It's a local program earning national acclaim for lowering jail and prison populations. 

The 24/7 program in South Dakota forces people with alcohol-related crimes to blow into a breathalyzer twice a day to prove they're staying sober. 

The program is now up for a national award. But it's not necessarily stopping people from drinking. 

Determined drinkers are beating the system. 

Every morning and every night from 6 to 9, they line up and blow into a breathalyzer. If they fail, they go to jail. If they pass, they head home.

Many judges use the 24/7 Sobriety Program as a bond provision, so that more defendants in alcohol-related crimes can be released from jail. It's also used as another option at sentencing. 

"I like using at as alternative to jail time in cases I think it's a more constructive solution," Magistrate Judge John Hinrichs said.

But Hinrichs knows the program isn't perfect. In his courtroom, he's come across people who cheat the system. 

"You can work the system," an unnamed 24/7 participant said. "You can work the system, still drink, and do you blow in the morning and evening and be fine.

We will call him "George" and hide his identity, so he can speak freely about how he personally abuses the system. 

"I could get off work, I could go home, have a couple regular beers, wait a couple hours, go in there at 6 o'clock, and blow and I would be fine," George said. "Once I got done there, I could go home and have another three, four, five beers and the next morning I would be fine also."

George looked online to figure out just how much alcohol a person his size can dissipate over a period of time. 

"The most I've had on the program is seven or eight beers," George said. "And I could go in seven hours later, and I'd be fine."

And he knows exactly the effect seven or eight beers in one night can have. 

"Matter of fact, when I got caught, that is exactly what I did do," he said.

George says he's learned his lesson and doesn't drink and drive. But he's witnessed others in the 24/7 program who do -- moments after proving they're sober. 

"The minute they go outside, which I've been parked by their vehicles, they're cracking open a cooler and grabbing a beer on the way out," he said.

George is sharing this information, because he believes the public has a squeaky-clean impression of the 24/7 program; a program the Legislature spends hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to fund. 

"It is a deterrent," he said. "It's a small deterrent, but it's not as effective as a lot of people think it is."
 
All that being said, Judge Hinrichs says he knows of the program's benefits and limitations, and he believes the good outweighs the bad. 

"I don't think anyone involved in it is under the illusion we're catching every single person every single day," Hinrichs said. "But every day we do catch some and every day they do appear in court. If we're curbing hardcore drinking, even if we're not eliminating it, if we're curbing, I think there's still some value to that."
 
And Hinrichs believes the most hardcore drinkers can't get away with beating the system forever. Alcohol lessens willpower... and eventually those people screw up and have too much to drink. 

Even George admits he's still nervous blowing into the breathalyzer after a night of drinking. 

But the 24/7 Sobriety Program does not keep him sober.
 
"I don't want to take away from the people who thought of this and implemented it, but it's not as effective as what they think it is, because you can work the system, no problem. With no problem at all," George says.

Henrichs says if people have to calculate how much they can drink and still beat the system, then the 24/7 program is effective in cutting down on reckless drinking. 

Both Henrichs and George agree it would be too difficult to force people on the program to take the breath test more than the current twice a day.