D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) announced an effort to enable District residents convicted of drug offenses, who have served their time, to renew their driver’s licenses. On Jan. 25, Bowser; Brian Ferguson, director of the D.C. Office of Returning Citizens; and Christopher Shorter, director of D.C. Public Works department, provided details of her effort to help the city’s large returning citizens’ population. The mayor said a driver’s license is crucial to employment prospects for residents seeking to steer their lives in the right direction.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) wants to make it easier for returning citizens to get licenses. (Courtesy photo)
“My administration understands that employment is a crucial element for successful reentry and a second chance at living a successful, productive life,” the mayor said. “By removing unnecessary burdens and ineffective policies, we knock down barriers to re-entry, reduce our recidivism rates and put every returning citizen back on the path to the middle class.”
About 60,000 District residents have criminal records – 10 percent of the population – and many of those come from working and low-income communities.
In 1992, the District signed the drug-conviction license revocation requirement to avoid losing federal money for highways. Bowser’s legislation would repeal the current D.C. Code, which automatically revokes or suspends the driver’s licenses of those convicted of drug-related offenses, even when those offenses are unrelated to motor vehicles.
Bowser said she wants the District to join states that have repealed the restrictive law and do so without losing federal funds. In order to keep the highway federal funds, the D.C. Council needs to repeal the law and pass a resolution formally stating its opposition to the policy. After that, Bowser and the council will have put on record their opposition to stripping returning citizens’ licenses.
Debra Rowe, executive director of Returning Citizens, an advocacy organization for those who have been convicted of criminal offenses, was supportive yet puzzled by Bowser’s actions. She said it is her understanding that returning citizens routinely go to the District’s Department of Motor Vehicles and get their licenses or identification cards without any problem. “I know of no instance in Washington, D.C. where a returning citizen has been denied the chance to get a driver’s license if they served their time,” Rowe said.
Eric Weaver, chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Returning Citizens, echoed Rowe’s sentiment. “I commend what the mayor is trying to do,” Weaver told the AFRO. “But as I see it, the real problem is when people are sent away to prison for long periods of time. Their licenses expire and they come back to the city and have to go through the whole process again such as getting a learner’s permit and driver’s education and taking the test. I don’t think they should have to do that when their driving record is clean.”
Weaver said he could “see where Bowser’s bill would benefit people who get short sentences, perhaps five years or under.”
Weaver said another problem returning citizens’ face when they seek a driver’s license is lacking the money to pay fees and fines that may have accumulated during their incarceration. He said the fines and fees should be dealt with in a manner that is of benefit to the returning citizen.