Due to the draconian mandatory sentences involved with a DUI arrest in Pennsylvania, Allegheny County's electronic monitoring program is overwhelmed and cannot keep pace with all the people who have been sentenced to some form of electronic monitoring (house arrest).  This includes around 1,200 first-time DUI offenders who have been sentenced to house arrest. 

A first-time DUI offender sentenced to house arrest is a person who was not eligible for the ARD program and must serve a mandatory jail sentence.  Many times, this jail term can be served as house arrest instead.   However, so many people in Allegheny County are wearing these ankle bracelets, the system cannot keep up.  In fact, it is not unusual to get sentenced for a first or second time DUI and have to wait several months to serve the house arrest sentence because an ankle bracelet and the monitoring equipment are not available at the time of sentencing.

Cue in the Hotel DUI.  This is a 4 day program in which a first-time offender does not have to serve a jail or house arrest sentence.  Instead, Allegheny County plans on renting space in local hotels and first-time offenders will check in for a 4-day stay and receive their alcohol evaluation, complete mandatory classes and start whatever treatment has been ordered for them. 

This is a novel concept and it will be interesting to see if it works.  Of course, all this could be avoided if the words "minimum mandatory" could be removed from DUI offenses and judges could have discretion again in sentencing, but that is a topic for another day.