As a bumper sticker once said: “It takes 8,460 bolts to assemble an automobile, and one nut to scatter it all over the road.” Accidents caused by people who drive under the influence of alcohol have become an enormous social problem not only for the United States, but also the world. This year alone, 10,839 people will die in an accident caused by a drunk driver ("2008 Traffic Safety Annual Assessment-Highlights" 5). Calculated out, this number means that every fifty minutes a person is killed in a drinking and driving accident. The deaths that are caused by those who drive under the influence have been occurring almost since cars were invented. The first person to actually get arrested for driving under the influence was George Smith who ran his taxi into a building in London on September 10, 1897 (“Londoner George Smith gets caught driving drunk” 1). Since this first arrest, drinking while driving has only increased to such a degree that more than 112 million people got behind the wheel drunk with a Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) above 0.08% in 2010 ("Impaired Driving: Get the Facts" 1). Drunk drivers affect everyone because they are constantly driving on the roads. Last year alone 1.46 million people were arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol in the United States; this is an arrest rate of 1 in 139 licensed drivers ("Traffic Safety Facts" 5). If drunk drivers are not stopped immediately, then the death toll will only rise and lives that could have been saved will be lost. People who drive under the influence of alcohol should be arrested and placed in jail for no less than two years and this can be implemented by having a congressman create a bill that could be passed into law.
The biggest issue that has caused the problem of drinking and driving is the availability and consumption rates of alcohol. The local bar puts no limits on the amount of alcohol their customers consume and the average high school or college student can find ample amounts of alcohol at a tailgate or party. Since alcohol is so easy to find and consume, it is inevitable that many people are going to get drunk past the legal driving limit of 0.08% BAC. When a person gets drunk they are usually not at the place they need to be at the end of the night, like their home or their dorm room. Many of these people get drunk beyond the legal limit of a 0.08% BAC and find themselves driving home because they have no alternate form of transportation; these people find themselves in a conundrum where they must get home or to some other destination, but have no means of getting there other than driving their cars while they are drunk. These are the underlying problems of drinking and driving: alcohol is too available for consumption and people don’t have an alternate for of transportation when their BAC is above 0.08%.
There are those who would argue that drinking and driving accidents are on a decline and will eventually disappear on its own. A statistic that many of these naysayers may use is that accidents caused by those driving under the influence have gone down 30% in the last five years ("Drinking and Driving: A Threat to Everyone" 1). These naysayers may also say that many of these accidents are already being stopped by current preventive techniques and advertising. The current law in Colorado for those who are caught driving with a Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) above .08% for the first time is a suspension of their license for 90 days; if they repeat this offense, then their license is suspended for one year ("DUI Penalties"). These laws and penalties are not enough because many thousands of people are still dying every year because of those who are persistently driving under the influence of alcohol. No matter what the penalties are, there are still people driving under the influence of alcohol. It is not worth it to drive with a BAC above 0.08% when there are countless numbers of people on the road that can be injured or even killed by a drunk driver.
Penalties that are much harsher than the current penalties need to be put into place in order to stop drunk drivers once and for all. A solution that would address this problem fully would be to automatically put first time offenders who drive under the influence of alcohol, above the legal limit of 0.08% BAC, in the county prison for two years. If the person is caught driving under the influence a second time, they will be placed in prison for no less than five years. Lastly, if a person is caught a third time while they are intoxicated above a 0.08% BAC then they will receive no less than ten years in prison.
Most people would argue that it is extraordinarily expensive to keep a person in prison and the number of inmates that the United States is carrying rises exponentially every year. This quote from the book Critical Criminology explains the problems that the United States is experiencing with these numbers: “The US prison population grew consistently for almost 30 years. In 1970, there were approximately 200,000 persons in the nation’s prisons. By 2002, the number had increased to approximately 1.4 million (Austin, Jones, and Richard 243).” These numbers are high and many people would argue that with these high numbers would come the increase in taxes and other expenses that Americans would have to pay just to float this large inmate population. This quote from The Journal on Civil and Criminal Confinement describes how much it costs to keep a prisoner every year: “Using the 2001 figures for the number of prisoners incarcerated (around 1.3 million) at the cost per day of $62, the United States spends about $ 80 million per day on prison inmates in state and federal facilities (Webster 1).” This number is shocking and according to those who would oppose this solution, this is a big enough reason not to put first time drunk drivers in prison.
Those opposed to this solution have a good point because apprehending drunk drivers would greatly increase the amount of people in prison and it is exceedingly expensive to pay for all of these prisoners. There is a solution for this problem. When a drunk driver is placed in prison, they could be used to work for various communities and pay off their jail time debt through manual labor on large community and state projects. This solution would not only pay off their jail time debt, but existing taxes could be used to fix roads and other areas that need fixing through the labor of inmates. When this happens, taxes will be put to good use because they will be going towards the upkeep of the nation instead of the maintenance of prisoners. Projects that inmates could do would include road maintenance, road construction, construction of state and community buildings and upkeep and maintenance of state buildings. There are many more occupational options for these inmates that would be profitable for the state and a good use of the nation’s taxes, but there are so many that the list is too long to state here.
This is not only beneficial to the state and the nation, but also the inmates themselves. A study done by The Prison Journal showed that community service was as effective a short-term jail sentences with the correction of inmate problems. This passage from the journal explains the extra benefits of community service: “Given that the use of community service sentences also likely results in other benefits to the community that do not materialize with the use of fines, correctional officials may wish to consider the expanded use of this type of alternative sanction, at least for some types of low-level offenders (Bouffard, and Muftić 189).” This quote shows the benefits that community service brings not only to the community, but to the prisoners also. The best of both worlds could be combined here; a prison sentence along with a sentence to do community service will surely cause people who once drove under the influence of alcohol to learn a harsh, but effective lesson.
This solution will get all of the drunk drivers off the streets, either by imprisoning them or scaring them to the point where they will never drive drunk out of fear that they will be imprisoned. When this happens, there will be far fewer accidents on the roads and a much lower death toll due to the newly implemented system. The only way to have this plan carried out is to make a bill that will be made into a law after passing through the Congress and the President. Making this into a law and actually implementing it into the nations’ system will easily cost billions of dollars of taxpayer money for upkeep of prisoners and the construction of new prison facilities. Not only will this law cost so much money, but also new programs will have to be created so that these new prisoners can contribute to society. These programs will be made by government officials connected to the running and upkeep of prisons and will be created to fit individual community needs. The great part about this new law is that thousands of new prisoners will be placed in communities where they can work to improve the roads and labor on other projects that taxpayer dollars would have gone towards anyway. This law may take many years to implement because of the need for creation of programs where inmates can contribute to various communities; also raising the money needed to build new prison facilities to incarcerate people caught driving under the influence of alcohol may take many years to build.
The specific steps of making this law are very tedious and provide a bunch of areas where something can go wrong. The first step that must be taken to start this process is to create a bill. A congressman or other prestigious people in government must make an initial draft of this bill. This bill will be looked over in a committee and if they approve, they will pass it on to the House of Representatives. The House of Representatives will vote on the bill and if they approve, they will pass it through to the Senate. Once the Senate decides that they approve of the bill, they will pass the bill on to the President. Once the President approves of the bill, it will be made into law. At this point, the process is not yet over because the prisons must be built in order to hold all of the people convicted of drinking while driving. Taxes must be raised in order to accommodate such a request and another bill must be passed through the government in order to do so. Once the facilities are finally built, a government committee will need to be organized in order to create programs that must established in order to get these new inmates to do community service in individual communities. The biggest barrier to this implementation is the governmental system and the checks and balances that it possesses. The different branches of government may decide that this it is not a spectacular idea to pass a law that will put so many people in prison and therefore create a burden on Americans in the form of increased taxes. A great way to get rid of this barrier would to be to remind these different branches of government about the lives they would be saving in the process. When these branches realize that the roads will be much safer and less people will die as a result, they will be ready to implement such a plan.
This is the perfect solution because it not only keeps the roads safe and decreases the death toll, but also helps maintain and build communities. With this solution being implemented many people will benefit from the community service that these drunk drivers will provide upon their entrance into prison. This solution will also create fear in many people because they will not want to get caught drinking and driving. When this happens, not as many people will risk drinking and driving and the amount of inmates in prisons will not increase as dramatically. Today, one in 139 licensed drivers drives drunk (“Traffic Safety Facts” 5). When these drunk drivers are apprehended one time, the amount of repeat offenders will radically decrease because they will not want to be locked up for another five years. Although this type of solution may never be put into action because of ethical and money issues, it would be an effective way to address the growing problem that drinking and driving has become. There are a bunch of roadblocks in the way of such an implementation, but thousands of people’s lives would be saved if such a solution were made into a law. As long as we can find a way to get all of the inmates to pay off their prison debt with community service and other various kinds of work, then this solution will sustain itself and will not use up too much of the tax money. From this solution Americans and people from all over the world will learn that the highest priority in our world is preserving life and consequences will come to those who endanger the lives of others.
Works Cited
Austin, James, Richard Jones, and Stephen Richard. "Thinking About Prison Release and Budget Crisis in the Blue Grass State." Critical Criminology. 12.3 (2004): 263-243. Print.
Bouffard, Jeffret, and Lisa Muftić. "The Effectiveness of Community Service Sentences Compared to Traditional Fines for Low-Level Offenders." Prison Journal. 87.2 (2007): 194-171. Print.
"Colorado DUI Penalties ." DUI Penalties. DUI Law Firm Marketing , 06 Jul 2011. Web. 1 Dec 2011.
“Londoner George Smith gets caught driving drunk.” 2011. The History Channel website. Dec 1 2011.
United States. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Impaired Driving: Get the Facts. Atlanta : Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011. Web.
United States. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Drinking and Driving: A Threat to Everyone. Atlanta: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011. Web.
United States. U.S. Department of Transportation. 2008 Traffic Safety Annual Assessment Highlights. Washington DC: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2009. Web.
United States. U.S. Department of Transportation. Traffic Safety Facts. Washington DC: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration National Center for Statistics and Analysis, 2008. Web.
Webtser, Andrew. "Environmental Prison Reform." New England Journal on Criminal and Civil Confinement. (2010): n. page. Print.
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