Steve Doell has seen people driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs again and again throughout the years. He has talked to the families of people who’ve been killed in impaired-driving crashes.
He wants to know why DUI convicts are given so many chances.
“Why should you ever get another chance when you continue to be repetitive? It’s ludicrous,” said Doell, the president of Oregon Crime Victims United. “We should have incremental increases in our punishment cycle for these people. In Oregon, its not really like three strikes you’re out. It’s like five strikes and you’re out.”
Oregon Crime Victims United doesn’t have an official stance on DUI offenders, but Doell said the state’s current law is a travesty because it allows offenders so many chances to avoid long-term incarceration.
He agrees that both strict incarceration statutes and treatment are necessary to cut the number of repeat DUI offenders, but he said treatment programs need to be more highly regulated and scientifically tested to be more effective.
Changing the law to include gradually increasing penalties is one of many enforcement options. Other proposals, both current and past, would allow sobriety checkpoints, raise taxes to pay for more police, lower the limit of blood alcohol content that automatically qualifies someone as impaired and give more treatment options to prisoners.
But legislators have struggled to toughen punishments and give law enforcement more resources because of the money it would cost.
So it may be up to the voters.
An initiative sponsored by Kevin Mannix, a practicing business attorney and former state legislator, would make a third DUI conviction in 10 years a felony. Current law defines a fourth conviction in 10 years as a felony.
“By the time they’ve had a third conviction, they’ve probably been driving drunk 100 times. We’re spinning a roulette wheel with the safety of our people,” Mannix said.
According to the Oregon Crimefighting Act, as Initiative 13 has been dubbed, the third conviction would carry a mandatory minimum sentence of 90 days incarceration without any possibility of reduction by a magistrate.
“It will finally establish stronger sanctions for repeat drunk drivers and send a message to the Legislature that we need to do even more,” Mannix said.
The act also would also eliminate the 10-year time frame for subsequent felony convictions. The state would be required to reimburse local law enforcement for housing offenders under Initiative 13.
“If I had my way, these sanctions would be much tougher, but we’re starting with something that would have broad public acceptance,” Mannix said. He said he was confident that the initiative will have enough signatures to qualify for the November ballot.
“We need a comprehensive tougher approach,” Mannix said. “But we’re only going to see it in the Legislature if the voters send a strong message that we care about such an issue. … They can say, ‘OK, we’ve had it, and you’re going to get some serious jail time.’ ”
Putting more offenders behind bars would increase costs to the public, who pay an estimated $84 per day to house a single inmate.
There are 247 DUI convicts currently housed at Oregon’s prisons, costing about $20,700 each day.
Does the imprisonment work?
According to data updated through November, about 13 percent of all parolees had reoffended within a year of their release from Oregon prisons. After three years, about 29 percent had reoffended.
After attending treatment, 17 percent of DUI clients reoffend and go to another treatment program within five years.
