Committee approves bill that imposes jail time on repeat DUI offenders - The Denver Post
Committee approves bill that imposes jail time on repeat DUI offenders - The Denver Post Persistently drunken drivers should face mandatory jail time in Colorado, a legislative committee agreed Monday. In a unanimous vote, the House Judiciary Committee approved a bill requiring at least 10 days in jail for a second drunken-driving offense and at least 60 days in jail for third and subsequent offenses. Repeat offenders also would be required to spend up to two years on probation and participate in alcohol education and treatment classes. Persistently drunken drivers "are on the roads causing a significant threat to all of us," said Rep. Claire Levy, D-Boulder, the committee chairwoman and bill sponsor. The bill "does impose an immediate sanction that is certain" on drunken drivers, she said, "without causing them to lose jobs and families." Levy's bill has been endorsed by a state criminal justice commission whose membership ranges from prosecutors and law enforcement officers to defense lawyers, counselors and probation officers. The bill represents a compromise accepted by those various interests. On a second or third conviction, drunken drivers would face the certain punishment of nights behind bars. But those who are employed would be eligible to continue supporting family members through work-release programs. And second offenders who have no prior DUI within the past five years could be sentenced to in-home detention. Colorado law already permits judges to sentence repeat offenders to as much as a year in jail. But in a series last year, The Denver Post reported that sentences vary widely from county to county, and some judges were imposing no jail time when offenders had as many as seven DUIs
Read more: http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_14659157#ixzz0hyI1lRWh
5 comments:
Colorado sure loves the word mandatory.
What i propose is mandatory term limits for all politicians and beurocrats in dept head positions.
AMEN!!!!!
Why can't they simply impose a breathalizer in all automobiles from the manufacture. I think it could stop all DUI's. That might make enough money or save enough lives. What a waste of tax payer $'s a bill that didn't make a difference except to a judge. Sad!
Your right they all need to go!
Rep Levy needs to look into what the work release program does. Breaks up familys because the sherriff is the only one that ends up with the money that should go to the family. Take a look at all sherrif depts. They dont even feed a man enough to go out and work.
Alcoholism is a desease that you dont cure by jailing people who are alcoholics!!
So, because someone has a disease and then makes the decision to drink and drive, they should not be sanctioned? Ridiculous. Drink in your own home, have a sober person drive you, take a cab, walk ........ these alternatives will reduce DUIs and DUI-related accidents where innocent people are plowed down because the drunk - is brazen enough to get behind the wheel after he knows damn well that he shouldn't. Alcoholism is not a blanket excuse for risky decision-making, and the people around the alcoholic need to be cognizant of the drunken behaviors that could end his, or anothers, life in a heartbeat.
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