It’s official. The new Arizona DUI law signed by the governor last week will make a first offense extreme DUI conviction carry a mandatory minimum 30 days in jail. Currently, it carried 10 days in jail (30 days with 20 days suspended). After this new law takes effect a Judge will not have any authority to suspend any of the 30 days.

What makes this particularly harsh is that the average first offense DUI that we see in our law firm is probably around a .150, which is the extreme DUI limit.

So now, ordinary citizens, with no criminal history whatsoever, will face the prospect of either submitting to 30 days in jail or fighting to have the charge reduced or dismissed. In places like Tucson and Phoenix, 30 days in jail is no cake walk. The Tucson jail is probably better than the Maricopa County jail, but it would be difficult to argue that either is a plesant place to spend a month of one’s life.