State estimates found newly proposed legislation to impose stricter penalties for drunken driving and increase the amount of persons jailed for alcohol-related offenses would likely cost the state millions to enforce.
If enacted, fiscal estimates by the Department of Corrections indicate the bill’s fiscal effects would range from between $158 million and $226 million for constructing prison housing for the massive influx of drunk driving offenders. DOC projects the state would have to construct 17 facilities, each of which would house 300 convicts.
According to Wisconsin state law, first-time offenders are given a ticket for an operating while intoxicated violation and are not required to serve jail time.
If one of the bills introduced by Rep. Jim Ott, R-Mequon, and Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, regarding first-time OWI offenders passes, an offender would be fined up to $1,100 and imprisoned a minimum of five days.
Nina Emerson, director of the Resource Center on Impaired Driving at University of Wisconsin’s Law School, said the large state costs associated with the bill make it less attractive. She said drinking and driving offenders receive a small penalty in Wisconsin due to the “loose” OWI restrictions.
“It does not play well that we are the only state that the first OWI is a ticket,” Emerson said. “There is a certain amount of ‘its not a big deal,'” Emerson said.
Emerson said it is a slow process to change the minds of the people, and sobriety checkpoints could be the answer. However, such checkpoints are not politically popular, and none of the bills introduced have included anything about sobriety checkpoints, she added.
Pete Madland, executive director of the Wisconsin Tavern League, said he is satisfied with the current legislation and feels these six bills are unnecessary. He cited the declining crash statistics over the last few years as evidence supporting the notion Wisconsin’s OWI problem is under control.
“I think the penalties in place right now are very strict,” Madland said. “[Of] the people with the high [blood alcohol concentrations], the hardcore guy is going to drink and drive anyway.”
Emerson said she believes the root of the problem for repeat offenders is alcoholism and treating addiction can help greatly. However, she said no “silver bullet” exists to cure alcoholism.
Madland said he is also in favor of treatment programs for repeat offenders, but noted they do not eliminate alcoholism and the state has no need to adopt stricter driving penalties. Emerson agreed alcohol treatment might better curb drunken driving offenses than the proposed legislation.
“If you don’t deal with the underlying addiction, what’s going to change”? Emerson said.
However, she said maintaining the status quo, as Madland advocates, will not solve the problem and noted the Wisconsin Tavern League profits from alcohol consumption.
Laura Smith, spokesperson for Health First Wisconsin, said in an email she does not think penalties are the answer to the problem. She said she believes law enforcement is just “one piece of the puzzle.”
She also said Health First Wisconsin’s aims at preventing drinking and driving before offenses occur through binge-drinking reduction and safe alcohol culture promotion in the state.
Smith emphasized drinking and driving is not the only cost of high rates of alcohol consumption.
“The reality is that excessive alcohol use – defined as binge drinking, underage drinking, heavy drinking, or drinking while pregnant – costs Wisconsin an estimated $6.8 billion a year,” Smith said.
