PARAGOULD -- Beginning Saturday morning, those in Paragould and Greene County who are caught driving while intoxicated will be facing stricter penalties in Greene County District Court.

According to District Judge Daniel Stidham, the number of DWI cases in Greene County has risen dramatically over the last year. The judge said that one reason behind the increase is that Paragould and Greene County continue to experience a tremendous growth in population.

He also attributed the increase to the blood alcohol limit being changed by the Arkansas Legislature from .10 to .08.

Stidham said that the city of Paragould participates in the STEP program which means that there is more DWI enforcement on the streets.

"In fact, one officer does nothing but DWI enforcement," Stidham said.

The city of Paragould has hired about 12 new police officers, according to Stidham, "which means there are 12 more ticket books out there, and we are doing better at actually catching DWI offenders. The city of Oak Grove has its own officer now. So in addition to city, county and state police officers, we have the Oak Grove officer, and because of that, we are seeing a pretty dramatic increase in first-offense DWI cases."

Stidham said that, while DWI cases have doubled within the year, traffic cases have doubled as well.

"The reason you have is because you now have 12 police officers on the street. It is almost like the Paragould Police Department has doubled their strength," Stidham said.

Stidham feels that, due of these factors and based upon discussion he has had, there needed to be a change in how these offenders are penalized.

"In discussions I have had with city attorney Randy Philhours, members of the Bar Association and law enforcement, and the public defenders office, we decided we needed to look at what our standard DWI dispositions were in district court and compare that to what a jury in Greene County does on a DWI case."

Stidham said that very few cases are ever appealed to Circuit Court, but when they are, juries have been quite harsh in dealing with DWI defendants.

"I would check with other judges around the state and kind of get a feel for what their standard sentencing looked like, and what we have decided to do is change things ... Beginning Nov. 1, people who get arrested for DWI in Greene County will be facing stiffer penalties if they are convicted," Stidham stressed.

In the past, the standard disposition for a DWI has been 30 days in jail with 29 of those days suspended.

"You could do 24 hours of public service work in lieu of the 24 hours you would spend in jail," he added.

But beginning Saturday, public service work will no longer replace the jail term. People who are found guilty of, or plead guilty to, first-offense DWI will be spending at least the first 24 hours of their 30-day sentence in jail.

If they fail to complete the other terms of their suspended jail sentence, then they will have to serve the other 29 days in jail.

"Another part of the standard disposition will be 40 hours of public service work which is to be completed within 90 days of their sentence," Stidham said. "The minimum fine has been raised to $800. The DWI school, victim impact panel and counseling will stay the way it has been."

State law requires that each person convicted of DWI go through the state sanctioned DWI school.

"I felt that when I took office, we needed a little more," Stidham said. "This is certainly not a criticism of DWI school, but I felt like we need something, so I asked the probation office to come up with a alcohol training seminar that sort of added a little more to the package and made people understand just how serious a crime DWI really is."

Public service work is done through the probation office.

"It's done through places around the town, and the workers are placed where there is the most need," Stidham said. "We are always needing places for people to do public service work. We always have people do public service at the Loose Caboose festival. We are always looking for new avenues for this."

Victim impact panel is conducted by Jimmie Taylor, of Bay, whose daughter was killed by a drunk driver, who also happened to be an off-duty police officer.

"She has a picture of her daughter there, and she has a program that she puts on, and you are literally in tears by the time this is over. If you are not moved by this, there must be something wrong with you," Stidham said.

The judge stressed, "It had a tremendous impact on me, and this is why I continue to send people to it. It really has a chilling effect. It's a sad and horrible story, but people need to know that, when they drink alcohol and get behind the wheel of the car, there is a lot more to it than the possibility of going to jail."

Stidham said that a drunk driver can take someone's life away.

"When this happens, they face felony manslaughter or vehicular homicide." he said. "It's a lot more serious than DWI."

With second-offense DWI, the statutory minimum has been seven days in jail, but will be increased to 30 days.

On a third-offense DWI, the jail sentence will increase from six months to nine months jail time.

"Third-offense DWI's are pretty rare," Stidham said. "I can probably count the number of these I have seen during my tenure on both hands."

Stidham hopes that these new penalties for DWI will help deter anyone who has had a few too-many drinks from getting behind the wheel.

"I want people to realize we are not going to tolerate this," Stidham said.