NEVADA LEGISLATURE SEEKS TO MAKE CHANGES TO STATUTES ADDRESSING DUI CAUSING DEATH OR SUBSTANTIAL BODILY HARM
- March 22nd, 2011
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In Nevada’s 2011 legislative session, one bill has created a stir among its proponents and opponents. The bill is Senate Bill 72. Senate Bill 72 seeks to revise provisions governing the assignment of certain criminal offenders, particularly those convicted of DUI causing death or substantial bodily harm, to residential confinement. The Committee on the Judiciary pre-filed the bill on December 15, 2010, on behalf of the Nevada Attorney General.
Senate Bill 72 seeks to amend Nevada Revised Statute (NRS) 209.392. Specifically, the bill proposes to add a new subsection 5 to NRS 209.392 to address imprisonment of DUI offenders, which in the proposed Bill, states in pertinent part:
The standards adopted by the Director … must provide that an offender who is serving a sentence for a violation of NRS 484C.430 (DUI causing death or substantial bodily harm) is not eligible for assignment to the custody of the Division of Parole and Probation to serve a term of residential confinement pursuant to this section unless the offender has served the minimum term of imprisonment in the state prison set forth in NRS 484C.430.
Of course, NRS 484C.430 provides that a person who is found guilty of being under the influence, and while driving (DUI), causes death or substantial bodily harm, is guilty of a category B felony in Nevada. The penalty for this DUI offense is imprisonment in the state prison for a minimum term of at least two years and a maximum term of not more than 20 years, and a fine of $2,000.00 to $5,000.00.
On February 9, 2011, the Senate Judiciary Committee heard the arguments on both sides of the DUI issue. Proponents of Senate Bill 72 argued that there presently is no DUI treatment program in the prison system prior to the release of these DUI offenders. Prison becomes a revolving door, and those who have a minimum prison sentence of two years are released within a few months to a DUI residential confinement program under the control of the Department of Corrections. It then becomes hurtful to the victims of DUI and their families to see the DUI offender living in a residential situation within their community. The proponents seek to make the penalty for the DUI offense more punitive, and less rehabilitative. The DUI offender, under this proposal, would not be able to begin a residential treatment program until he or she serves the minimum sentence imposed by the court, or at a minimum, two years in prison.
Opponents of Senate Bill 72 argued that if the statutory framework set out in Senate Bill 72 is passed, there will be an increase in cost of $1.07 million to the budget of the Department of Corrections in the first two years, with even higher increases after that. Opponents also argue that there are tangible successful results from the implementation of the DUI residential treatment program implemented by the Nevada Legislature in 1991, in the form of saved money and lessening overcrowding in prison. It also benefits the DUI offender by allowing him or her to go through a DUI residential treatment program during the last year of their prison term. Finally, opponents argue the success of the DUI program in reducing recidivism in DUI offenders who go through the residential treatment program, and they argue that the legislature’s clear intent, due to the success of the program, was to allow more DUI offenders into the program.
On March 17, 2011, Senate Bill 72 was passed, as amended. It remains to be seen what the end result will be. However, it is clear that Senate Bill 72 is, at a minimum, redundant, that the statutory framework presently in place is adequate to protect society from DUI offenders, and that the program is highly successful at rehabilitating DUI offenders.
Attorney Paul J. Adras, of the Law Offices of Paul J. Adras, Esq., PC, represents individuals accused of DUI in the Las Vegas and Southern Nevada.