Possibility of Jail Time For a Salisbury DUI Charge

In Salisbury, if someone is arrested for a DUI charge, they can expect that they will be taken to central booking. In Salisbury, central booking is actually located in the same building as the Wicomico County detention center, which is located on 411 Naylor Mill Road in Salisbury. It used to be that each separate police agency had their own process for booking somebody so depending on whether someone was arrested by a city police officer, a county deputy, or a Maryland trooper, they would each be responsible for the booking process which would include photographing that individual, fingerprinting them and getting vital information about them like date of birth, etc.

Now however, there is a Central Booking which processes all these arrests. Therefore, if someone is arrested, they are taken to Central Booking and it is there that they will be processed. Central Booking also looks into a background check to see what, if any, prior arrest or record a person might have. A person going through booking should consult with a Salisbury DUI attorney as soon as the opportunity arises, in order to secure release if necessary, and start building a defense.

Difference Between Central Booking and Jail

Central booking and the jail are two separate entities. The jail in Salisbury is Wicomico County Detention Center, and that is the facility where a person would be detained pending trial if they have not posted bond. The jail is also the place where they would go to serve a sentence if that sentence is 18 months or less.

Central booking is located in the same place as a jail but it is not the same thing. Central booking is a place where the whole booking process takes place, but it is not a detainment facility. The only reason someone would be detained is if they were seen by a commissioner and the commissioner decided that they needed to post a bond in order to be released.

It is important to realize that if someone is arrested and they go to central booking, that process can take several hours. It may take several hours to even be seen to start the booking process so depending on how many other people are there, and how busy central booking is, an individual could be there for several hours and a lot of times they will be held in a detention or a holding cell in central booking.

Jail Related Penalties for DUI

A person can absolutely go to jail for a DUI in Salisbury. Typically speaking, if it is their first DUI offense and they have a completely clean driving record, then they probably would not go to jail. However, if it is a second DUI offense or if they have been previously convicted of other serious traffic offenses, it is very possible that they can go to jail.

For a DUI in Maryland, the maximum penalty is a year in jail and a $1,000 fine. That does not mean that they actually get one year in jail, but if they get sentenced for a second DUI, the judges in Salisbury could give them anything from 10 days to 30 days and that would not be considered an unreasonable sentence for a second DUI.

Mandatory Minimums

A mandatory minimum does mean the judge has to send somebody to jail, but it really depends on how the statute is written. There are some mandatory minimums that actually allow a judge discretion and then there are other mandatory minimum statutes that, based on the way they are written, specifically state that the judge may not suspend any portion of the mandatory minimum sentence and with that language, the judge really has zero discretion and would have to give somebody a mandatory minimum sentence, based on whatever the mandatory minimum is prescribed by statute.

There are a couple of mandatory minimum sentences for DUIs in Maryland. For example, if someone was convicted of a DUI and within five years of receiving that conviction, they are convicted of another DUI, the statute requires a mandatory minimum sentence of five days. A mandatory minimum also occurs if they have been convicted for a DUI three times within a five-year period.

It is also important to point out that – under the statutes in Maryland – a minimum mandatory sentence can include participating in an in-patient treatment. So if someone is going into an in-patient treatment, then the time that they are there can count towards that mandatory minimum sentence.