised and expanded, this new version is designed specifically for first-time DUI / DWI offenders and has been developed with consultation from Stephen M. Simon, J.D., Founder and Director of the Minnesota Criminal Justice System DWI Task Force. Along with the DVD, this new program now includes a CD-ROM that contains a facilitator's guide, presentation materials, and reproducible client handouts to enhance the educational impact of the powerful video. The revised print component features the most current statistics and the latest information about drinking and driving under the influence. It is ideal for adult offenders and provides compelling content and no-nonsense information in a way that offers an alternative to the ineffective stereotypical scare tactic programs that are often used.
The DVD is a short, but powerful video. Features four real stories from real people - Debbie, Nick, Andrew, and Cameron. In between the story-telling, a clinical expert gives viewers information in easy-to-understand language, about how we are physically and mentally impaired by alcohol and other drug use, and the consequences of that impairment on driving. The DVD is divided into five segments:
1. WHAT HAPPENED? The narrators begin by discussing their immediate feelings upon being arrested for their DWI/DUI. Often this is shame and embarrassment, and a resolve to not let it happen again.
2. WHAT THE NUMBERS MEAN. Dr. Brad Hernandez educates viewers about blood alcohol content related to level of impairment and what happens to driving abilities when alcohol or drugs are used.
3. A DANGEROUS COMBINATION. This segment details some of the dangers of driving under the influence of prescription medications or illicit drugs alone, or along with any alcohol consumption.
4. PAYING THE PRICE. Explains the consequences - human, legal, and financial, of a DUI/DWI arrest. Each narrator talks about the price they paid, and are still paying.
4. DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT. This final segment leaves the narrators in the present. From their current vantage point they clearly see things differently than they did at the time of their arrest.
Each narrator takes the viewer on a short journey-from the circumstances of their arrest, to what the future holds. For each of the five segments, statistics appear on the screen that often contradict what the story tellers initially thought or believed, and tell the real story - of how quickly and severely judgment is impaired when using one or more substances, of how many people reoffend despite their initial best intentions, or of how severe and long-lasting the consequences of being arrested for a DWI/DUI often are.