Bring Back

Sobering Cells
Albuquerque City Council

By: Justin Perner

Introduction

Have you ever wondered where the money you are paying as
taxpayers goes? Of course you know of the basics, such as schools,
roadways, and employment, but let me give you a little bit of incite on one
place it goes in particular. Local police officers arrest multiple intoxicated
people every night. These people could be walking the streets or even
causing disturbances. When these individuals are arrested, they are sent to
the local hospitals for evaluation and if needed an IV will be injected to help
flush out the alcohol. After sobering up and with the doctors okay they are
able to walk away and head home. But, if they are unable to pay the
expenses from the hospitals, it falls back on us to pay for it.
We are an Organization called Bring back Sobering Cells and
represent the Albuquerque Police Department. Our mission is to find
economical solutions to recurring problems in the city. We would like to
propose an idea to the City Council that will help decrease wasted taxpayer
monies and will allow the homeless, intoxicated people a place to sober up in
a warm, controlled environment. The idea of having a jail cell that holds
intoxicated people until they are sober enough to walk away on their own.
They are called drunk tanks and or sobering cells. The plan is that this would
eliminate the expenses of the hospital bills, and help eliminate unnecessary
wait times in E.R waiting rooms. We know that some of the overly intoxicated
people that are picked up have to be sent to the hospital due to emergency
cases but, with this idea it will eliminate about 50% of the overall that are
being sent as of now.

Current Situation
According to St. Martins Hospitality Center Albuquerque poverty level is
ranked 5th most in the nation. In the city of Albuquerque alone there are an
approximated 6000 plus homeless people living on the streets or in a shelter
every day. Also over the past eight years homeless people in Albuquerque
have died at a rate of over one a day. If you have ever driven down Central in
downtown Albuquerque or close by the University of New Mexico you have
likely seen a homeless man or woman who was too intoxicated to walk
straight or passed out on the floor. Not only does this hurt the University of
New Mexico and scare away possible future lobos and parents but it also
hurts the business of local restaurants. While talking to local business owners
and managers from two popular campus restaurants, Frontier and Banditos
Hideout they both agreed that having intoxicated people either asking for
money or passed out near the side of the restaurant has forced costumers to
eat elsewhere and has hurt the businesses. Frontier no longer allows anyone
to loiter outside of their restaurant and have signs warning any possible
loiters of having police called on them. Not only is it bad for business but
when we asked multiple students whether they felt safe walking to
restaurants 30 feet off the campus 8 out of 10 said no. We asked the 8 who
replied no and asked why, 6 of the 8 said they were afraid of being harassed
by the intoxicated homeless for money or being harmed by them. Dozens of

times a day there is a call made to APD about a passed out man or woman
on the streets of Albuquerque, or a call that someone else might be in
danger due to the intoxicated. So the officers have two options, try to get the
man or woman responsive and to take themselves home safely or as
previously stated call an ambulance to have them transported to the nearest
emergency room. Usually the second scenario occurs and they are taken to
the hospital. This is because there are no longer any drunk tanks in the city
of Albuquerque. The city of Albuquerque once had these sobering cells but
they have since been removed because they were deemed inhumane and
against the rights of the men and women being detained inside of the cells.
Since there are no drunk tanks these men and women have to be treated by
doctors for many different reasons one example is that they have drank too
much which has caused alcohol poising which could results in getting their
stomachs pumped, or even to be kept overnight due to protocol. Another
example that happens would be to hook up an IV to the individual to help
hydrate them and speed up the process of sobering up. Because most of
these men and women are homeless and most likely have no source of
income or they live below the poverty line they usually do not have the
adequate health insurance to cover their medical bills after being seen by a
doctor. And the people who pay for these doctor/ hospital visits are the
citizens of Albuquerque who pay taxes. Why should our tax dollars be spent
this way instead of being spent more on many different appropriate things?
Why should we continue to get rid of activities in elementary schools such as

art and music because we dont have the money but, continue to pay for the
bad choices made by the men and women who are passed out drunk or with
other drugs on the streets?

Project Plan
Fortunately we have a solution. We would like to propose to the city
council on behalf of Bring back Sobering Cells as well as APD to bring back
drunk tank or sobering holding cells. One of the reasons we no longer have a
drunk tank is because it was declared immoral. There is nothing immoral
about these cells because they are simply brought here to sober up and once
they are sober and have no other charges they are free to leave. They were
also deemed against the rights of the men and women being held there. This
is not against anyone's rights if anything it is saving them from making a
mistake or even having to pay a hospital visit themselves. A police officer
has the right to pull someone over or detain anyone for public intoxication. It
is up to the officers discretion whether or not he feels he needs to be
brought back to the sobering cell. The officer would only take them to the
cell if they felt that they could be a harm to themselves or the officer while
being intoxicated. Another reason many states have gotten rid of Drunk
Tanks is because it was not being supervised which resulted in inmates
turning violent. And the last reason is because people who were held in the
tanks or cells would defecate in the cells or on themselves, urinate inside the
cell, and vomit. This caused the cell to be unsanitary. We have found a way
to combat the violence and the messes that could be made in the cell. We

propose to hire a private security guard to make sure things inside of the
cells stay peaceful and that no one is harmed. This security guard will have a
taser, which will be used only when necessary. Another thing the security will
be in charge of is to keep the cell sanitary. We are proposing to have three 8hour shifts or two 12-hour shifts to eliminate the cost of hiring too many
security guards. We feel that it is important to always keep safety our
number one priority.

Qualifications
Our organization shows clearly that the state of Albuquerque should
bring back sobering cells because we did the research to back up our
statements. We conducted surveys of the public and the overwhelming
support should prove our point that we need sobering cells. The reason we
were created was to try and cut down on drunks wasting our healthcare and
hospitals time and money. In the survey it showed that the average house
hold did not even know the amount of money that hospitals waist on treating
overly intoxicated patients, and when we told them the amount of taxpayer
dollars that go to waste they were outraged. With the results of our survey,
this should show the city council that we need a change in which the city
deals with overly intoxicated people or this could become a serious problem
for the city and the public.

Cost and Benefit

When a police officer is patrolling they tend to look for safety hazards,
officers look for a person whose demeanor appears to be either overly
intoxicated, or under the influence of drugs. If your behavior seems to be out
of control, an officer can stop you for Drunk and Disorderly or even "Public
Intoxication". In many states you dont have to be legally intoxicated to be
charged with drunk and disorderly charges. Now once you have been
stopped and you are considered unable to take care of yourself, the officer
must take you to an emergency room to get checked out. When an uninsured
person is taken to the emergency room, the base cost usually comes to
approximately 300 dollars. So, if on average in Albuquerque, for 15 people
are taken to the emergency room without insurance each day, this would
cost 4,500 dollars a night and add up to approximately 1,638,000 dollars a
year that the state has to pay for. We can cut this cost significantly just by
having our holding cell for overly intoxicated people. Now the cost of having
a holding cell wouldnt be an outrageous number such as the hospital costs.
All that is needed is either add a small holding cell to each station, or
renovate an already existing space in a police station. With only six police
stations in the city, the cost would not only be minimal, but it would also be a
one-time cost instead of over one and a half million dollars a year in hospital
bills. Assuming that the average cost to include a sobering cell in one police
station is 50,000 dollars, there are only six police stations in Albuquerque
that cost would only come out to be 300,000 dollars of a onetime cost verses

taking every single person to the hospital and raking up a whopping

1,638,000 dollars a year.
If 15 people taken a day for

Cost

public intoxication
1 night
$4,500
1 week
$31,500
1 year
$1,638,000
So if you look at the cost and the benefits, it would be a sound investment
into this city not only beneficial for saving the city money, but also it helps
make police officers job a lot easier every night along with making everyone

feel safer on the streets.

Time vs Money
1800000
1600000
1400000
1200000
1000000
800000
600000
400000
200000
0

1 week

1 month
Time vs Money

Conclusion

6 months

1 year

We hope that we have given you a new light on a problem that we as

an organization and the police force feels is becoming a bigger and bigger
problem. When reading this we hope you see the actual benefits the entire
city will be gaining. Not only will this idea save millions and millions of dollars
in the long run but it will also help the wait in the hospitals for other
emergencies, it will also benefit many businesses in Albuquerque, and we
know that students will feel much safer. We really hope you support and
choose to vote to implement Sobering cells back into Albuquerque. Thank
you for your time and consideration. If there are any questions that may
arise after reading our proposal feel free to email any of our three executive
members at georgeayala1996@gmail.com, jpener@unm.edu, and
mcummings@unm.edu.

Multi Modal Element

Bring Back Sobering Cells

Albuquerque Police Department

Audience: Albuquerque city council

Works Cited
"Acpo Issues 'drunk Tanks' Call to Tackle Disorder - BBC News." BBC News. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Oct.
2015.
MailOnline, Mark Duell for. "The 'drunk Tank' Helping Boozy Britons Recover This Christmas: First of
Ten Mobile 'alcohol Recovery Centres' Designed to Ease Strain on NHS Is Launched." Mail Online.
Associated Newspapers, 18 Dec. 2014. Web. 30 Oct. 2015.
"Sober up in Drunk Tank and Pay 400 to Leave." The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, n.d. Web. 30
Oct. 2015.