Reader: DUI penalties are too harsh

We recently posted about a call by Mothers Against Drunk Driving to support a bill creating a felony DUI law in Colorado; the initiative failed yesterday. Readers were split on whether the measure was a good idea or not, with some arguing for harsh punishment and others decrying the current...

By Michael Roberts

May 7, 2014

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We recently posted about a call by Mothers Against Drunk Driving to support a bill creating a felony DUI law in Colorado; the initiative failed yesterday. Readers were split on whether the measure was a good idea or not, with some arguing for harsh punishment and others decrying the current system. This reader falls into the latter camp.

Whitney Thrasher writes:

The penalties are already too harsh. I'm still on probation from a DUI I got in 8/12 and I refused all tests. The thing is, alcohol is legal, but the penalties are worse for DUIs than child rapists, etc. If you have to serve jail time for a DUI there is no good time, you don't get off UAs early and they will not let you off probation early either. The mission of the probation offices basically states, they want to help rehabilitate you and make sure you do well, but really they look for every excuse to try and hold you down. Luckily I got a human being for mine, the ones before were just robots enforcing ridiculous laws and lying to my face.

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Michael Roberts began his career with Westword in 1990 as music editor. In 1999, he took on a new role, full-time media reporter, as author of a column called The Message. In 2008, he became the lead writer for Westword's news blog, The Latest Word, a position he held until January 2023. Michael continues to freelance for Westword, covering everything from business to sports and the media; he also contributes to Jazziz, a national music magazine. He holds a bachelor's degree from what is now Colorado Mesa University and master's degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles, and Northwestern University.

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