by Elizabeth M Young

Created on: November 19, 2009   Last Updated: January 29, 2012

While 11,773 people were killed in drunk driving incidents in 2008, many more were permanently injured and died later from their DUI related injuries. Of course, we want to see drunk drivers take on the most serious punishment for the first offense, let alone a second offense. But Mel Gibson's DUI from 2006, for example, has been expunged. He completed his sentencing to three years of probation and has had no other incidents, and under California law, he was allowed to clear his record in October 2009.

Nicole Richie had a DUI conviction in 2003, actually confessing to using Vicodan and marijuana. She could have been sentenced to 90 days to a year, but was sentenced to three years of unsupervised probation. For her second offense, committed while under probation, she was sentenced to four days in jail. So was Paris Hilton, who violated her probation and acted as if she were Marie Antoinette on her way to the guillotine.

Yes, it is shocking to hear rumors that one celebrity or another seems to have been given special preference, but the fact is that many non-celebrity citizen drunk and otherwise impaired drivers who have legal representation get the same light sentencing on first and even second offenses. There are conditions that are considered: whether it is a first offense or second offense, whether the person is a habitual criminal in other matters, whether there was bodily harm or death involved, and whether a person is over or under 21. Amazingly, few people do much jail time and none are supervised by a probation officer, even on the second offense.

One reason is that the jails are crowded with worse offenders and there is no room for intoxicated drivers and non-violent offenders. Another reason for outrage is that the conditions of probation in California are not even as strict as people would like: There is no probation officer assigned, jail CAN be from 48 hours to six months on the first offense, and up to a year on the second offense, bodily injury CAN elevate the charge to a felony, licenses are suspended, vehicle interlock devices CAN be ordered, the individual is ordered not to do any alcohol or drugs, there is usually a requirement to attend extensive alcohol treatment or classes, and there are a host of fines and costs.

It is not whether or not Nicole Richie should go to jail, it is whether the thousands of other DUI offenders across the nation, many with second offenses and chronic alcohol problems, should also go to jail. Just because a person

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