This week the Senate took an important step towards making it easier for people who have gotten in trouble to get out of trouble and get back to work. We voted unanimously to repeal provisions of state law that automatically suspend the driver’s licenses of people convicted of drug offenses and require them to pay reinstatement fees of $500 or more.
Criminal Law
Senate Passes Motor Vehicle License Suspension Bill
We share this press release on the passage of Senate Bill 2014 which repeals existing law relative to the automatic suspension of drivers licenses for individuals convicted of a non-violent drug offense. This is one such criminal justice reform measure that Senator Brownsberger supports to help remove barriers for people trying to get back up on their feet.
Criminal Justice Reform — Statistics Collection
The legislature is considering directions for criminal justice reform. Check out the background we have been assembling. Help us with additional information.
Mandatory Sentences Disproportionately Impact Minorities.
Illegal drug use spreads through all racial and ethnic groups and whites are the group most commonly convicted of possession (70.9% in Fiscal 2013). The racial disproportionality at the mandatory minimum level is therefore troubling, especially because of the unique role of prosecutorial discretion in bringing and enforcing mandatory minimum charges.
The average sentence impact of repealing mandatories is likely to be modest.
In testimony before the Judiciary Committee in on June 9, 2015, witnesses offered differing predictions of the likely impact of repealing mandatories. We are left with irreducible uncertainty as to the expected change in sentence levels. It seems certain that some particular cases will be resolved differently, but hard to imagine that average sentence levels will completely collapse.
School zone charges are dropped in over 95% of cases.
School zone charges are dropped in over 95% of the cases in which they are charged. The extraordinarily high statewide dismissal rate for the school zone charge argues for its final elimination — it has very limited and therefore potentially arbitrary effect.