Anyone know if these are correct? Perhaps, we don't treat DWI seriously enough!

Australia:The names of the drivers are sent to the local newspapers and are printed under the heading "He's Drunk and in Jail".

Malaysia:The Driver is jailed and if married, his wife is jailed too.

South Africa: A 10 year prison sentence and the equivalent of a $10,000.00 fine

Turkey: Drunk drivers are taken 20 miles outside of town by police and are forced to walk back under escort

Norway: Three weeks in jail at hard labor, one year loss of license. Second offense within five years, license revoked for life.

Finland & Sweden Automatic jail for one year of hard labor

Costa Rica: Police remove plates from car

Russia: License revoked for life

England: One year suspension and a $250.00 fine and jail for one year

France: Three year loss of license, one year in jail and a $1000.00 fine

Poland: Jail, fine and forced to attend political lectures

Bulgaria: A second conviction results in execution

El Salvador: Your first offense is your last---execution by firing squad

All those countries sound real tough, but in Texas we make sure offenders can't get deferred. Texas justice!

I kind of like Turkey. Any reason we couldn't make a probationer walk from the bar where he was drinking to his home as a condition of probation? Maybe twice a year? I think that might be rehabilitative in nature.

You know, all of those sound pretty reasonable to me...except Poland. Attending political lectures? Talk about cruel and unusual punishment!

Well, I spent 6 years in England as the head of 2 Air Force legal offices, and a full-time British civil servant worked in my office as our police liaison officer. I can assure you there is no "mandatory" sentence given out to every drunk driver in England. One of the worst aspects of the judicial system in England is its pansy-dansy leniency with almost all criminal offenders. In magistrate's court, the magistrates seemed to apologize for sentencing the hoodlums to miniscule sentences.

I also spent 7 years in Turkey (4 separate assignments) and part of my job was to get our guys out of Turkish police stations and Turkish jails for DWI, traffic accidents, etc. I always had at least one Turkish attorney who was a full-time, US employee. Again, in 7 years, I never heard of a forced 20 mile hike. I won't say it never happened, but if it did, it was an exception.

Probably ran it concurrent with his or her morning PT.

Perhaps the author got the DWI punishment confused with the American thanksgiving pedestrian ritual.

Ok, so the list is probably a figment of someone's imagination but what would you choose as the most appropriate punishment? Of course, the list is not intended to be exhaustive; it's just illustrative of some of the possible options.

Good one! Well Served! JMH

In Alfred Hitchcock's "North by NorthWest" which came out in 1959 (I think) the hero, played by Jimmy Stewart, get's wrongly charged with DWI. He had to pay a fine of $2.50.

Apparently, DWI was not always the Big Deal it is today.

Hey Terry- I finally get to use by Communications Degree- The hero in North by Northwest was Cary Grant not Jimmy Stewart. Great movie by the way!!!