A couple of months ago, the county court-at-law in Comal County began experimenting with something called "Driving While Intoxicated Accountability Court." (As if they weren't already DWI accountability courts.) The basic idea of the new court docket was well intentioned -- to give someone charged with a subsequent offense DWI case an extra incentive to volunteer for intensive outpatient treatment. In practice, the incentives to participate in the program don't outweigh the costs for many defendants. The program is supposed to work like this: if someone is charged with a subsequent offense DWI they are given an opportunity to go into intensive outpatient treatment through the Adult Probation Department. In exchange, the person receives a few months less than the maximum amount of probation, an automatic occupational driver's license, and a possible waiver of jail time as a condition of probation, as well as a possible reduction in fine.
Sounds like a great deal, right? Not so much. Many people simply can't do the program. DWI probation for someone with a subsequent offense already has a lot of hoops to jump through: DWI Intervention classes, outpatient counseling, a driver's license suspension, jail as a condition of probation, AA attendance, community service and participation at a victim impact panel. Probation through the new DWI docket, though, is like doing probation on steroids. Probationers are expected to report several times of week, which is often impossible to do if someone is trying to hold down a job. And the perks a person is supposed to get for participating in the program really aren't that significant. The length of probation being offered in the DWI court is similar to what we being offered to defendants before the new docket was started. Probationers were previously required to apply for occupational licenses anyway. The days of jail received as a condition of probation can usually be organized around work schedules.
All of the other conditions of DWI probation are still there under the new system. The single biggest concern that a person usually has when he walks into my office charged with a subsequent offense DWI is the possibility of losing his job. Picking up a subsequent offense DWI is a major threat to someone's job security as it is. Having to potentially miss work several times a week to report to a probation officer only makes matters worse. It's all well and good that the courts want to offer an opportunity for more treatment for those who wish to participate in the new program, but I suspect that most defendants will choose to take their lumps under the old system and keep their jobs, instead.