Several years ago, the Tennessee state legislature enacted a law that allows you to do some of your jail time rather than in jail. You can do up to 20 days; get 20 days of jail credit for every 20 days of inpatient treatment. Also, you can do intensive outpatient treatment for up to 20 days as well. That would entail of classes over a period of time and for every nine hours of class, you would get one-day jail credit. That same holds true for a DUI third offense that if you seek inpatient treatment to intensive outpatient treatment you can knock off a substantial part of your jail sentence.
One of the things that I like to do on a multiple case is to get an alcohol assessment right off the bat before we go to court to determine what's going on. And if the recommendation, if the assessment recommends treatment then we do that. It's a powerful tool with the DA and it's also a powerful tool to minimize the punishment.
