In 1986, John D. would have garnered little sympathy from anyone. He was a wild 23-year-old who drank too much and drove in that condition.
After a couple of arrests for driving under the influence (DUI), John D. did some hard thinking and decided to change his ways. No more drinking and driving. He applied himself in his job, mended breaks with family members and thought he was staying out of trouble. The tickets he was accumulating for driving without a license he thought were just traffic offenses. No big deal.
Then he was sentenced to prison. John D.’s prison term was imposed as a result of tickets for driving without a license, not for drinking and driving. Laws introduced in the 1980s link a driving-without-a-license charge to any previous DUI charges, which can transform what normally is a misdemeanor traffic violation into a felony.
The 10 charges of driving without a license that John D. accumulated over a 2-year period resulted from random license plate checks by police, personal recognition by hometown police officers and a stop for improper lane usage. John D. and others imprisoned under this law have not been involved in homicides. They serve time in state correctional facilities-prisons-with driving with revoked licenses as their primary or most serious offense.
John D. was sentenced to 14 months in prison. He served four months in Jacksonville Correctional Center, earning an early release for good behavior.
“I thought it couldn’t happen,” John D. said. “By 1991, I hadn’t had a DUI in years. I had straightened out my life. But, you know, I had to go to work. I wasn’t married then, and I didn’t know what else to do but to go on driving. With each ticket, there were more court costs, and I had to support myself.”
Like John D., a significant number of those who have lost their driving privileges continue to drive anyway. In 1992, 64,106 people were convicted of driving without a license in Illinois.
Glen Ellyn attorney Brian St. Hilaire believes driving after one’s license has been suspended or revoked is of particular concern in suburban areas like Du Page County where public transportation is limited. He also believes that the problem will continue to escalate.
“About one-third of the cases that walk through my door are DWLR (driving with license revoked) or DWLS (driving with license suspended) cases. And that’s up from last year when it was about 25 percent,” St. Hilaire said. “Many of these people are not multiple DUI offenders, and they are not involved in reckless homicides. They just continue to drive, and they keep getting hit with driving without a license charges.
“And I tell my people, don’t drive! Most say to me, `I respect what you are saying, but if the choice is listening to you or supporting my family, I am going to support my family.’ Many do not understand this is not just a traffic offense.”
In 1986, a second DWLR or DWLS charge linked to a previous DUI charge bumped the offense up from a traffic violation to a Class 4 felony that could result in prison time.
Gov. Jim Edgar, who was secretary of state at the time the legislation was passed (the secretary of state’s office oversees licensing of drivers), when asked whether a prison sentence was an appropriate penalty, said, “That’s more appropriate than letting them continue to drive.”
Carmen Polo, deputy chief of the criminal division at the Du Page County state’s attorney’s office, said that in most cases prosecutors ask that a first charge of driving while a license is suspended or revoked, if preceeded by a DUI charge, be punished with jail time.
A second charge of driving without a license, Polo said, moves into the felony category, and the defendant may face a prison sentence rather than a jail sentence. In 1992, 195 multiple DWLR/DWLS offenders in Illinois were sent to prison rather than to jail.
(Jails house those waiting to post bond and those sentenced to less than one year. Prisons are state facilities holding people sentenced anywhere from one year to life. “It’s an entirely different environment,” said St. Hilaire.)
Also in 1986, for DUI and some other offenses, the Illinois legislature enacted summary suspension, a mandatory period of time during which a driver’s license is suspended.
“You could have a driver whose license is unblemished for decades and they get a DUI. They’re going to lose their license for three to six months,” said Thomas Casey Hunt, an attorney with Kupisch, Hunt, Carbon, Kaiser & Bush in Bensenville. Judicial driving permits or restricted driving permits are available, but both hardship licenses require extensive paperwork, an evaluation session and a minimum waiting period of 30 days, though the wait is often longer.
“There are a lot of people who make their living on the road,” Hunt said. “That first 30 days, you strip their license and they go through tremendous hardship.”
“I drove every day of that 30-day suspension,” said school teacher Mark B. “I lived in Bloomingdale, and I taught in Wheeling. There just was no other way to get to work. Every time I saw a police officer, my heart was in my throat. I kept thinking I could go to jail for this.”
The cost to first-time DUI offenders who receive court supervision is now estimated to exceed $3,000 for court costs, lawyers’ fees and evaluations. However, in the event of a revocation, the price tag for a reinstatement of driving privileges spirals, in a few extreme cases as high as $25,000. The high cost is due to a system that does not automatically return licenses when the revocation period ends. Instead, it is necessary for the offender to go through administrative hearings, which are looking for documented proof that the person is no longer drinking.
Angry offenders are asking how it is they are to pay for their offense if the terms of summary suspension can cause them to lose their job.
Sen. Denny Jacobs (D-East Moline), seeking the nomination for secretary of state, asks the same question: “I am not opposed to DUI legislation. I am opposed to the way punishment is meted out.” Jacobs, if elected secretary of state, says he will review and help change the current cystem of automatic syspension, which he says is seldom obeyed. “Sure, they’re going to drive anyway. For most, it isn’t a choice. It’s drive or lose your job. Does a first-time DUI offender who subsequently receives more than one DWLR or DWLS charge belong in jail or prison? I don’t think so.”
There is no simple solution to problems resulting from the upheaval as society reforms itself from one that embraced and condoned unlimited alcohol consumption into one that is attempting to educate its citizens on the dangers of drinking and driving.
John D., who now depends on his wife for a ride to and from work, had no doubts that drinking and driving should be against the law. “I think pretty much everybody knows now,” he said. “All your kids have heard, at an early age, don’t drink and drive. Yeah, it should be against the law.”
Across the board, there seems to be unanimous agreement that drinking and driving should be prohibited, but there are questions about how to penalize those who continue driving on suspended or revoked licenses.
