Drinking While Convicted

My buddies at KHND in North Dakota send along this local news item:

You get a DUI you can be stopped from driving but not from drinking until now...

Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem says North Dakota has a real problem with repeat DUI offenders.

Today he announces a program that will keep tabs on repeat drunk drivers.

Donnell Preskey has the story...

Starting January first if you're arrested for DUI and it's your second one or more you'll be visiting your sheriffs department often

A new program called 24/7 sobriety is starting in the 12 counties in the south-central part of the state

Repeat DUI offenders will be ordered to go to the sheriffs department twice a day once in the morning then again in the evening to blow into this..

(Wayne Stenehjem / ND Attorney General) "If fail to show up for testing- warrant for arrest and be arrested. If any trace of alcohol in their system, they will be escorted immediately to jail, not in a week, not in a month, now." If you drink you sit in jail

Stenehjem says the immediate consequences make the difference.

North Dakota blogger Rob Port writes that much of the increase in DUI arrests is due to increased enforcement and is not a fan of the program for a number of good reasons. You can read his comments here.

I remember talking to a local parent who sent his son to the University of North Dakota this year where he's taking their aviation program. Some months before school started he received a lengthy anti-alcohol program from the school that his son was required to complete. Apparently, drinking is a big problem at that school and they're trying to head off some problems with the education program.

I have mixed feelings about what the North Dakota authorities are doing. On one hand I certainly have no sympathy for drunk drivers. They wreak a lot of havoc in our country each year and programs that will keep them from drinking AND driving are a good thing. I'm sure that any family who has been negatively touched by a drinking driver would be in favor of this program and a lot more, and you can't blame them.

However, the punishment needs to fit the crime and in North Dakota where the towns are somewhat far-flung traveling to the Sheriff's office twice a day could be a real problem. Plus, if a person has had something to drink - even if well below the legal limit - do you want to encourage that person to drive anywhere, let alone the Sheriff's office? Is there not a risk of putting drinking drivers on the road in order to meet their legal obligations?

This may be a case of overreaction on the part of the authorities. I'll bet this program gets successfully challenged in court. Either that or a person driving drunk on his way to the Sheriff's office will kill somebody and that will be the end of that.