Throw the book at 'em

Another example of our misguided justice system was on display in Greene County a few days ago. A man appeared before a judge for sentencing on what was at least his third driving-under-the-influence-of-alcohol charge in four years. A month ago, the man was sentenced to 14 to 28 months behind bars for a previous DUI case. In the most recent case, the man was accused of intentionally running his vehicle into two other cars in Jefferson Township. When the cops caught up with him, his blood-alcohol content was nearly three times the legal limit. One would think the judge would add considerably more time onto the 14 to 28 months the defendant already was facing. But no, the judge allowed the man into the state's intermediate punishment program, which will have him serve a minimum of seven months in state prison, followed by four months in an "institutional therapeutic program." He will then be on probation. Does this strike anyone else as ridiculous? Does anyone else think he should have gotten the maximum sentence on each of these cases? We can debate whether having a "drinking problem" is a sickness that requires treatment, but there's no debating that on each of the instances when he was arrested, the man in question chose to get behind the wheel of a car, and on one of those occasions, he made the decision to steer his car into other vehicles. I don't care if you down two bottles of Jim Beam nightly in the privacy of your own home. Nothing illegal about that. And I've said before that I think our laws are overly punitive toward people who barely crack the 0.08 limit and haven't done anything else to break the law. But when you choose to get liquored up to the point of being falling-down drunk and get behind the wheel, you should expect severe punishment.