The 24/7 Sobriety program, launched in South Dakota in 2005, was associated with a 4.2-percent decrease in all-cause mortality over six years; the largest reductions occurred among women and individuals over the age of 40. Deaths from circulatory conditions, which include heart disease and stroke, declined significantly.
The criminal justice program requires offenders convicted of alcohol-related offenses to stop drinking and to submit to frequent alcohol testing with swift, certain, and modest sanctions for a violation. The program was funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health. The analysis of the program was conducted by Nancy Nicosia, Ph.D.; Beau Kilmer, Ph.D.; and Paul Heaton, Ph.D., of the RAND Corporation. Results appear online in The Lancet Psychiatry.
As part of the 24/7 Sobriety Program, people convicted of an alcohol-related offense must submit to twice-a-day breathalyzer tests or wear a continuous alcohol-monitoring bracelet. People who fail or skip tests immediately receive a short jail term, typically one to two days for a failed test. Nearly three percent of South Dakota’s adult population (about 17,000 people) participated in 24/7 Sobriety between January 2005 and June 2011. Most people were placed in the program as a result of an arrest and conviction of driving under the influence of alcohol or other drugs.
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