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Let it be said right now and ring from the mountaintops down to the masses below: Jail is not fun.

A party, a few too many drinks, and an assumption that it was okay to drive the few blocks from the bar parking lot to my apartment were what made me an invited guest of the Louisville Metropolitan Corrections Department for one October night in 2005. After a brief encounter in which I got acquainted with both a friendly police officer who made me stand on one leg and sit in the back of a car with pretty flashing lights, I found myself locked in a sparse concrete holding cell directly below the same courthouse I had grown up in. I knew that within a few hours my father would be above me, trying cases while remaining blissfully unaware that his youngest son was locked below him watching "COPS" with a man arrested for domestic abuse and a male prostitute picked up an hour prior.

First off, if you were stopped by an officer and placed under arrest, count yourself lucky. There are two other options, one of which is getting home and the other is getting in a wreck, seriously injuring yourself or others. I have stated several times after sobering up, and state now every time the story is recounted, that I was lucky. I was lucky that officer stopped me before I wrecked my car and hurt someone else simply because I wanted to have a good time while saving the money for a taxi. Even as we go on, let me make that clear. I am actually thankful for getting stopped that night before I had any further chance to hurt someone else.

The next aspect comes after your release, and that's telling your family. You pretty much have to do it. Either that, or explain why you can't drive while your license is suspended. This is not the nicest conversation in the world. My family and friends have never truly looked at me the same way after I got stopped and arrested for DUI. There is a stigma attached to this particular crime, even though in most places it is a misdemeanor on par with having a single "joint" in your possession.

This also leads to assumptions from the family, and these assumptions are attached to the majority of DUI convictions. This will lead to a loss of respect from peers. I, personally, have never been as hurt as I was the day I told my father I had gotten a DUI. The look on his face was one of disbelief, anger, loss of respect, but most of all it was one of failure. He assumed that my actions were an indication he had failed to raise his son properly. The assumptions

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