ARTICLES
- After conviction, when will I go to jail?
- Do I have to list a conviction for DUI when I'm filling out an employment application?
If I get convicted of DUI and have to go to jail, do I have to go immediately, or can I schedule it when it's more convenient for me – or when the weather is not as hot?
In Arizona, if you are convicted of DUI, you will have to serve at least 24 consecutive hours in jail unless you were initially arrested and already served those hours. If you are convicted of having an alcohol concentration of .15 or higher (Extreme DUI), or convicted with a prior DUI conviction within the past 84 months, you will have to serve at least 30 days and possibly much more.
I do not know any judges who will make you go to jail immediately to serve your time. Most will allow you to self-surrender at a date and time you choose. Many judges will require that self-surrender date to occur within 30 days of being convicted. Others, with good reason, will allow you to extend it out further. If you are serving jail time in Maricopa County, and want work release, then that time will have to be served in Tent City outdoors. And yes, some judges will allow people to wait until the desert summer has passed to serve their time. It does depend on the judge.
The law allows and almost all judges will allow a person on a misdemeanor DUI to get work release. The law limits the release in DUI cases to 5 days per week and 12 hours per day and the person generally must serve either 24 or 48 hours before the release begins. Also, some jurisdictions will allow a person to serve the remainder of their sentence on home detention with alcohol monitoring after 15 actual days in jail have been served.
Do I have to list a conviction for an Arizona DUI when I'm filling out an employment application and they ask if I've ever been convicted of a crime?
It all depends on the wording of the question and exactly what you were convicted of. In most cases, an employer is only concerned with felony convictions. In Arizona, a DUI is generally a misdemeanor, unless you were convicted of Aggravated DUI or some other felony charge such as Aggravated Assault, Endangerment or Manslaughter. (Extreme DUI or even Super Extreme DUI are not felonies.) Therefore, if the application asks if you were convicted of a felony, and your conviction was not for Aggravated DUI or another felony, the honest answer is "no."
Even if the honest answer to the question is "no," you may consider, at some point during the interview process, disclosing the DUI conviction. For many jobs, the company will perform a background check. Although you may have honestly answered the question "no," they can easily discover the DUI conviction.
If the application asks if you have even been convicted of any crime or any misdemeanor, the only honest answer is "yes." This is true even if the conviction has since been set aside, as there is no expungement of the conviction in Arizona and therefore you are still considered convicted.
