oh sh*t at 2:20!
noticed some of you think prison time is the only way to go for offenders, have you considered the type of person they will become after 1 or 5 years in prison? Rather than any attempt at education, let's just throw them into a hostile environment where they will learn to be more violent and then release them back out on society....sounds good to me.
well Bag i am in a particularly strange position to answer your question.
first, i have spent 14 years of my life incarcerated for various acts of youthful foolishness and stubbornness, so i am fully aware of what a person is likely to encounter while in prison
second i have lost 1 extremely special person to DWI and have lost 4 other casual friends to it, so i understand the loss of the innocence claimed by the act of DWI
third and finally i have been a Tow Truck Operator for the past 10 years and have been called to clean up the mess left behind by more than one DWI who "was OK to drive"
my perspective is simple, go look in the eyes of a child and tell them that their mother/father/brother/sister wont be coming home ever again, go look into the room of a burn victim screaming in agony, go talk to a young man confined to a wheel chair for the rest of his life, go look in the mirror and ask yourself which of your children your willing to give up or which motor function you can live without and sacrifice to the gods of fate today because your second/third/fourth time DWI offender finally gets the brass ring and hits someone.........
if you have never had to bear the burden of being robbed of a loved one or been personally victimised by DWI then your judgment of what is fair is out of line here.
prison is based on boredom, don't watch TV and think you know what its like cause you'll be completely wrong. imagine boot camp without the enforced PT and you pretty much have it. the violence in most general population prisons (where a DWI offender would find himself) is in general no more than the violence you will encouter at your local redneck bar. the biggest trick to being in prison is this "MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS", so its really not very difficult. additionally it doesn't create a criminal if one didn't exist within the person to begin with. if your not a rapist or murderer then prison wont make you one. its not like they sit around holding classes on the criminal acts.
All of my friends, even in my criminal days, understood/understand that if you are arrested call me and i will do anything i can to help.....unless you have been arrested on any type of rape or DWI, if you have then P*&S off.
DWI's are one of the lowest forms of scum that i can think of. how would you like someone playing Russian roulette with your family members? would you be so quick to be lenient knowing that in 90 days they get their gun back? or understanding that just because they took the carriers permit away from the offender that he/she can still just go get a gun and play again and again?
suffer loss first then judge the punishment against the pain.