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Tennessee enlists shame to fight drunken driving

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A new Tennessee law is enlisting the power of shame to discourage drunken driving.

Starting today, convicted drunken drivers are required to do 24 hours of roadside cleanup while wearing orange vests with the phrase: "I am a Drunk Driver."

The new law is aimed at first-time offenders, said one of its sponsors, state Rep. Charles Curtiss.

"You cause them to go out and pick up trash in front of their friends and neighbors, the embarrassment is going to be such that they're never going to want to go through that again," Curtiss said.

But shaming offenders without more meaningful treatment programs could have the opposite effect, said Jacqueline Helfgott, chairwoman of the criminal justice department at Seattle University.

"If I'm forced to wear a sign saying that I'm a drunk driver, then I'm going to feel worse and worse about myself and I may drink more and more because I feel shunned," she said.

Jeanne Mejeur, a research manager at the National Conference of State Legislatures in Denver, said Tennessee's law "is pretty much a unique program nationally."

Ohio requires yellow license plates for some convicted drunken drivers, and other states use less obvious coding on tags to alert police about DUI convictions. But those measures are targeted more at public safety than shame, Mejeur said.

The bill becomes law today without Gov. Phil Bredesen's signature.

"Although I am generally supportive of innovative forms of punishment to address this issue, I am concerned about the possibility of reduced jail time for DUI offenders," Bredesen wrote to legislative leaders.

That is echoed by Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

"The best deterrent to drunk driving is jail time, not community service," said Laura Dial, Tennessee's MADD director.

[Last modified January 1, 2006, 00:29:14]