DUI Court Day Offenders waiting in line to pay their fines. (Morning Call photo, Pete Shaheen, photographer)

The Driving Under the Influence Program (DUI) has been operational within Northampton County since it’s inception in 1984.  The program offices are located on the Eastern side of the Northampton County Government complex, within the Criminal Administration Building, which also houses the Adult Probation and Pretrial Services divisions.  The DUI Program employs nine full time persons consisting of the Director, five probation officers and three support staff.  It remains the ongoing goal of this division to maintain a fiscally self-supporting status while playing a leading role within the Criminal Justice community, as well as within the community at large regarding issues of Driving Under the Influence.

    The DUI Program is primarily responsible for the active probation/parole supervision of all DUI offenders sentenced by the Northampton County Court, as well as the courtesy supervision of county residents convicted of DUI offenses outside of Northampton County.  In addition to that supervision, the DUI program administrates two diversionary programs, the first of those programs being ARD (Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition), for first time offenders.  That program allows those qualified first time offenders to complete the State mandatory requirements of a CRN and the Alcohol highway Safety Program in addition to any required counseling, in return for a shortened period of license suspension, waiver of the mandatory minimum prison sentence and the expungement of the criminal charges from the defendant’s criminal record.  On average, the DUI Program screens over 1000 persons per year for consideration in this program with 873 persons having been placed in the program in 2008. The second diversionary program, ASP (Alternative Sentencing Program) is designed for second time offenders but, unlike ARD, does not permit any lesser penalties for that second offense but rather structures the mandatory minimum prison sentence to allow for a period of house arrest with electronic monitoring.  The primary purpose of this program is to allow individuals who would otherwise risk the loss of employment to continue to work while serving their sentences.  During the calendar year 2008 the program supervised 142 individuals within ASP. 

    The DUI Program is currently supervising nearly 2500 individuals, from those currently enrolled in ARD to those persons under parole supervision for first, second third and fourth offenses.  The program generated revenues for the calendar year 2008 in the amount of $900,259.00 while spending only 91% of it’s allocated budget in the amount of $546,554.00, thus posting a net revenue overage of $180,00.00.  Lastly, through the use of electronic monitoring as an alternative to incarceration, savings to the County in reduced prison stay, during 2008, were in excess of $500,000.00.      

Court Divisions & Operations