Overcriminalization Folly of the Week: Felony driving without a license

Grits went to read an important new US Supreme Court opinion (pdf) out this week, Missouri v. Frye, related to whether a plea deal never submitted to a client by his attorney was grounds for post-conviction relief because of ineffective assistance of counsel. It's an interesting question, but I did a double, then a triple take when I read the opening lines describing the underlying case in the opinion, then couldn't get past it: "Respondent Frye was charged with driving with a revoked license. Because he had been convicted of the same offense three times before, he was charged, under Missouri law, with a felony carrying a maximum 4-year prison term."

Huh? A max four-year prison term for driving without a license? Even for the fourth offense, that seems extreme. According to this source, actually, in Missouri it's a felony on the third offense. That seems borderline totalitarian - "Show me your papers, comrade, or I'll slap you in prison for four years." Yikes! You can fill up a gulag pretty darn quickly that way! Even with that extreme penalty, though, one in ten Missouri drivers have no license.

This is overcriminalization run amok. With incarceration costs running in the $20,000 per year range, it'd be a lot cheaper to remove barriers to licensure and spend the money you would have spent on prosecution and incarceration to give out free bicycles and bus passes. The absurdist cost-benefit analysis behind making driving without a license a felony worthy of prison time boggles the mind.

Missouri may join list of states reducing inmate numbers, closing prisons

I've argued that to cut 5% or more from Texas' prison budget would require additional policy changes to reduce inmate populations, not just slashing prison or community supervision budgets. So I was interested to see Missouri's Legislature considering policy reforms to reduce its prison expenses. Here's an excerpt from AP ("Missouri senators advance effort to shrink prison population," April 14):

Missouri's budget problems have prompted lawmakers to consider steering some people convicted of such lesser felonies as knowingly damaging property by burning and sexual misconduct with a child into treatment or probation programs, rather than prison.

The Missouri Senate gave first-round approval Tuesday to a bill that would bar prison officials from housing people convicted of the least severe state felonies unless the offender has two previous felony convictions. The plan is expected to save the state millions of dollars.

Those convicted of certain higher level felonies -- including forgery, passing bad checks, drug possession and identity theft involving less than $5,000 -- also could not be held in state prisons unless they have a previous felony conviction.

Instead, offenders would be directed to treatment programs such as special drug and drunken-driving courts, given probation or sent to county jails.

Missouri lawmakers are seeking to cut hundreds of millions from the state budget because of falling state revenue. The idea of shrinking the state's prison populations was considered last month when the Senate spent the day informally discussing various ideas to overhaul state government.

Sponsoring Sen. Matt Bartle said the bill is designed to trim Missouri's prison population by 2,000 people over the next two years. He estimates it could save $26 million in part by allowing a state prison to be closed. Currently, Missouri incarcerates about 30,000 people.

"The prison system isn't free," said Bartle, R-Lee's Summit. "It costs people money and decisions have to be made. Triage has to be made."

The legislation also allows the state parole board to release nonviolent offenders who are admitted into special drug or drunken-driving programs if agreed to by prosecutors. ...

The savings from the legislation's changes would be split. Half would be kept by the state and turned into general revenue that can be used for other state programs. One-sixth would go each to the Department of Corrections for community supervision, trial courts, and counties to house people convicted of the lesser felonies who are then sentenced to jail.

MORE: On the Missouri proposal.

See related recent posts:

• Michigan's new corrections mantra: Get out and stay out
• Dumb on crime: Kansas cuts diversion programs keeping prison pop down
• Tarheel prison units closed with budget cuts; Michigan may expand good time
• CA considers medical parole as solution to rising health costs
• States slashing spending costs, closing units
• Some states actually shutting down prison units
• Emptying prisons makes Wired magazine's 'Smart List'
• California's partisan prison meltdown: Why Texas didn't go there