Wisconsin’s Special Committee on Ethics recently tied in a vote, 3 to 3, regarding what to do about Rep. Jeff Wood, I-Chippewa Falls. Wood has been charged with five OWI offenses, and a six member ethics committee was tasked with making a recommendation to the larger state Assembly on whether to remove him from his seat in the assembly. If Wood were to be expelled before he is convicted of his most recent offense, it would be for purely political reasons.
When the citizens of Chippewa Falls elected Wood they knew he had prior OWI offenses. If they thought substance abuse would prevent him from doing his job they wouldn’t have voted for him. Firing a man from his job before he is convicted is both a violation of his rights and a poor way to address drunken driving. Instead of using assumptions as justification for shaming and firing a man, we must protect the presumption of innocence and take a more logical approach.
Those who would like to see Wood expelled are focusing on an individual rather than the system that allows him to keep driving. Rep. Gary Hebl, D-Sun Prairie pointed out that the state has not even seen fit to take away Wood’s driver’s license. Maybe there is a good reason why he is still driving, but even if there isn’t, firing him won’t make us any safer.
There are many whose desire to eradicate drunken driving focuses on vengeance rather than progress. Where is the evidence that social punishments such as losing your job or being scorned by your peers are necessary in addition to the legal ramifications that accompany an OWI conviction? It may or may not be that we need tougher drunken driving laws but we do not need to shame those with substance abuse problems.
Several states, such as Texas and Hawaii, have already made the slide from progressive approaches that protect all citizens to more punitive methods. These states post the names and photos of those charged with OWIs on the Internet with the expressed intention of shaming drunken drivers. These are not convicted drunken drivers, but those who have merely been charged. American citizens should not be embarrassed publicly — or in Wood’s case, fired — if they have not even been convicted.
And in the case of Wood’s most recent charge, it seems likely that the case will be thrown out. Hebl said, “It would be an embarrassment to this Legislature to expel him and then find the charges have been dropped.” The fact that Americans are innocent until proven guilty seems lost on many of the legislators calling for Wood’s expulsion.
When he was arrested, the representative was not over the legal limit for anything except cough syrup. The man was simply on a day pass from an inpatient treatment facility. Imagine for a moment that Wood had been at the treatment facility for a psychological disorder other than substance abuse. Would we rush to embarrass him and ask our representatives to spend time working to take away a job the people of Chippewa Falls elected him to do?
The answer is a resounding no; we would ask that the government made sure he wasn’t a danger, and then treat him with compassion while insisting he continue to seek treatment.
This is exactly how we should treat those convicted, not charged, with OWI offenses. We should insist they receive treatment, take responsibility for their actions, pay the consequences prescribed by law and ensure they are not a danger to the community. These actions needn’t be accompanied by the hysterical and ritualized shaming of offenders that systematically takes away their ability to recover and reintegrate into society. Wood has met all of these requirements; he knows what he did was wrong. Slamming it in his face will only make his recovery more difficult.
Like it or not, alcoholism and driving under the influence are here to stay. We can continue to follow the national trend of letting the federal government blackmail our state into raising the legal limit, we can continue to shame and fire those with substance abuse problems and we can continue to pretend that making examples of offenders will prevent future problems. These approaches will not protect us from drunken driving.
Or we can wake up and take a logical approach to preventing drunken driving. We should treat alcoholism and substance abuse like the psychological disorders that they are.
You cannot use shame and fear of embarrassment to prevent or cure a psychological disorder. That approach leads to persecution of those charged but not convicted, and takes away our ability to effectively address the problem.
Wisconsin can do better in its approach to drunken driving, but it will take clear, not vengeful, thinking.
Andrew Carpenter ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in communication arts and psychology.
