After someone has been arrested in Athens for underage possession of alcohol, they understandably feel a sense of relief after they've been released from jail. If it feels as if a bad night is finally behind them after the release, they're mistaken: a long legal process has just begun.

An underage possession conviction can mean a year or more spent waiting for arraignment, then serving probation, community service, mandatory classes and dealing with the University's Office of Student Conduct, which disciplines University of Georgia students.

The Athens-Clarke County Solicitor General said that pretrial arrangements for an intervention program can result in dismissal of charges for most first-time offenders.

That pretrial intervention program comes with costs, however: a $200 program fee, a $115 fee for four two-and-a-half hour classes, a $30 per month fee for monitoring, as well as a substance abuse evaluation and 30 hours of community service.

If someone has an additional charge against them -- possession of a fake ID isn't uncommon -- then the whole process gets longer (it can take up to 18 months to complete) and more expensive ($300 program fee) and requires twice as many hours of community service.

The Solicitor General says most people complete the program successfully.

If they do complete it successfully and they don't have any subsequent arrests, they can file to get their record expunged upon turning 21.

"Most people complete it and most people we don't end up seeing again. We're not trying to get the conviction as much as trying to change the behavior."

However, if someone in the pretrial intervention fails a required drug test, they can find themselves back at square one: facing a charge of underage possession to which they must either plead guilty or not guilty.

We'll have more on what happens following an arrest for underage possession of alcohol in our next post.

Source: Red and Black: "What's life like after an alcohol-related arrest," Kathryn Ingall, Nov. 6, 2011