Press Release for report Suspending Common Sense in Massachusetts: Driver's license suspensions for drug offenses unrelated to driving
May 14, 2014
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 14, 2014
Contact:
Leah Sakala
(413) 527-0845
Easthampton, MA — Every year the state of Massachusetts needlessly suspends the driver’s licenses of thousands of the state’s residents, charges a new report by the Prison Policy Initiative. The report, Suspending Common Sense in Massachusetts: Driver’s license suspensions for drug offenses unrelated to driving, explains that a state law from the late 1980’s automatically suspends the driver’s licenses of anyone convicted of a drug offense, even if the offense had nothing to do with operating a vehicle or road safety.
“After more than two decades, the evidence is in. Using the Registry of Motor Vehicles to punish drug offenders is neither smart drug policy nor good for road safety”, said report author Leah Sakala, a policy analyst at the Easthampton-based non-profit Prison Policy Initiative.
The Massachusetts legislature is currently considering a bill, H3099/S1643, that would end the practice of suspending driver’s licenses for unrelated drug offenses.
“Mandating license suspensions for those facing drug possession charges not stemming from any involvement with a motor vehicle is ineffective and counterproductive,” said bill sponsor Representative Liz Malia. “We must move away from policy creating collateral consequences that form barriers to successful reentry and access to treatment and recovery.”
“Both at the state and federal level we are seeing an increasing embrace of not just being tough on crime, but smart on crime,” bill sponsor Senator Harriette Chandler stated. “Unduly burdening folks trying to turn their lives around with a license suspension and subsequent draconian reinstatement fee is not smart, and is in fact counterproductive.”
Mike Earielo, a volunteer with the Worcester community organizing group EPOCA, said, “We want people coming out of jail to change their ways, but then laws like this one make it nearly impossible for guys like me. I have a serious disability due to a cyst on my spine, and there’s no way I can come up with $1,500 to reinstate my driver’s license. Stop holding me back and watch what I can do!”
The Prison Policy Initiative report explains that both law enforcement officials and organizations such as the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators have publicly opposed the practice of suspending driver’s licenses for reasons unrelated to driving, pointing to the enormous fiscal and administrative burden associated with enforcement.
The report reviews the inefficacy of the current policy, tallies the unanticipated side effects, and calls for Massachusetts to join more than 33 other states in opting out of this shortsighted policy.
Ms. Sakala will present her findings at a legislative briefing in support of H3099/S1643, sponsored by Sen. Harriette Chandler Rep. Liz Malia, at the Massachusetts State House on Wednesday May 14 at 2:30 PM. The report, Suspending Common Sense in Massachusetts, will also be made available after the briefing at http://www.prisonpolicy.org/driving/.
-30-
This Mother's day, hundreds of thousands of kids won't be able to call their mothers, and if Mom calls them, those kids are going to have a hard time paying for the call if she calls them.
by Peter Wagner,
May 9, 2014
This Mother’s day, hundreds of thousands of kids won’t be able to call their mothers, and if Mom calls them, those kids are going to have a hard time paying for the call if she calls them. Incarcerated mothers — and most incarcerated women are parents of children — can’t receive phone calls but instead need to do the calling.
Who calls who wouldn’t be important if incarcerated moms could choose between an unlimited long distance plan and free Skype like most people do. Instead, incarcerated mothers have to use the monopoly vendor selected by their prison or jail; and the prison or jail generally selects the company that offers the highest kickback commission from the call.
You can see where this is going. The calls are expensive. The “good” news is that the Federal Communications Commission recently capped the maximum rate that can be charged for an interstate call at 21 or 25cents a minute. (Yes, people in prison live in a world where they might be lucky to make 25cents an hour from their job in the prison and where they celebrate the federal government lowering the cost of a call from $1/minute to 25cents.) But about 80% of kids with incarcerated parents won’t benefit from those new price caps because most calls home from prison are in-state calls not subject to the new price caps.
We need to work together to ensure that this is the last Mothers Day where families need to choose between putting food on the table and telling Mom how much she is missed and loved.
Sourcing: The Bureau of Justice Statistics report Parents in Prison and Their Minor Children is a goldmine of information about incarcerated parents and their minor children in state and federal prison, including detail about frequency of visits and other contact, that most they lived together with their kids when they were arrested, etc. Regarding the use of “hundreds of thousands” in this post, the BJS report says that in 2007, there were 131,000 minor children who had a mother in state prison, 16,400 who had a mother in state prison. Not included in that study were jails, which are an important but often overlooked 30% of the mass incarceration pie.
by Peter Wagner,
May 5, 2014
I was saddened to learn that my friend and colleague James Kilgore, a scholar and writer on race and justice issues, was the subject of a series of attack pieces focused on his decades-old criminal record from the 1970s. I was shocked, however, when shortly thereafter the University of Illinois suddenly refused to renew Mr. Kilgore’s contract as a lecturer in the Department of Global Studies despite his stellar performance reviews by faculty and students alike.
The University of Illinois was fully aware of Mr. Kilgore’s history during the hiring process, and has greatly benefited from Mr. Kilgore’s scholarship for more than three years. As a petition signed by more than 300 University of Illinois faculty members states, the decision to not renew Mr. Kilgore’s contract,
…represents a serious blow to academic freedom and employment equity. The University should not base employment decisions on outside political pressure. Furthermore, faculty and staff contracts should be renewed based on performance and programmatic needs, not on a person’s political or criminal background.
We submitted our own letter to Chancellor Phyllis Wise urging her to renew Mr. Kilgore’s contract. Please add your voice to the call by signing the petition on change.org.
More than 3,300 people have liked the graphic on Facebook and more than 1,100 people around the world have tweeted about the graphic on Twitter.
by Sadie Gold-Shapiro,
May 5, 2014
In preparation for this year’s Pi Day (3/14), Prison Policy Initiative released the report “Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie,” which features a graphic that answers the question “How many people are locked up in the United States?” The response has been overwhelming; to date, more than 3,300 people have liked the graphic on Facebook and more than 1,100 people around the world have tweeted about it on Twitter.
The graphic is the first of its kind to compile data from multiple sources in order to give an accurate count of the current incarcerated population of the United States. As Sara Mayeux, creator of the Prison Law Blog, tweets:
Rebecca McCray, a criminal justice writer and former ACLU staff member tweets:
Continue reading →
Among the findings is that "the evidence of political inequities in redistricting due to the way the U.S. Census Bureau counts prisoners is 'compelling'"
by Leah Sakala,
May 2, 2014
This week the National Research Council of the National Academies released a major report, The Growth of Incarceration in the United States: Exploring Causes and Consequences. The report was released by the Committee on Causes and Consequences of High Rates of Incarceration —which includes PPI board member and Temple University Professor Heather Thompson — and offers wealth of information in a comprehensive
summary of what is known today about the sources of the rise of incarceration in the United States; how it has affected people, communities, and society; and the implications of that knowledge for public policies determining future rates of incarceration. (p. 18)
We’re particularly excited to see that the report’s section on “Wider Consequences for U.S. Society” repeated the National Research Council’s previous conclusion that prison gerrymandering is a concern: “The evidence of political inequities in redistricting due to the way the U.S. Census Bureau counts prisoners is ‘compelling'” (p. 310).
Interested in joining the Prison Policy Initiative team? Now's your chance, because we're hiring!
by Peter Wagner,
May 1, 2014
Are you interested in joining our dedicated team to produce cutting edge research to expose the broader harm of mass criminalization? Do you want to spark creative advocacy campaigns to create a more just society?
If so, our new employment opportunity Policy & Communications Associate might be for you. Please spread the word, and if you think the position is for you, please apply.
Leah Sakala will be attending graduate school at Brandeis, and we are hiring a Policy and Communications Associate.
by Peter Wagner,
April 29, 2014
I am pleased to announce that a long-time member of the PPI team, Policy Analyst Leah Sakala, will be this fall attending the Masters of Public Policy Program at Brandeis University. Leah has worked full time with PPI for three years, and prior to that, another three years part-time while she was an undergraduate at Smith College.
PPI has grown by leaps and bounds since Leah first joined us in 2008. She’s helped us develop new ways to explain our work, new ways to share our findings and helped us tackle new issues. Much of Leah’s work has been transformative behind the scenes, but she’s most well known for some of her reports. She is the author of Return to Sender: Postcard-only Mail Policies in Jail, which the National Institute of Corrections called “required reading for policy makers and anyone working with individuals in jail custody.” She also co-authored Reaching too far, coming up short: How large sentencing enhancement zones miss the mark, Please Deposit All of Your Money: Kickbacks, Rates, and Hidden Fees in the Jail Phone Industry, and Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie.
She’ll remain full-time with us through June 20th, and after taking some much deserved time off and starting her new graduate school program, she’ll be returning this fall to us one day a week as a Senior Policy Analyst.
And yes, since Leah will no longer be working full time at the Prison Policy Initiative, there is a new employment opportunity opening up. We’ve posted an opening for a Policy & Communications Associate. Please spread the word, and if you think the position is for you, please apply.
In the mean time, please congratulate Leah on her next steps at Brandeis!
Bill H.1434 proposes to build a whole new "Women's Pretrial Facility." More jail cells should never be the first response to overcrowding problems.
by Leah Sakala,
April 25, 2014
Yesterday we submitted testimony in opposition of Massachusetts bill H.1434, which would build a new jail in Middlesex County specifically for women who are awaiting trial and thus haven’t been convicted.
It’s true that we’re facing some pretty serious overcrowding problems here in Massachusetts, and that continuing to cram more women into MCI Framingham is by no means a solution. But throwing taxpayer money into building new jail cells for women who are just waiting for their trial dates isn’t a smart or sustainable solution either. As we explained to the Joint Committee on The Judiciary:
Many people who are in pretrial detention are incarcerated only because they lack sufficient funds to pay their own bail fees, which are sometimes as little as $500. It would irresponsible and misguided for the Legislature to invest millions of Massachusetts taxpayers’ dollars in constructing a facility that is designed to confine women who simply cannot afford to buy their freedom while they await trial.
We know that reforming our bail and sentencing policies, relying on already-existing methods of reducing the number of people in jail, and investing in community services would all be a far more healthy, humane, and efficient ways to solve the overcrowding problem.
If you are a Massachusetts resident and want to weigh in on jail expansion in our state, you can contact your legislator, too.
"I am treated as a fellow colleague, and my experience at PPI has helped me to gain an in-depth understanding of the latest issues affecting the U.S. criminal justice system."
by Yoo Eun Kim,
April 24, 2014
I am currently a sophomore at Smith College, pursuing a major in economics and a minor in religion, and I’ve been a work-study Research Associate at PPI since December 2013. Throughout my academic career, public service has allowed me to understand and combat social ills. By working in the White House and Key Club International, I was able to broaden my perspective regarding social advocacy. Interacting with American citizens and service leaders and hearing their concerns about social and economic disparities motivated me to improve the wellbeing of underserved populations. So when my friend talked about Prison Policy Initiative, I became interested in prison gerrymandering and wanted to help the members of socially marginalized groups affected by mass incarceration. I applied to be one of the Prison Policy Initiative’s work-study Research Associates; few weeks after my submission, I received an invitation to work at the organization’s Easthampton office.
As a Research Associate, I have handled multiple projects. One of my first assignments was using Google Earth and Google Maps to crosscheck the data in the Prison Policy Initiative’s Locator database with the information provided by the United States Census. Following fellow intern Catie‘s departure, I have led the state legislator outreach project in order to identify state legislators who have sponsored bills that aligned with PPI’s mission. Other projects have included helping with PPI outreach mailings, conducting research on district school boards, assisting with informational video filming, and of course, recording my experience in PPI!
I highly admire PPI because the organization provides a lot of opportunities for its work-study students and holds high expectations. When I come to work, there is something productive to do. I don’t make coffee or push pencils. I am treated as a fellow colleague, and my experience at PPI has helped me to gain an in-depth understanding of the latest issues affecting the U.S. criminal justice system, such as sentencing enhancement zones. Another memorable experience was learning about the ways that prisons and jails restrict incarcerated people’s communication with their loved ones. Prisons and jails overcharge phone calls to receive higher commission rates, and jails also limit incarcerated people’s access to letters – actions that hinder an incarcerated person’s wellbeing during and even after his or her release.
Learning about the lack of socioeconomic mobility and opportunities for oppressed groups made me realize the significant effects of mass incarceration on both individual and national welfare. At PPI, Peter, Leah, and Aleks encourage interns to read articles, see presentations, and borrow books that focus on mass incarceration. After analyzing graphs and reading books written by prisoners, I became even more aware of how many people, especially those of color, are often marginalized by our society.
My work here helps strengthen my analytical and communication skills to inform the public about current U.S. criminal justice policy. Working in PPI will not only equip me with the resources and knowledge to become a steward of change, but also understand the current strategies for creating lasting and sustainable improvement in the American criminal justice system.
Heather's nominated article reveals the many ways that our nation's unprecedented use of incarceration has distorted our political landscape.
by Leah Sakala,
April 16, 2014
We are thrilled to announce that historian and Prison Policy Initiative board member Heather Thompson has been chosen by the National Council on Crime and Delinquency as a 2014 Media for a Just Society Award Finalist for her fantastic piece in The Atlantic, “How Prisons Change the Balance of Power in America.”
Heather’s piece reveals the many ways that our nation’s unprecedented use of incarceration has distorted our political landscape. As she explained,
…locking up unprecedented numbers of citizens over the last forty years has itself made the prison system highly resistant to reform through the democratic process. To an extent that few Americans have yet appreciated, record rates of incarceration have, in fact, undermined our American democracy, both by impacting who gets to vote and how votes are counted.
Of course, one of the ways mass incarceration distorts democracy is via prison gerrymandering:
Today, just as it did more than a hundred years earlier, the way the Census calculates resident population also plays a subtle but significant role. As ex-Confederates knew well, prisoners would be counted as residents of a given county, even if they could not themselves vote: High numbers of prisoners could easily translate to greater political power for those who put them behind bars.
Congratulations, Heather!
