Minor In Possession Impact Panel
Because of the growing number of youths convicted of Minor In Possession (MIP) in Gallatin County, our judges created a panel that would give youth the opportunity to clearly understand how their behavior was affecting others. The panel is comprised of three or four people who have somehow been impacted by a minor in possession — through their personal or professional experiences in the home, school, workplace or community.
View the most recent statistics, below.
How They Work
- Each speaker tells his or her story over about 10 to 20 minutes.
- They share from the heart and do not judge, blame, or lecture offenders.
- Offenders sit in the audience and are expected to quietly listen to panelists. They are welcome to address questions or comments to panelists after the panel concludes.
Benefits
- A study conducted in New Zealand (2003) concluded that adult and/or youth modeling of drinking behaviors in mid- to late-adolescence is directly related to predictable DUI behavior at age 21.
- Fors and Rojack (1999) compared the re-arrest rates of 834 DUI offenders who attended a victim impact panel as part of their sentence to those who did not. The authors found that re-arrest rates were lower for individuals who participated in the victim impact panels.
- Research on impact panels also suggest that they are promising in terms of victim satisfaction. The results of one study (Mercer et al., 1994) suggested that victims who are panelists benefit from participation; they were often less angry at the offenders compared with non-panelists.
2010 Gallatin County Study results
February 10, 2011 — The results from the study that CMC conducted with funding from the Gallatin County DUI Taskforce are now in! We processed 1427 records from the Adolescent Resource Center (ARC) that sends youth ages 18–21 to the bimonthly Minor in Possession Impact panels (MIP). The records went back to 2004 before the panels were in place. The purpose of this study was to determine just how long the impact lasts since we see that most leave with a favorable attitude about alcohol and drug use. Any arrests for DUI were not included in the study.
Here’s what we found:
- All the youth from ARC take alcohol and drug classes.
- 744 youths have attended the MIP panels since 2006. Of those, only 35 received a second MIP after attending a panel.
- 683 youths did not attend an Impact Panel; of those, 138 received another citation.
The overall conclusions are that, with the training that ARC provides,
- 80% do not get a second citation.
- However, if you add the Impact Panel to the training, the rate of success improved to 95% who do not get a second citation.
As part of the MIP program, the attendees' ticket out the door is a completed evaluation form. The form asks them to list two things that made sense or surprised them. They also answer three questions used for program statistics:
- "After observing the panel and listening to their stories, I have a better understanding about the negative consequences of alcohol consumption."
- "After listening to the panel members’ stories, I thought of ways that my alcohol use affects important people in my life."
- "After listening to the panel, I thought about how much alcohol I drink and how it affects me."
The scoring for the above is 1—4, respectively, for: Strongly Disagree | Disagree | Agree | Strongly Agree. The results of their answers are in the first three columns below: