Bill Would Decriminalize Unlicensed Driving Driving Without Privileges Is No Reason To Put Someone In Prison, Stoicheff Says

Just because a Bonners Ferry man believes citizens don’t need driver’s licenses, he shouldn’t be facing prison time, Sandpoint Rep. Jim Stoicheff said.

“They got him a couple-three times now, and the third time you can go to the state pen for three years,” Stoicheff said.

“I think that’s ridiculous to send a man to the state pen because he didn’t have a driver’s license, when he wasn’t dangerous or drunk or anything else.”

So Stoicheff has filed legislation for consideration in January that would decriminalize driving without a license. Currently, the offense carries mandatory jail terms and a third offense is a felony that can bring up to three years in prison.

Stoicheff’s bill will be among at least two seeking to stop Idaho from imprisoning people who drive without a valid license. Gov. Phil Batt also plans to propose legislation and is working with the chairs of the House and Senate judiciary committees to draft a bill. About 100 of Idaho’s approximately 4,000 prisoners are serving time for driving without a license.

The Sandpoint Democrat would decriminalize the offense by replacing mandatory jail terms and prison time with civil fines and community service. He’d also add a new defense against the charge: “that the person has religious or personal beliefs that preclude them from obtaining a driver’s license.”

Although the law would designate this as an “affirmative defense,” the courts would have the discretiont to accept or reject it.

“They say we can’t take many more prisoners in the jails. That’s not a heinous crime,” Stoicheff said.

Gov. Batt highlighted the driving-without-privileges penalties in his “Committee of One” report last summer on how Idaho could slow its fast-growing prison spending.

On Friday, Batt’s spokesman, Lindsay Nothern, said, “We will be offering legislation to lessen the penalties for driving without privileges and for writing bad checks under $50.”

In his report, the governor suggested that Idaho’s current law making a third DWP offense a felony should be amended. Idaho is one of only five states that imprison people for repeatedly driving without a valid license.

The state also has 52 ways drivers can lose their licenses, from too many traffic tickets, to drunken driving, to failure to pay child support.

Most states treat the offense as either a misdemeanor, which can bring county jail time, or an infraction, which carries a fine.

Last year, a comprehensive bill dropping felony DWP penalties and revamping all driver’s license penalties passed the House unanimously, amid concern that people who were simply trying to drive to work were being caught in an increasing web of penalties that led to prison. But the bill bogged down in the Senate, and never came up for a vote.

That legislation divided offenders into those whose licenses were suspended because of a felony, like drunken driving, and those who lost their licenses for other reasons. The lesser offenders would have had more chances at getting restricted licenses to allow them to drive to work during their suspensions.

Nothern said Friday that Sen. Denton Darrington, R-Declo, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Celia Gould, R-Buhl, chairwoman of the House Judiciary Committee, are drafting the bill the governor has proposed. Batt also plans to mention the issue in his State of the State address in January.

Stoicheff’s bill doesn’t let unlicensed drivers completely off the hook. It would retain the fines now in the law - up to $500 for a first offense, $1,000 for a second, and up to $3,000 for a third offense, plus additional license suspensions.

“If I had to pay a $3,000 fine every time I drove downtown, I don’t think I would drive downtown very often,” he said.

So far, Stoicheff is the only one to highlight the religious-principle issue in legislation.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: To read the bill Rep. Jim Stoicheff’s bill to decriminalize driving without a license has been pre filed. House Bill 466 can be read on the Internet at http://www.idwr.state.id.us/ oasis/H0466.html