skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, March 29, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Report Calls for Ending Automatic License Suspensions

play audio
Play

Friday, December 16, 2016   

HARRISBURG, Pa. - Pennsylvania should join the majority of states in ending the practice of automatically suspending the drivers' licenses of anyone convicted of a non-driving, drug-related offense, according to a new report.

All but 12 states and the District of Columbia have opted out of the license-suspension provision of a federal law passed in 1991, the Prison Policy Initiative report said. Its author, Joshua Aiken, a policy fellow at the initiative, said there's no evidence that suspensions deter crime, but they perpetuate the injustices of the so-called "War on Drugs."

"They're impacting low-income communities," he said, "communities who have limited access to public transportation, communities of color who are most impacted by these collateral consequences of drug convictions."

Last year, almost 20,000 Pennsylvanians had their driver's license suspended for six months for drug convictions unrelated to driving. Nationally, more than 80 percent of Americans rely on motor vehicles to get to work. In one study, Aiken said, 45 percent of people surveyed said they lost their jobs after their license had been suspended.

"A lot of times, employers, one of the first questions they ask is, 'Do you have a consistent form of transportation?' So, these suspensions really hamper people's opportunities to find and keep jobs," he said.

Almost 90 percent of those whose licenses were suspended reported a decrease in income.

The 1991 federal law threatens states with loss of federal highway funds if they don't automatically suspend the licenses of those convicted of drug offenses. However, Aiken said, there's a relatively easy way out.

"As long as the governor and the state legislators inform the Department of Transportation that they don't believe in these license suspensions and are no longer going to enforce them," he said, "they can keep their highway funding."

License suspensions are used in a variety of other circumstances, from inability to pay fines to missed child-support payments. But Aiken says many states are beginning to roll back those penalties as well.

The report is online at prisonpolicy.org.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


Social Issues

play sound

Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

Social Issues

play sound

Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


The U.S. teaching workforce remains primarily white while the percentage of Black teachers has declined. However, the percentage of Asian and Latinx teachers is rising.(WavebreakMediaMicro/Adobestock)

Social Issues

play sound

Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

Environment

play sound

New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021