After a year of monitoring select repeat drunken drivers with a new system, officials are confident the strategy can help Dane County cut back on drunken driving.

In March of 2010, County Executive Kathleen Falk introduced a pilot program using biomarkers, a blood testing technique that measures whether a person has been drinking throughout the course of the recent weeks, in comparison with other technologies that measure alcohol content in blood during recent days.

The testing was used to monitor 100 repeat OWI offenders in the county. The biomarkers allowed testers to ensure offenders were being honest about their drinking before they were allowed to get their driver’s license back.

Doctor and lead author of the study Pamela Bean said in a statement of the 100 drivers involved, 28 percent were found by the biomarkers to have been drinking heavily during the Drivers Safety Program after being convicted of an OWI.

Of that 28 percent, Bean said half reduced their drinking after the testing, which she said demonstrates the positive outcomes of the testing process.

Bean added after the 12-month follow-up period, nearly half of the drivers involved in the study had stayed sober without falling into a relapse of drinking habits.

In 2003, Falk created Dane County’s Pathfinders program, an addiction rehabilitation program designed to help stabilize repeat drunk drivers. According the statement, the program had an 84 percent success rate in 2010.

“We launched this program many years ago to slow the revolving door of people who go into and out of our jail every few weeks for problems related to alcohol abuse,” Falk said in the statement.

Falk spokesperson Joshua Wescott said the testing method allows rehabilitators involved in Pathfinders alcohol abuse programs to determine whether or not those in the programs are recovering as well as they might claim.

“We’re calling time out on these people when appropriate,” Wescott said. “We’re keeping them from getting back behind the wheel before they’re ready.”

Wescott said the success of these programs is important not only for the safety of participants, but for the safety and benefit of the public.

Statistics show half of all those in the county jail are there as a result of drunken driving offenses. Wescott said this program and the biomarker testing will help offenders stay out of jail and will, in return, save taxpayer dollars.

He said the Pathfinders program has helped successful participants to not repeat their offenses, but instead to get stable housing, college educations and jobs.

Wescott added the testing system is uncommon, and other than Dane County, Waukesha County is the only other participant in Wisconsin.

“The biomarkers is kind of a fact check tool as they are going through the recovery process,” he said. “You say you’re not drinking anymore, let’s find out together and things go from there.”