A second DUI in CT, if it falls within ten years of your prior conviction, is a felony. You face a mandatory minimum of 120 consecutive days in jail, fines between $1,000 and $4,000, a court-ordered license suspension, a separate DMV administrative suspension tied to your arrest, and a three-year ignition interlock requirement once you get back on the road.1Justia Law. Connecticut Code Title 14 – Section 14-227a The consequences stack well beyond the courtroom, and they begin before your case is resolved.
Jail Time, Fines, and Probation
Connecticut General Statutes Section 14-227a sets the criminal penalties. The 120-day mandatory minimum cannot be suspended or reduced for any reason. A judge can impose up to two years total, and in practice many sentences run the full two years with everything beyond the 120 days suspended and placed on probation. Violating probation can send you back to serve the rest.1Justia Law. Connecticut Code Title 14 – Section 14-227a
Fines run from $1,000 to $4,000, with court fees and surcharges adding several hundred dollars on top. Because the maximum possible sentence exceeds one year, the conviction is a felony, and that classification drives several of the collateral consequences below.
Probation comes with a required 100 hours of community service.1Justia Law. Connecticut Code Title 14 – Section 14-227a You will also be ordered into a substance abuse assessment and whatever treatment follows from it.
Two Separate License Suspensions
Connecticut runs two independent suspension tracks after a DUI arrest. One comes from the court after conviction. The other comes from the DMV and is triggered by the arrest itself, based on what happened at the traffic stop. They overlap but they are not the same thing.
Court Suspension After Conviction
When the court enters the conviction, your license is suspended for 45 days. You cannot drive at all during that window. Once the 45 days are up, you become eligible to restore driving privileges by installing an ignition interlock device, even if the DMV administrative suspension is still running.2CT.gov. Driving Under the Influence: Laws and Penalties
DMV Administrative Suspension
The DMV suspension is triggered by your test result or refusal at the time of arrest, not by the court case. On a second offense, a BAC of .08 or higher produces a nine-month suspension; a BAC of .16 or higher produces ten months; refusing the test produces a one-year suspension.3Justia Law. Connecticut Code Title 14 – Section 14-227b In most cases the mandatory 45-day no-driving period begins 30 days after your arrest date.2CT.gov. Driving Under the Influence: Laws and Penalties
The practical result: you lose driving entirely for 45 days, then you can drive again with an interlock installed, but the DMV suspension stays on your record for its full term.
Three Years With an Ignition Interlock
After the 45-day hard suspension, the DMV will not restore your license until you install an ignition interlock device on every vehicle you own or drive.1Justia Law. Connecticut Code Title 14 – Section 14-227a The device is a breathalyzer wired into the ignition that blocks the engine from starting if it detects alcohol, and it prompts random retests while you drive.
For a second conviction, the interlock stays on for three years.2CT.gov. Driving Under the Influence: Laws and Penalties During the first of those three years, your driving is restricted to travel between home and work, school, a substance abuse treatment program, an interlock service center, or a probation appointment.1Justia Law. Connecticut Code Title 14 – Section 14-227a After the first year, the destination limits lift, but the device stays installed for the remaining two years.
You pay all costs. One major Connecticut interlock vendor quotes roughly $3.50 per day, which runs over $100 per month, and the DMV charges a $100 IID administration fee.4CT.gov. Connecticut Ignition Interlock Device IID Program Across the full three years, the interlock alone can run past $4,000.
Substance Abuse Evaluation and Treatment
Probation includes a mandatory substance abuse assessment conducted through the Court Support Services Division of the Judicial Branch.1Justia Law. Connecticut Code Title 14 – Section 14-227a A clinician measures the severity of any dependency, and the court orders treatment based on that result. That can mean outpatient counseling or something more intensive involving multiple sessions a week over several months. Failing to complete it is a probation violation, which gives the judge authority to activate the suspended portion of your original sentence.
Reinstatement Fees and Insurance
Getting a license back costs more than just the interlock. The DMV charges a $175 restoration fee on top of the $100 IID administration fee.4CT.gov. Connecticut Ignition Interlock Device IID Program Connecticut also requires you to file an SR-22 certificate of financial responsibility, which your insurer submits to confirm you carry at least the state minimum coverage. The SR-22 typically has to stay in place for three years, and repeat offenses can extend that to five. Not every insurer writes SR-22 policies, so you may need to switch carriers.
The bigger ongoing cost is the premium itself. A Connecticut DUI conviction raises average annual auto insurance by roughly $2,600, and a second offense usually brings even steeper surcharges that can double or triple what you were paying before.
Felony Collateral Consequences
Because a second conviction is a felony, it carries consequences that reach past driving.
Firearms
Federal law prohibits anyone convicted of a crime punishable by more than one year in prison from possessing, purchasing, or transporting firearms or ammunition.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 922 – Unlawful Acts A second Connecticut DUI clears that threshold because it carries up to two years. The prohibition is federal and applies regardless of state law. Violating it is a separate federal felony.
Commercial Driver’s License
If you hold a CDL, federal regulations require a lifetime CDL disqualification on a second DUI, whether you were driving a commercial vehicle or your personal car at the time of the offense.6eCFR. 49 CFR 383.51 – Disqualification of Drivers Some states permit reinstatement after ten years, but that is discretionary.
Immigration
A DUI is not automatically a deportable offense, but a second conviction creates real exposure for non-citizens. Federal immigration law allows a finding of inadmissibility when someone has two or more convictions of any type with combined sentences, including suspended time, totaling five years or more. A two-year second-DUI sentence combined with a prior can cross that line. Separately, two or more DUI convictions within ten years trigger a mandatory panel-physician evaluation during any green card application to assess whether the applicant has an alcohol-related disorder posing a current risk. A non-citizen facing a second charge should talk to an immigration attorney before accepting any plea.
The Ten-Year Lookback
Whether all of this applies depends on timing. Connecticut uses a ten-year lookback measured from the date of the prior conviction, not the date of the prior arrest.1Justia Law. Connecticut Code Title 14 – Section 14-227a If your prior conviction is more than ten years old, the current charge is treated as a first offense: lower fines, no mandatory minimum jail time, and a shorter interlock period. If it falls inside that window, every penalty above applies in full.