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I lived in rural Alaska (Bethel) for a year working at the PBS station. We did nightly news and in each broadcast we had the PC report ... the number of individuals that were taken into protective custody by the local police each night. These were mostly people that had been found either wandering or passed out in the snow and were taken to jail for the night to avoid them freezing to death by "morning" (sunrise could be as late as 11am in Dec-Jan at that latitude). They would pay a fine (around $70 I think) and be released.

Interestingly, the fine was less than the ~$100/night the two hotels in town charged. I always wondered how many PCs were actually travellers looking for the least expensive bed for the night. Not the most comfortable surely, but relatively cheap.

I'm from Texas originally - even lived in Corpus Christi for a while - and know that us Texans are not used to St. Paul levels of cold. If it was his first winter in that environment I could easily see him making a mistake/bad decision that could have easily cost him his life. And if driving under the influence was that decision it could have easily cost others their lives.

So, Lock Him Up!