The Shasta County Judicial Branch and Adult Probation Department, together with Shasta County Chemical People, have established the “A Sobering Choice VIP” program.  This program is being offered virtually with limited in-person classes.  Offenders must contact our office for dates and times available for in-person classes.

ASC VIP is utilized as an educational tool for convicted DUI offenders.  Each panel includes two or three victims who are selected to speak briefly about the DUI crashes in which they were injured or in which a loved one was killed and what this has meant to them.  The panelists’ stories are told from the heart and are neither blaming nor accusatory.  Instead, victims simply tell how their lives and families have been affected by the crash.  Victims do not speak to groups in which their own offender is present.  There is no interaction between the victims and the offenders during the panel presentation, but a question and answer period follows.

Judges and Probation Officers may require convicted DUI offenders to virtually attend and/or attend an in-person class, based on availability,  VIP as a condition of their sentence.

Values for the offenders:

• To enable offenders, perhaps for the first time, to consider the pain and suffering driving under the influence can cause to others
• To help offenders move beyond focusing on their own problems
• To serve as a first step to break down the denial of alcoholism or addiction to other drugs
• To imprint images of real people in offenders’ minds
• To change behavior and save lives

Values for the victims:

• To assure victims they can have a positive impact if an offender’s lifestyle is changed through the message

For more information on A Sobering Choice or VIP, contact Cathy Grindstaff at (530) 241-5958.