Drivers who get arrested for at least a second DUI in Flathead County will now face more supervision as a new law takes effect across the state.
The “24/7 Sobriety” program, sponsored in the 2011 Legislature by Kalispell Rep. Steve Lavin, became law Oct. 1. It requires that anyone arrested for a second or subsequent DUI undergo twice-daily breath tests, ideally 12 hours apart. Failure to pass the tests results in jail time.
Flathead County Sheriff Chuck Curry said the program would be cost effective for taxpayers because the offender is required to pay for the tests. Each test costs $2, totaling $4 a day, which Curry noted is “less than a six-pack of beer.”
“The goal of this is to keep people from reoffending to make the streets safer,” he said.
Judges will also have the option of mandating a SCRAM alcohol-monitoring bracelet for offenders who live too far out of town to make the trip twice a day, with the offender still responsible for the cost.
With the new law in effect, Curry said he expected the program to be up and running in Flathead County by this week.
“It hasn’t quite started here officially only because we haven’t had the software available,” Curry said in an interview.
The new law stipulates that the program is run through the county sheriff’s office, but it also reads that the sheriff has the option to work with companies outside of the jail to test participants.
It’s an option Curry said he appreciated, because having every repeat DUI offender lining up at the sheriff’s office twice a day would be a logistical “nightmare.”
“We’re not going to be testing offenders here at the jail,” Curry said. “They’ll be referred to a judge at their time of release to one of two different testing sites in Kalispell.”
The sheriff’s office has yet to secure testing companies outside of Kalispell, Curry said, but the goal is to find sites in Columbia Falls and other areas.
The Kalispell testing sites are the Glacier Center for Families located at 945 Fourth Ave. E #C, and Providence Community Corrections located at 37 Fifth St. E, Suite 202.
Curry said the sites agreed to run the program’s software, and receive $1 from each test. The other dollar goes to the computer software company.
Courts have tried variations of the 24/7 Sobriety project in the past, Curry said, but now it will be uniform across the state. A judge could decide to make the program part of an offender’s conditions of release prior to trial, as well as part of their sentence if found guilty.
“This allows a judge to release you with some confidence that if you’re drinking again, you’re going to go to jail,” Curry said.
Curry also hopes the new law will reduce the county jail’s population, though he conceded some repeat offenders would likely end up behind bars regardless of the 24/7 program.
Still, other states such as South Dakota have recorded positive results with the program. In Montana, Attorney General Steve Bullock began a pilot program in Lewis and Clark County in 2010.
According to the state Department of Justice, the county administered more than 5,000 breath tests from May to December in 2010, with a 99.9 percent passage rate.
Curry said the program would have a steady build up in Flathead County, which will allow his office and the testing sites to become accustomed to the new law.
“The good news is there aren’t going to be 100 people in (the program) on (Oct. 10,)” Curry said. “Hopefully it’s something that will build and allow us to fine tune it as it goes.”