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For many people, a suspended driver’s license can hinder them from completing any number of everyday experiences, like maintaining a job or driving to their kids’ after-school activities.
For others, a dated criminal record is equally damaging.
Several counties across the state are working to help Hoosiers clear their records and reinstate their driver’s licenses, using expungement and driving restoration laws like those passed in many states to help residents get their lives back on track.
As of 2023, over half of all U.S. states have passed legislation eliminating or reducing debt-based license suspensions, according to the Free to Drive Coalition, which works to end debt-based driving limitations.
Indiana is among those states, though it doesn’t eliminate debt-based suspensions altogether. In 2021, the state passed House Bill 1199, which ends license suspensions for failure to appear.
Drivers can still lose their licenses for failure to pay but can get it reinstated upon showing proof of financial responsibility.
Indiana passed its expungement law in 2013, allowing people to petition the court for an expungement of criminal records or to seal certain arrests or convictions. Nearly every state offers some form of expungement.
A few states offer automatic expungement after a certain amount of time has passed, but Indiana is not among them and many Hoosiers need help navigating the expungement system..
License reinstatements in Marion County
The Marion County Prosecutor’s Office earlier this month hosted its largest event of the year, the Second Chance Workshop, a day-long clinic where area residents receive help in reinstating their licenses and expunging certain criminal records.
In 2019, the Bureau of Motor Vehicles reported that 100,000 Marion County residents had suspended licenses, according to the prosecutor’s office. Since then, that number has fluctuated between 100,000 to 130,000.
Last year, the prosecutor’s office served around 650 Hoosiers in one day during the workshop. This year marked its fifth serving the community in this capacity.
Community feedback is ultimately what led the prosecutor’s office to establish the workshops, Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears said.
“It was really just talking to people in the community and trying to figure out what was holding people back from getting a job or getting employment,” Mears said. “And one of the biggest issues that we heard was people struggling with getting their driver’s license reinstated.”
Mears said many of those with suspended licenses got there by making honest mistakes. If someone is unable to pay a ticket, fees start to snowball, he said, making it increasingly difficult to reinstate their license.
“We want to try to give people a fresh start, a clean start, where they can get that driver’s license, because it really is a pathway to a career for a lot of people,” he said.
This year, 42 volunteers helped more than 450 residents take care of their licenses and expungements.
Lahny Silva, a law professor at Indiana University McKinney School of Law, plays a large role in planning the Second Chance workshops.
She leads the IU McKinney Reentry Clinic, which offers students hands-on experiences in serving community members in need. Both the clinic and Thomas Ridley’s 1 Like Me Inc., a nonprofit organization that provides reentry assistance to residents in central Indiana, partner with the prosecutor’s office to help with the three to five workshops they host each year.
A handful of McKinney students volunteered at the June workshop. Silva believes it’s important that students gain real-world experience through service like this and embrace the significance of providing help in their communities.
“It’s really important for me, for students to understand how important it is to give back. A lot of times we see lawyers, they’re so busy, right?” she said. “There’s so much fulfillment in giving back to the community that gets missed.”
While residents waited for assistance from attorneys at the workshop, they also had the chance to speak to several local organizations offering a variety of services, from job opportunities to child welfare guidance.
St. Joseph County
The St. Joseph County Prosecutor’s Office is another government agency that helps residents clear their records.
When St. Joseph County Prosecutor Ken Cotter first brought the idea for an expungement clinic to the county, it was at the urging of a former mentor, Mishawaka Magistrate Judge Andre Gammage, who runs Fresh Fridays, a community program helping St. Joseph County residents obtain jobs and get their records expunged.
At first, Cotter questioned what the prosecutor’s office could offer to residents, whom he believed could work through their cases without assistance. Then he tried to see if he could reasonably navigate the system.
“I couldn’t do it,” he said. “I can read the law, and I couldn’t do it. So that got me to reexamine, ‘Oh, this is really difficult.’”
The first event was held at a local church in 2020, and Cotter thought 20 to 50 people at most would show up. Around 1,000 people waited in line for assistance that evening.
It got to the point where volunteers couldn’t process any more requests and organizers decided they’d have to continue the work another day.
“I kept walking the line telling people, ‘Hey, we’re gonna keep doing this, go home,’” Cotter said. “And they said, ‘I’ve waited 20 years, I can wait a couple more hours.’”
Expungement services offered by the prosecutor’s office are separate from Fresh Fridays, and though not yet a formalized program, the office takes requests as they receive them.
To help with the workload, the office has partnered with several outside entities, including the University of Notre Dame, which offers a one-credit course on the subject matter. As part of the class, students help process the reinstatement requests.
They also receive help from legal interns from the university and recently brought on a secretary to fill out the team.
Now, years after that first event, Cotter said he understands now more than ever how crucial this service is to the community.
“Our society has decided when there’s an end to that punishment, and that they call it expungement,” he said. “And so, I am part of our community. And I should do what I can to be able to help a person, follow that through.”•
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