When a person is arrested on allegations of Driving Under the Influence in Washington, DC, the first place the police take them is to the local district station. At the local district station, they book and process the person. That means the officers take the person’s fingerprints, ask them to provide a breath sample or possibly urine sample, and the officers decide whether the person can be released. In a DUI case, people are typically automatically released directly from the police station unless they are, at the time of the arrest, on probation or have another pending criminal case.
In the event that the person is on probation or has another pending criminal case then the police, after completing the booking process, take the person to the Central Cell Block where all people who are arrested from different police districts are collected to be brought before the judge the following day.
The person is brought before the judge who has the ability to hold them in jail as a result of their arrest while having another open criminal case. Their lawyer can argue for their release on grounds that the person is not a threat to the community and is not a flight risk, but if someone is arrested for a DUI and does not have any other pending cases and is not on probation, they are usually automatically released from the police station with a citation to appear in court at a later date about three weeks later.