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Updated Thursday, July 16, 2009 9:47 am TWN, CNA

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Taitung prison overcrowded with drunk drivers: officials

TAITUNG, Taiwan -- Central Taiwan's Taitung Prison has become overcrowded recently because too many inmates found guilty of drunk driving have chosen to do their time behind bars rather than pay fines for their offense, officials from the eastern county said yesterday.

The prison has a capacity to house 345 inmates, but the number of its residents surged to some 500 recently as a result of a surging number of people convicted of drunk driving, prison warden Chen Chin-feng said.

“The convicts chose to be locked up instead of paying fines,” Chen said, adding that the offenders did not have enough money to pay fines.

Officials believe the economic downturn was creating an unusual situation in which offenders preferred to be locked up than to pay a fine and be set free.

The increase in people convicted of drunk driving was also due to Taitung police stepping up enforcement of anti-drunk driving laws in the area, which is notorious in Taiwan for a relatively high incidence of drinking and driving.

In an example of the type of cases the prison has been handling recently, a man surnamed Wang was intercepted by police on the road riding a motorbike on June 24 after he had drunk two glasses of rice wine. His blood alcohol concentration was at 1.64 mg. per liter, far above the legal limit of 0.55 mg.

Wang confessed to prosecutors and negotiated with them for a penalty of incarceration, without being put on probation. He was later handed four months imprisonment.

In another case, a woman surnamed Lin was caught on the night of June 30 driving a motorbike after having drunk four cans of beer. Her blood alcohol concentration was 0.63 mg. per liter and she was referred to the Taitung Prosecutors Office for questioning.

Lin admitted to her wrongdoing and agreed to prosecutors' verdict of 45 days in prison, without probation.

Another drunk driver, surnamed Chen, meanwhile, made a different choice after he was charged with drunk driving. With a blood alcohol level of 0.69 mg., he was given probation, and was required to donate NT$30,000 (US$909) to the Taitung-based Catholic Holy Cross Hospice for the Chronically Ill.

Prison officials said they do not know how long this trend of an increase in the number of people convicted of drunk driving would continue, but that if the prison is unable to handle the rising number of inmates, offenders will be fined without an option of serving time instead.

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