Starting January 1, 2021, our office (Dauphin County) will be implementing a new policy for ARD. After a defendant has applied for ARD the standard review process will remain the same. Once approved for ARD they will be scheduled for an ARD admission date 6 months out. In those 6 months, each defendant will be required to complete all of their assigned ARD conditions prior to the admission hearing. We will continue to offer the standard two, 1-month continuances, should more time be necessary.
When scheduling letters are provided, our office will include the required conditions and resources to aid you in directing your clients on where/how conditions can be completed. Once ALL conditions have been completed, documentation should be sent to our ARD coordinators- in a comprehensive packet- to verify successful completion. For DUIs this information should be sent to Miquela, who is cc’d on this email. If a defendant does not complete the required conditions within the 6 month period, (or the following 2 months if continuances are requested), then they will be removed from ARD consideration and ineligible to reapply. Community service is required to be completed at one of the pre-approved locations provided to you unless your client lives out of county/state. Pre-approval is required if your client wishes to complete community service at a non-profit organization not listed in the official information provided.
We moved all cases into July rather than June to give both you and your clients an extra month for all information to be provided due to the upcoming holidays. If all conditions are completed prior to the scheduled admission date please let us know and the defendant may be scheduled and admitted into ARD early. Once admitted the defendant will serve a shortened term of probation, typically half of the standard time, with no early discharge from that probation. They will still be required to check-in and maintain compliance with any probation conditions. For DUIs, the license suspension would be served once officially admitted into ARD. In the long term this should significantly reduce, if not eliminate, revocations- as one of the only reasons for revocation would be incurring new criminal charges.
