“I had gotten a DUI a week after my 21st birthday in Ocean City, then had a second one here (in Anne Arundel County) when I was visiting my mom,” the 22-year-old Eastern Shore resident said. “I violated my probation, so I landed here.”

He was driving with a 0.14-percent blood-alcohol level when police officers stopped him. District Court Judge Thomas Pryal sent him to jail, but ruled that he could serve the time on the weekends.

It’s a sentencing option popular in Anne Arundel, where about 100 men and women, sometimes more, show up at the county jail in Glen Burnie every weekend to pay their debt to society in 48-hour blocks.

The county has the busiest weekend program in the state, taking in roughly as many inmates each weekend as rural Caroline, Garrett, Kent, Queen Anne’s, Somerset and Talbot counties combined take in each week.

“The philosophy of the weekend program is to get someone’s attention,” said William H. Martin, Jr., the Ordnance Road administrator.

The weekend program began at the Jennifer Road Detention Center in Parole. Officials moved it north about a decade ago because they didn’t feel it was necessary to house weekend inmates in the maximum-security facility, Martin said.

“We had the space and we still do,” he said.

But it still can be a strain on resources when dozens of weekenders flood Ordnance Road every Friday at 6 p.m.

“When you add another 100, 110 individuals — at times, that has caused spillover,” Martin said. “We might have 50 to 60 inmates on cots in the gym areas.”

County Circuit Court Judge Paul Hackner said the weekend program works best on nonviolent offenders facing a jail sentence for the first time.

“Sometimes, you need a little jolt,” Hackner said of weekenders. “Of course, when someone’s already served 18 months in jail or had previous jail time, it (the program) is not something that’s desirable.”

For Myers, a self-employed contractor, a weekends-only sentence sounded like a good deal.

“It allows me to keep my full-time job,” said Myers, adding that he’s learned his lesson and he will never drive drunk again. “My dad was an alcoholic, and I’m really trying not to follow in his footsteps.”

Most of the weekend inmates in the minimum- and medium-security jail are like Myers — behind bars for misdemeanors such as driving under the influence or minor drug violations. And most, like Myers, fear losing their jobs if they go to jail for a few weeks or months.

“Judges think, if you give someone 60 days and take away 30 of their weekends, then they can come in here and still support their mortgage and family,” Martin said.

That was a powerful incentive for Kenneth Lee, 19. The Brooklyn Park man, sent to jail for driving under the influence, has a full-time job and a daughter who will turn 1 year old this month.

“I work all week, so this is the best time for me to do it,” said Lee, wearing the standard-issue orange shirt and green pants that identify him as a weekender.

Weekend inmates pay a one-time fee of $25, $50 or $75, depending on the length of their sentence. Of the 80 weekend inmates at Ordnance Road in late June, only two were serving 90-day sentences.

Linda Shaffernich of Arnold, was sentenced to two weekends at Ordnance Road for her second DUI offense.

“This is a one-time thing,” said Shaffernich, who is in treatment for alcoholism and wears an ankle bracelet to monitor her alcohol intake. “I made a mistake, and I was on the phone with my sponsor that night.”

The weekenders are treated the same as the full-time inmates, with a mandatory 11 p.m. lights out and an 8 a.m. wake-up call. Weekend inmates complain of boredom, with a few gripes about the food thrown in.

How well the weekend program works depends on the inmate, Martin said.

“For the first-time arrestee, it may work,” he said. “For someone who’s already done five or 10 years, it may not. It’s good if it’s used for what it’s intended for.”

Source: The Annapolis Capital