Retired Chief Deputy Warden Velda Dobson-Davis introduced the incarcerated community at San Quentin to the self-help program, Felons Against Distracted & Drunk Driving (FADDD).
The program aims to save lives by educating participants about drinking, drug-use, texting, or live streaming while operating cars, boats, motorcycles, and even bicycles.
The group addresses the impact of drunk driving using peer facilitators, who typically have drunk-driving-related life sentences. FADDD provides a handbook, co-written by Dobson-Davis and Tiffany Holmes, and features activities geared toward embracing accountability and gaining insight about substance use disorder.
It aims for participants to make amends to the families, victims and communities they left behind with a stern warning to persons at risk: Do not follow in our footsteps!
“I retired in 2012 from CDCR and in 2020 I found that there was a population who were not the common criminals,” said Dobson-Davis.
Dobson-Davis facilitates the program every Monday in the Catholic Chapel. Men seeking redemption by showing remorse and accountability for their actions surround Dobson-Davis as they explore the roots of substance abuse or drinking.
Many participants have suffered from the effects of broken families, childhood traumas or loss of loved ones, jobs, marriages, kids, or status in their communities.
“I enrolled in this program primarily because I took [victim’s name omitted] life while I was drunk,” said San Quentin resident Pablo Salinas. “This program has helped me gain a deeper understanding towards my actions and it has helped me to be more responsible for all the pain that I’ve caused the family and the community.”
Chris Rigsby, another incarcerated participant, also appreciates the program’s specific focus. “FADD is the first group that we have here at SQ that addresses the causative factors behind drinking and driving,” he said.
“The core of this group is to share the tragedies that we caused to innocent people by drinking and driving to hopefully prevent others from thinking that it is okay to drink and drive.”
When Dobson-Davis started developing the idea for the FADDD program, she was working at a women’s prison and presented his idea to the safety counsel. They rejected the idea, she says, because more men are incarcerated for driving while under the influence than women.
Incarcerated participant Alan Brown said, “What triggered me to drink and drive was after I got divorced, and the stress of separation for not being able to be around my daughter.
“Drinking and driving comes from rationalizing and normalizing that behavior. I thought that I was in control and I ran with this notion.”
The program also addresses codependency and mental health issues, a process that many participants find beneficial.
“We are trying to find out the underlying reasons why we drink and drive,” said incarcerated participant Brendan Harris.
“I do have some mental health issues although, I use drugs and drink I still don’t know which one came first.”
Attendance in FADDD is growing as the program gains recognition as an important self-help program. It gives offenders a safe place to discuss ways to maintain sobriety and use their negative experiences to stop others from getting behind the wheel while under the influence or distracted
