DUI court targets repeat offenders

A new DUI court designed to get the area’s hard-core drunken driving offenders off the road and into treatment will be up and running before the holiday eggnog has time to curdle.

The number of DUI cases has increased 20 percent so far this year, and Spokane County District Court judges are concerned that they have few tools to address the problem.

Unless a drunken driver injures or kills someone, the most he or she can face under state law is one year in jail. The goal of the new court program is to convince chronic drunken drivers (some with as many as 12 convictions) that they need to get help, and then make sure they follow through. Many now never even see a probation officer.

A recent study of 2003 Spokane District Court filings found that 45 percent of DUI defendants had at least one former DUI arrest.

In one case earlier this year, Tacoma resident Jon Ryan Molter was arrested in Spokane after being found passed out in his running car with a can of beer between his legs and empties on the floor. He had been on his way to a DUI court appearance in Idaho.

Molter was later sentenced to an $823 fine and a day in jail.

“The only way to stop this cycle is to begin to end the recidivism,” said Spokane County Commissioner Mark Richard.

The program will be open to those who have two or more prior drug or alcohol offenses or are arrested with a blood alcohol level of 0.2 or higher, and are diagnosed alcoholics and live nearby.

Participants will undergo at least 30 days of inpatient treatment, then be placed on electronic home monitoring, attend outpatient counseling and undergo random breath and urine tests. They must attend a DUI victim’s panel, work at least 15 hours a week and attend regular follow-up hearings in court, among other requirements, for another 21 months.

Any violation of the program could result in jail time.

“What this says is, ‘Hey, you need to change your lifestyle,’ ” said District Court Presiding Judge Mike Padden.

With the help of state grant funding of $300,000 over the next three years, the court will open at the start of 2006, said Padden. Other expenses will be paid out of an account funded by defendant fees designated under state law for probation services.

Earlier this week, when they approved creating the court, Spokane County commissioners insisted that it not require additional funding from the county’s general fund.

In addition to the treatment portion, the court will expedite DUI cases, so they don’t languish in the system.

Commissioner Phil Harris worried that people would enroll in the program simply to avoid jail time, rather than to get help for alcohol addiction.

“We realize they’re not all going to be successful, but what’s going on now is not always successful,” said Padden.

A similar treatment program in Kootenai County has been productive, said Kootenai County Deputy Prosecutor Jim Reierson. It’s offered to those who have one previous DUI conviction.

The Kootenai County program has a 12 percent recidivism rate – better than the rate among those who are simply sent to jail, Reierson said.

One thing Spokane County’s new DUI court fails to address is the crime’s misdemeanor status under Washington state law, said Reierson. Such a status makes the toughest possible penalty a year in county jail and a fine.

In Idaho, defendants with two or more DUI convictions can be tried for a felony, with a penalty of as much as five years in prison.

Reierson, who lives in Spokane County, has been campaigning for a similar law in Washington, calling it a disgrace that such a bill has been brought forward by the state Legislature, but failed to pass.

But Padden said Spokane County’s new DUI court will stand by itself.

“We’re not here crusading for felony DUI,” he said.