How Much Jail Time for a Third DUI in Arizona? ARS 28-1383

How Much Jail Time Do You Get for a Third DUI in Arizona?

A third DUI within 84 months is not jail at all in the statutory sense; it is prison. Under A.R.S. § 28-1383(A)(2), a third or subsequent violation of 28-1381, 28-1382, or 28-1383 within 84 months is aggravated DUI, a Class 4 felony (subsection O). Subsection D then provides that a person convicted of a third DUI with two priors in the window is not eligible for probation, pardon, commutation, or suspension of sentence until they have served not less than four months in prison. That four months is served in the Arizona Department of Corrections, not the county jail, and it is the floor even when the judge grants probation.

Above the floor, the ordinary Class 4 felony range under A.R.S. § 13-702(D) applies: 1 year mitigated, 1.5 minimum, 2.5 presumptive, 3 maximum, 3.75 aggravated. A judge who declines probation sentences within that range. A judge who grants probation still imposes the four months, and probation on a 28-1383 conviction can run up to ten years under A.R.S. § 13-902(B)(2). With three or more priors in the window, the prison floor rises to eight months under subsection E.

The BAC tier of the current offense no longer sets the sentence the way it does on a first or second offense. A third DUI at .09 and a third DUI at .22 are both Class 4 aggravated DUI with the same four-month floor. What the BAC and the other facts do is shape where within the range, and whether probation, the judge lands.

The 84-Month Rule on a Third DUI

The window is measured from offense date to offense date, not conviction to conviction: A.R.S. § 28-1383(B) makes the dates of commission “the determining factor” regardless of the sequence of the offenses. Two more rules in subsection B matter enormously on a third offense. First, time spent incarcerated in any jail or prison, and time on absconder status while on probation, is excluded from the 84 months, so a window that looks closed on the calendar may still be open. Second, convictions arising out of the same series of acts count once, so two counts from one arrest (a 28-1381 count and a 28-1382 count, for example) are one prior, not two.

Any combination of priors qualifies: two standard DUIs, a standard and an extreme, a prior aggravated DUI and a prior standard, or out-of-state convictions that would have violated an Arizona DUI statute. Juvenile adjudications count under A.R.S. § 28-1387(A). The State must allege each prior, and each allegation is contestable, which is why the earlier files matter as much as the current one.

What a Third DUI Looks Like in Court

Because aggravated DUI is a felony, the case is prosecuted by the Maricopa County Attorney in Superior Court, not a city or justice court. That means a felony complaint or grand jury indictment, an initial appearance with release conditions that may include alcohol monitoring and no-driving orders, a preliminary hearing or indictment, and a sentencing hearing where the presentence report and the defense mitigation carry real weight. The four months of prison is fixed, but almost everything else, probation versus a prison range, the length of probation, and any jail as a probation term, is argued.

Probation on a third DUI comes with its own incarceration exposure. Under A.R.S. § 28-1383(H), if a probationer fails to complete the required alcohol screening, education, or treatment, the court may order jail as a term of probation: up to four months at a time and one year total for a D-sentence defendant, and up to eight months at a time and two years total for an E-sentence defendant. Under subsection I, that jail time does not count toward a prison sentence if probation is later revoked. A third-DUI probation is a ten-year exposure with teeth. Our guide to the Maricopa County jail covers custody logistics.

Beyond Prison: Revocation, Interlock, and the Felony Record

On conviction, A.R.S. § 28-1383(J) requires MVD to revoke the driving privilege and bars issuing a new license within one year of the conviction date; reinstatement further requires proof of financial responsibility and completion of screening or treatment under A.R.S. § 28-3319. The interlock runs 24 months under 28-3319(D)(3)(b), and the court may extend it. The financial package is a fine of at least $750, a $250 DUI-abatement assessment, and $1,500 assessments each for prison construction and public-safety equipment, before surcharges, plus screening, treatment, and traffic survival school. And the conviction is a felony: firearm rights, professional licensing, immigration status, and future sentencing all change, which is why the felony designation itself, not the four months, is often the largest cost. See felony DUI defense in Phoenix for the full aggravated-DUI picture.

How a Third DUI Gets Defended

• Attack the priors. The 84-month math, the exclusion of incarceration time, out-of-state equivalence, and the validity of the earlier pleas decide whether this is a felony at all.
• Attack the current case. An unlawful stop, an arrest without probable cause, or a defective blood-draw warrant suppresses the evidence, and a third-DUI enhancement needs a third DUI to enhance. See our top DUI defenses and blood-test challenges.
• Negotiate the classification. Where a prior is genuinely contestable, a plea from aggravated DUI to a misdemeanor second-offense DUI may be on the table, because it trades four months of prison and a felony for a 90-day jail floor. Whether the State will offer it depends on the strength of the priors and the current evidence.
• Build the mitigation. Where the felony holds, treatment already under way, monitored sobriety during the case, employment, and a credible presentence package are what the court weighs between four months with probation and a prison range.

How Tamou Law Group Defends Third DUI Cases

We begin in the old files, because the two priors are the felony, and each is an allegation the State must prove with admissible records, matching elements, and dates that survive the 84-month math. We test the current stop, arrest, and blood evidence in parallel, and where a prior is contestable we pursue a misdemeanor second-offense resolution where the evidence supports one. Where the felony holds, we build the presentence record that supports probation at the four-month floor. Members of the National College for DUI Defense, we handle aggravated DUI cases in Maricopa County Superior Court from the first appearance through sentencing.

Related guides: felony (aggravated) DUI defense in Phoenix, jail time for a second DUI, driving without an interlock as a felony, and our Arizona DUI charges hub. Call 623-321-4699, 24/7.