{"id":3141,"date":"2015-03-17T08:06:56","date_gmt":"2015-03-17T12:06:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/?p=3141"},"modified":"2017-12-05T14:24:26","modified_gmt":"2017-12-05T19:24:26","slug":"license-suspensions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/2015\/03\/17\/license-suspensions\/","title":{"rendered":"Ending harmful driver&#8217;s license suspensions in Massachusetts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"\/driving\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/\/static.prisonpolicy.org\/images\/reportthumbs\/SuspendingCommonSense_130.jpg\" alt=\"Suspending Common Sense thumbnail\" width=\"130\" height=\"168\" class=\"reportcover right\"  \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Last week I attended a legislative briefing at the Massachusetts State House to present my <a href=\"\/driving\/\">research<\/a> on what might seem like an unlikely policy: driver&#8217;s license suspensions for crimes that had nothing to do with driving or road safety. Sound nonsensical? It is.<\/p>\n<p>But for more than two decades Massachusetts law has been automatically suspending the driver&#8217;s licenses of <i>everyone<\/i> convicted of a drug offense \u2014 regardless of whether or not that offense involved driving or road safety. Then, if that wasn&#8217;t enough, this policy makes them wait at least six months and then charges them $500 or more to get their driving privileges back. Since the suspension policy is automatic, judges have no say in the matter.<\/p>\n<p>As our <a href=\"\/driving\/\">report<\/a> found, this suspension policy wastes taxpayer resources, makes our roads <i>less<\/i> safe, and fundamentally disrupts the lives of people with previous drug convictions who are trying to get back on track by meeting work, family, and other personal responsibilities. And we already have other laws that deal directly with road safety and illicit substances.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/images\/MA_State_House_250w.jpg\" alt=\"Massachusetts State House\" width=\"250\" height=\"251\" class=\"reportcover right thumb250\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>Fortunately, after more than two decades of losses under this failed policy, the Massachusetts legislature is poised to finally put its foot down. Massachusetts Senator Harriette Chandler and Representative Liz Malia are introducing legislation this session to end unnecessary drivers license suspensions for unrelated drug convictions.<\/p>\n<p>Our friends at <a href=\"http:\/\/exprisoners.org\">EPOCA<\/a> are spearheading the effort to end unnecessary suspensions in Massachusetts, and you can learn more about the issue by reading our report: <a href=\"\/driving\/\">Suspending Common Sense in Massachusetts<\/a>: Driver&#8217;s license suspensions for drug offenses unrelated to driving.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Massachusetts suspends driver\u2019s licenses as punishment for crimes that had nothing to do with cars or road safety. Sound nonsensical? It is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[13],"class_list":["post-3141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3141"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6610,"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3141\/revisions\/6610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3141"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prisonpolicy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=3141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}