AUGUSTA – Repeat drunken drivers will face up to five years in prison under a measure approved by lawmakers in the closing hours of the session and signed by Gov. John Baldacci.

“While we have made great progress in getting repeat offenders off the road, there are some that just need to be put in jail,” Sen. Elizabeth Mitchell, D-Vassalboro, said recently. She sponsored the measure for the Maine Prosecutors Association.

The new law, which will take effect this fall, elevates to a Class C crime the third OUI offense that occurs within a 10-year period. That is in addition to a minimum, mandatory fine of $1,100 and a minimum mandatory jail sentence of 30 days.

A judge also is required to suspend the right of the person to register a motor vehicle and suspend the convicted individual’s driver’s license for four years.

“We saw a lot of third offenders over the last 10 years,” said Everett Fowle, district attorney for Kennebec and Somerset counties. He is the president of the Maine Prosecutors Association.

“When you look back over their driving records, you find they have had two or three or more offenses, some going back to when they first got their licenses. To the extent we can lock them up in prison, they are not going to be out driving drunk,” he said.

Fowle said prosecutors wanted to increase the penalties to make sure judges can “lock away” the repeat drunken driver. He said repeat offenders often ignore the license suspension and continue to drive, and the public needs protection from such individuals.

Mitchell said repeat drunken drivers need to be treated differently from first or even second offenders. She said the public should not have to worry whether the person who passes them on the highway as they go to work is a repeat drunken driver.

“It’s like the three strikes and you’re out laws in some states,” she said. “This is such a serious matter that there is the hope that someone that has a drinking problem will seek assistance or give their keys to someone else.”

While both Mitchell and Fowle believe the increased penalty will have a deterrent effect, Public Safety Commissioner Michael Cantara is not as sure. He was the district attorney in York County for several years before becoming commissioner and said he saw many cases where people addicted to alcohol or other drugs could not overcome that addiction even when faced with harsh penalties.

“With addicted behavior, the compulsion to drink and drive or use drugs and drive may be so strong, the deterrent effect may not be enough,” he said. “For most people it would, but for those addicted it may not affect their behavior.”

Cantara said the state has seen “great strides” in dealing with OUI over the last 20 years, but the problem of the repeat offender continues. He said education and prevention programs work with most people but not those addicted to some substance.

Fowle said there may be some individuals who will not be deterred by the threat of increased penalties, and that is why he wants them locked up so they can’t hurt anyone.

“They are the ones who have just been driving drunk, and nothing has deterred them,” he said. “The only way we can make sure they are off the roads is to lock them up.”

Mitchell said there are far too many newspaper headlines and news reports about repeat drunken drivers. For example, last week Jeffrey Harvey, 44, of Etna was found guilty in Penobscot County Superior Court of driving under the influence in an accident last year that permanently injured a Carmel motorcyclist.

Harvey was convicted of OUI in 1987 for an accident on the same stretch of road in which four people from Lincoln were killed. He was acquitted of vehicular manslaughter in that case and sentenced to 11 months in jail. Harvey’s record also includes OUI convictions from 1992 and 1996

Also last week, Daniel Asselin, 37, of Bangor had his trial for an alleged May 2004 OUI delayed when he asked for more time to find a new lawyer. A breath test administered after his arrest showed his blood alcohol content was 0.29 percent, nearly four times the legal limit.

In 1996, Asselin was driving with a blood alcohol content of 0.21 percent when he struck and fatally injured Mark Blanchette, 18, of Lewiston on Webster Street in Lewiston. Blanchette died of his injuries the next day.

“We have to get these repeat drunk drivers off the road,” Mitchell said. “Hopefully, this new law will help.”