NC legislator backs bill to apply alcohol-monitoring to social services. No clear signal from DSS agencies.

Shortly after Carolina Public Press reported on the uncertainty surrounding social services agencies’ ability to use court-ordered alcohol-monitoring bracelets, one advocacy group unveiled its plans to address that gap in the law.

Ellen Pitt , a Mothers Against Drunk Driving advocate and leading organizer in the Western NC DWI Task Force, shared with CPP a draft of a proposed bill amendment that would explicitly approve the use of alcohol-monitoring bracelets by judges in juvenile court.

State Rep. Mike Clampitt , R-Swain, told CPP that he would support the legislation and plans to bring it to the attention of the House Standing Committee on Families, Children and Aging Policy, which he co-chairs.

Clampitt is a regular attendee of the Western NC DWI Task Force meetings and has championed bills originating from the group in the past, including a 2021 bipartisan law that required continuing education for magistrates.

Pitt expects this legislation on CAM bracelets to attract broad support.

“We have, from both sides of the aisle, legislators I think (who) will support this 100 percent,” she said. “They’ll be much more likely to support it if these DSS directors get on board.”

A spokesperson from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, which houses DSS, told CPP earlier this month that the state law which authorizes the use of alcohol-monitoring bracelets in criminal and civil contexts doesn’t apply to DSS agencies. That’s because DSS operates under the juvenile code — a wholly different body of law.

This proposed legislation lifts most of its language from Chapter 50 of the state’s general statutes and would simply add it to the juvenile code, Chapter 7B.

“As part of a treatment plan the court may require that the parent, guardian, custodian, stepparent, adult member of the juvenile’s household, or adult entrusted with the juvenile’s care to abstain from consuming alcohol and may require submission to a continuous alcohol monitoring system of a type approved by the Division of Community Supervision and Reentry of the Department of Adult Correction to verify compliance with this plan of treatment,” the proposed amendment reads.

“Any order pursuant to this subsection shall include an order to the monitoring provider to report any violation of the order to the court, the director and the individual subject to the monitoring.”

While the proposed bill amendment is gaining early support on the legislative side of things, it’s unclear whether DSS agencies will throw their support behind it.

Sharnese Ransome , executive director of the NC Association of County Departments of Social Services, told CPP that she was “unfamiliar with the proposed legislation” and declined to comment on the matter.

If the proposed bill amendment is to have any traction in the legislature next year it will likely need the support of DSS agencies. Pitt said that she expects that support to come in due time.

“It’s my expectation and my demand that every DSS director in this state would support this legislation when it goes in,” she said.