On February 5, 2010, a Colorado criminal justice commission, consisting of judges, district attorneys and defense attorneys,  voted on and approved a legislative proposal requiring jail for repeat DUI offenders in Colorado.  This proposal would require a judge to sentence a person convicted of DUI or DWAI in Colorado to incarceration if he or she has a prior alcohol related driving offense.  As the law currently is written, a person convicted of a second DUI or DWAI must be sentenced to incarceration, but a judge in Colorado may authorize an ankle bracelet with home confinement for the duration of that sentence.  This proposal takes away a Colorado judge’s discretion to sentence a repeat DUI offender in-home detention or electronic home monitoring upon a second or subsequent DUI or DWAI conviction.

This bill, sponsored by Representative Claire Levy, a Boulder Democrat, comes on the heels of the recent criticism in the Denver Post regarding sentences that judges in Adams, Denver and Arapahoe Counties have given to multiple DUI offenders.  This proposal will be presented to the state legislature and will likely be new Colorado law in the coming year.