Collegiate Times

There are a lot of terms that are thrown around when people talk about life at Virginia Tech. A litany of vocabulary exists that only a true native could appreciate. Terms such as "Owens," "GLC" and "VASAP" are commonly flipped about between students. The last phrase, however; is truly understood by few.

"It's like the best kept secret in Virginia," said Susan Marshon, executive director of the New River Valley VASAP located in Christiansburg. "How does VASAP work?"

VASAP stands for the Virginia Alcohol Safety Action Program, and Marshon and her staff comprise one of 24 local ASAPs around Virginia.

The program originated in 1976 after the Virginia General Assembly passed legislation expanding a self-sustaining pilot program statewide that was started in 1972. The pilot program was conceived as a means to combat a rising issue with drinking and driving as well as related DUI offenses.

"Virginia got a federal grant," Marshon said, "to do a pilot project to try to figure out what might work to handle the DUI offenders, so it was primarily started to deal with just DUI offenders, but it became a really interesting model because it didn't cost anything."

With 7,000 offenders coming through the VASAP doors every year, fees paid by offenders is what keep the program afloat.

"VASAP is a user-funded program," Marshon said. "We get no money from the state or the federal government, and it's important because we're the only agency probably in the country that functions that way."

Today, the Christiansburg VASAP has grown to treat more than just DUI offenders in the fourth planning district that it covers (Floyd, Montgomery, Pulaski, Giles and the City of Radford). It also takes drug offenders and DUID charges, reckless driving offenders, intoxicated in public offenders and liquor law offenders who violate laws such as underage possession of alcohol or buying alcohol for a minor. Depending on the charge, offenders can expect to receive one of the following penalties and are susceptible to more than just one depending on the nature and regulations of the convicted crime: attend mandatory educational classes, submit to random drug/alcohol screenings (normally at the start of classes), enroll in community service, and possibly have their driver's license revoked or suspended. In some of the more serious charges, such as repeated DUI charges, an ignition interlock is placed inside of the offender's vehicle, which forces the driver to blow into the ignition interlock device every 20 minutes - proving his breath is alcohol-free - while driving or risk having his car shut down. He is also expected to pay fines, which in part pays for a case manager to oversee an individual's completion of the VASAP programs.

"Unlike what you might expect," Marshon said, "they're also placed on probation, and what they're paying for is their probation supervision. Because the common question I get is, 'You mean I have to pay for my community service?' No, you're not paying to do your community service. You're paying for your probation supervision, so depending on the number of hours that you get that determines the length of time that you'll be on probation and how much it will cost."

What has caused the program to change and expand in the past 30 years into the multi-faceted organization that it is now is because largely in part of a local board, which tries to address the changing needs of the various counties and communities. The board works with local legislators in order to fine tune any small details that may be individual to the area that the overarching ASAP plan may not cover.

"The local boards are able to establish programs to meet the needs of their local courts," Marshon said. "So we have a great big young offender program here, and the program up in Harrisonburg has a really big young offender program because they've got various colleges and universities. You might go down to Southwest Virginia; they have no young offender program because they don't have the population."

The young offender program is probably the most notoriously known VASAP program to Tech students, and with good reason, as about 900 people go through it each year. This figure includes students from Blacksburg and Radford. In this program, offenders under the age of 25 are given the option of attending a mandatory eight-week educational program on top of about $200 worth of fees in exchange for having the charge reduced or dismissed.

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