In late June a man was working on his car, or so he says. He wasn’t operating the car, but he was doing something rather strange—he was installing a balloon on his ignition interlock device.

He had already been convicted of Operating While Intoxicated (OWI) five times and the court had ordered the ignition interlock to prevent him from operating his car after a few drinks.

Bright boy that he is, he decided to allow the balloon to blow into the device, and so he attempted to rig the system to allow the balloon to do its job. When the ignition interlock device is installed, the operator must blow into a tube and if they are over the limit, the car will not start.

The police were called by neighbors who saw the man stumbling around in the parking lot of his apartment building. When the police pulled up, the man had the engine running and was holding the balloon. He told the officers that he had been drinking vodka, but refused to allow a breathalyzer test. He also told the police that he had no intention of driving the car.

The police cited him and soon he was standing before a judge. He told his story, and of course he said he was merely working on the car and not trying to circumvent the law.

The judge didn’t buy it. She slapped him hard, with a three-year prison term for his six OWI, and three years of extended supervision when he got out. He was still on parole for that fifth violation when he got caught tinkering with the court-ordered device.

The judge, not amused by the story or the parole violation, ordered the new sentence to be served after the old one was completed, meaning that the man went back to prison to serve the final three years of his first conviction and would then serve the three years of the current conviction. A balloon and a bright idea cost him, in effect, six years.

That seems like a harsh sentence, but consider the rest of the story. The man was working on his car at 9:30 at night, and registered a blood alcohol level of .325. The legal limit is .08, but for those convicted of OWI, that limit is .02. The judge saw through any explanation.

In the newspaper story filed by Mike Johnson for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, the 46 year-old defendant was sternly rebuked by the judge, who scolded, "I know you claim that you only had the car running to charge the battery and that you were working on the vehicle.

But the court doesn't find that to be a credible explanation - for someone to be working on their car in October at 9:30 p.m. You most likely would have been driving it. Most people aren't going to be out drunk working on their car…This is your sixth offense. . . . Unfortunately, it's probably just a matter of time before you end up killing someone or yourself or both. Every day people like you are out on the roadways drunk behind the wheel and somebody ends up dying.”

I share this story because it is just one of so many. People can rationalize anything, but driving while intoxicated is indefensible. Hopefully in the next six years the man will receive treatment and will be able to overcome his disease. Even with the prior convictions, it is obvious that he either did not receive treatment, refused treatment or that any treatment he received was insufficient.

Drying out a person is not treatment, and regardless of the amount of time they spend behind bars, they are still addicted. The man had five prior convictions, which speaks volumes about his condition.

The debate over what to do about drunk drivers wages on in the Wisconsin Legislature. The example of this man ought to be the perfect one for re-examining existing laws and re-writing those laws to ensure that offenders get treatment. Prison is not the answer.

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