Many people face a modern-day debtor’s prison. They are stuck at home, unable to drive because their driver’s license has been seized by the state — not because they drove recklessly, but because they owe fines to the court system.
Their offenses can be unrelated to driving, but the criminal justice system has decided that taking people’s driver’s licenses away is a good punishment and incentive to pay fines.
You might think that making it more difficult for someone to go to work to earn a living would make it more difficult for them to pay what they owe. You would be correct. It can cost people their jobs — a Rutgers University study found over 40% of New Jerseyans who had their licenses suspended lost a job.
Worse, desperation can lead many to drive while their license is suspended. If they are pulled over and charged with a misdemeanor, they are pulled into criminal court, could lose their vehicle, and could face jail time. Congratulations, government, you’ve now made another criminal solely based on financial means.
Today, 26 states can suspend your driver’s license for court debt, according to the Fines & Fees Justice Center. While a full picture of what court systems are collecting is incomplete, we are learning fines and fees often fall short of revenue expectations, in addition to being counterproductive.
New Mexico and Texas counties spent an average of 41% of each dollar they collected on hearings and jail costs. One New Mexico county was in the red, spending more than it collected, NYU’s Brennan Center found. An Oklahoma County judge stated that only 5% to 11% of court debt is collected. There are administrative costs as well, including government employee time and correspondence to request payments.
It is also just plain wrong to take people’s driver’s licenses when their offense was not related to road safety. If someone drives drunk or speeds recklessly, absolutely their license should be suspended, but the tactic doesn’t make sense for low-level traffic tickets or nondriving offenses.
For these reasons, 23 states and the District of Columbia have ended driver’s license suspensions over court debt — and reform often enjoys support from law enforcement and criminal justice reform advocates.
A number of states, such as Nevada and Arizona, approved reforms in 2021, highlighting license suspension as one of the very few bipartisan issues on the table.
Under Gov. Doug Ducey’s leadership, Arizona passed a strong, conservative driver’s license suspension reform bill. Shortly thereafter, Democrat-controlled Nevada passed its version of reform.
Meanwhile, in Congress, Republican Sen. Roger Wicker and Democrat Sen. Chris Coons sponsored the Driving for Opportunity Act to encourage states to end driver’s license suspensions. Broad support for the bill includes the National District Attorneys Association, the Fraternal Order of Police, and Major County Sheriffs of America.
The recent results are incredible, but there is a long road ahead. Some states, such as Florida, where legislation to end suspensions never made it to a floor vote, have let the opportunity slip by.
Reform should be a priority, especially for Republican leaders. License suspension is the most conspicuous piece of a stealth tax system of fines and fees. Rather than using fines as a justifiable punishment and deterrent, governments use them to raise revenue.
A law punishable by a fine is mainly a law for poor people — and along with fees, interest, and driver’s license suspension impeding a person’s ability to work, that fine can become a life sentence.
This is not how the criminal justice system is supposed to work. The overreliance on fines creates a twisted incentive where authorities feel pressure to charge people with fineable offenses to justify their jobs.
The most infamous example of this problem was Ferguson, Missouri. Ferguson police were pushed to generate revenue because a quarter of the city budget came from fines and fees. This led to immense tension with residents who felt the police were focused on squeezing them for money, rather than protecting the public.
The system can and should punish people for breaking the law, but it also needs to give people the chance to work, pay their debt, and move on. The status quo does not put public safety first; it traps people in a government debt system and wastes police time on tax collection. It is time for all states to end driver’s license suspension for court debt.
Grover Norquist is president of Americans for Tax Reform.
