Arizona’s New DUI Laws

New laws on Arizona DUIs changed as of January 1, 2012.  One of the biggest changes under the new law relates to incarceration.  Now a judge can allow home detention on a misdemeanor DUI after serving only 20% of the initial jail sentence.  For example, if the jail sentence is normally 30 days for a first-time extreme DUI, then the person would only have to serve 6 days in jail and then could be released to a home detention program to serve the remaining 24 days of the 30 day jail sentence.  Some jurisdictions, however, do not have home detention programs currently in place so this may not apply. Another change in the law increases the maximum work release time from 5 days to 6 days per week. 
The Motor Vehicle Department (MVD) has also changed some of the laws associated DUI offenses.  For a first time regular DUI or extreme DUI, a person may only have to install an ignition interlock device for as little as 6 months (under the old law it was one year).  The MVD also has established new rules that allow drivers to get restricted licenses for some second-time offenders and higher DUI offenses that used to require a revocation.  The new laws only apply to offenses that were committed AFTER the new law went into effect.  The old laws will still apply to DUI offenses committed before January 1, 2012.