Drinking Driver Monitor Program (DDMP)
The Division of Parole and Probation administers two distinct supervision/monitoring entities - criminal supervision and the Drinking Driver Monitor Program (DDMP). DDMP was created in 1984 to ensure abstinence and treatment of DUI and DWI offenders in order to enhance road safety. While initially operated by the Motor Vehicle Administration (MVA) and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, DPP began managing DDMP in 1986.
The program provides an effective way to deal with the problems associated with offenders who operate motor vehicles while either intoxicated or while their abilities are impaired by alcohol. It is designed to maximize monitoring and reporting to gain compliance with court-ordered treatment or education. Offenders are referred to DDMP by the courts (96.4 percent), or by MVA's Medical Advisory Board.
The program also monitors offender attendance at community treatment programs as well as compliance with the terms of probation. Drinking driver monitors are responsible for monitoring offenders, conducting breathalyzer tests of offenders, interacting with other criminal justice agencies in the community, confirming offender attendance at treatment or self-help meetings, verifying employment, collecting supervision fees and restitution and enforcing any other court-ordered conditions of probation. If the offender is a problem drinker, monitors identify relapse factors and proactively recommend and coordinate intervention strategies aimed at relapse prevention.
In addition, drinking driver monitors supply the courts and MVA with information essential to making a determination to initiate:
- Violation of probation court proceedings or administrative hearings;
- Modification of special conditions of supervision, and
- Offender entry into inpatient treatment based on information from treatment providers and observation and documentation by the monitor.