Article reprinted with permission THE HUNTSVILLE TIMES LIBRARY - 11/16/98 Is Jail Best Place for DUI Drivers? Courts, cops, public debate alternatives

BY: DAVID HOLDEN
Times Staff Writer

David Lee Connally Jr. was driving drunk when his pickup truck collided head-on into an automobile occupied by two women on Christmas Eve 1996.

Mary Wooten, 67, the mother of Huntsville police Maj. Dennis Wooten, was killed in the wreck. She was among 14 people who died in 502 alcohol-related accidents in Madison County that year. Her daughter, Mary Stewart, the driver of the car, and Connally were counted among 212 people injured in Madison County in those accidents.

Connally pleaded guilty last April to charges of criminally negligent homicide and assault. Circuit Judge Thomas Younger sentenced him to 10 years in prison on each charge.

Connally now becomes one of the long-term prisoners that Madison County grand juries say more repeat DUI offenders should become. But state prison officials, while not denying that people like Connally deserve punishment, are urging the courts to use discretion about sending people to already crowded penal facilities for long-term storage.

The possibility of a flood of repeat DUI offenders through state prison gates - a real possibility now that the state Legislature has toughened Alabama's felony DUI laws - is an unsettling thought, said Tom Gilkeson, spokesman for the Alabama Department of Corrections. It's just too expensive, he said, and, anyway, there's no room. "Is it better to find some other mode of punishment for these people rather than costing the state almost $9,000 a year to place a repeat DUI offender in an institution?" he asked.

"Or is it better to look at getting them into drug and alcohol programs that offenders pay for themselves . . . where they can continue to pay taxes and feed their families?"

The overcrowding situation in prisons is deadly serious, officials say.

The day a new prison in Bibb County opens for business this fall, it will be full, Gilkeson said. It was designed to hold 600 to 900 inmates.

But the new facility also offers corrections officials the chance to relieve the pressure on other state prisons that are already about to burst at the seams, Gilkeson said.

"When we get the manpower (more guards and support staff), it will probably be at 200 percent capacity very quickly," he said. "There could be up to 1,800 inmates in that facility."

In addition to state expenses for imprisoning a DUI offender, there are other costs, Gilkeson said. A stint in prison for a bread-winner can put a family on the public dole a long time, he said, and the state often pays extra by supplying necessary social services.

It comes down to making a choice between who needs to be locked up first - violent criminals or non-violent criminals and repeat DUI offenders, Gilkeson said.

"Which one impacts society the most, a robber or a DUI offender?" he asked.
He argued that the system needs to try every other alternative available before sending someone convicted of a DUI offense to prison.

There are devices that people have to blow into before they can start their cars, he said, and community corrections programs and technology can enforce house arrest.

Prison, he said, "should be the last resort."

Taking best route

Those who must enforce the law find that are struggling identifying the best route to deal with the growth of repeat drunk drivers.

The police department's Wooten, for example, says getting drunk drivers off the roads will save lives, and endorses the recent toughening of the state's drunk driving law.

Wooten says he holds no animosity against Connally, who was a repeat drunk driver, because of the accident. "My mother would have wanted me to forgive that man," he said.

Still, at times, Wooten, a former commander of the Huntsville DUI Task Force, vents his frustration.

"I've had to struggle on this issue," he said. "There are a lot of people with drinking problems that go on for years and are picked up numerous times for drinking and driving.

"That is utterly ridiculous. It causes danger to people's lives on the streets, heartache and the system does little about it. But there comes a time when we must do something."

It's Wooten's job to enforce the law, and one of the goals of community-based policing philosophy that is being pushed so strongly by Police Chief Compton Owens is to identify people with problems and to help provide some answers.

But, Wooten said, the law should not provide the only answers for dealing with habitual drunk drivers.

"I think that people with this problem need help," he said. "When people drive drunk, it becomes a community problem. I would think we have a responsibility and an obligation to help people who face these problems.

"David Connally has destroyed not only his life but our lives. I wish someone would have helped him."

Community Involvement

The community needs more involvement from people on this issue, more preventive programs and more treatment for people with problems before they become problems for the criminal justice system, District Attorney Tim Morgan said.

"It's real easy to sit around and talk about `they ought to do something,' " he said. "Everyone must realize that `they' is us, and we have to get involved."

Society can and should do a lot more to keep people from driving drunk again and again, Morgan said. But, he said, the taxpayers will have to pay the bill - and they are already paying with lives and with money to maintain people in prisons.

"Are we willing to pay for what those programs will cost to keep our streets and roads safe?" he said. "I am willing to pay my share, but I'm not sure if the electorate would agree with me."

Morgan thinks enforcing the state's tougher DUI laws will make the streets safer for awhile, but punishment that fails to get at the root of the problem just postpones tragedies.

"All we can do is punish those we catch, and we can't rehabilitate all those we punish," he said. "We know that they are going to get out and that 60 to 70 percent are going to (drive drunk again)." Drunk driving practice

For the last seven years, lawyer Phillip B. Price Sr. has focused his practice solely on defending people charged with drunk driving. Price said he became interested in that area of the law in about 1986 when the Legislature passed a law for mandatory revocation of a driver's licenses in DUI convictions.

"I said this is going to lead to a lot of litigation," he recalled. Since then, Price has taken on partners and together their firm defends scores of cases each month.

Price is facing increasing competition because the growing number of misdemeanor and felony DUI cases has proven to be a lucrative field.
Price is quick to point out that just because someone is charged, that doesn't mean guilt.

"I once represented a client who was charged with DUI while sitting in his car in his own driveway listening to music," he said. "A caring neighbor saw him sitting in the car, thought he was sick and called an ambulance."

When the paramedics arrived, they found the man healthy. But they must have become irritated when they discovered he had been drinking, Price said.
"We managed to get the case dismissed," he said.

Price said his clients don't contemplate getting drunk and hurting somebody. They may be going through a difficult divorce or have problems at work, and they make a bad choice of drinking to deal with their problems.

The courts and society should address the underlying problems involved earlier in the history of offenders, Price said.

"To prevent repeat offenses, I think there should be an improved educational program," he said. "There should be mandatory probation on second and third offenses to ensure that people who need treatment get it," he said.

To do that will strain the resources of the courts, corrections and society, Morgan said.

Nevertheless, he and Wooten think reaching children with education programs at an early age might help.

"That is something we are going to have to do no matter what the strain," Morgan said. "Just like in the war on drugs: We may not be winning, but we have got to keep on fighting."