Watch: A behind-the-scenes look on the vicious cycle of SC suspended licenses
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Fined Out
Fined Out tells the story of Trevor Heyward, a Black man in South Carolina who would become trapped in a cycle of poverty for 21 years after a traffic stop in 1999.
But it’s not just in South Carolina – it’s likely happening in your community, too.
Across the United States, 11 million people have suspended drivers licenses simply because they can’t pay their traffic tickets. When they’re driving under suspension, they’re fined out of working, spending time with their families and leading productive and happy lives. Here’s one man’s story and what advocates around the country are doing to stop it from happening to another person.
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A traffic stop 21 years ago took an SC man’s driver’s license. His life went with it
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Watch: A behind-the-scenes look on the vicious cycle of SC suspended licenses
Over 190,000 people in South Carolina have suspended driver’s licenses. It’s not because they’ve been charged with DUIs or reckless driving, but because they can’t pay their traffic tickets.
This type of suspension is unsuspecting, because some drivers may not even know their license is not valid. The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette followed along with one man whose license has been suspended for 21 years as he made his final attempt to break out of the cycle that forced him to drive to work, get pulled over and arrested, and rack up more fines during the prime of his life. That story is the first in our three-part Fined Out series.
There’s no shortage of efforts to change how this country handles license suspensions. Priya Sarathy Jones, a graduate of the University of South Carolina School of Law, is the national policy and campaigns director at the Fines and Fees Justice Center in Washington, D.C. Her work focuses on supporting national coalitions that call for fines and fees reform and abolishing debt-based suspensions.
On Wednesday, she’ll speak in a live, virtual event with reporters Katherine Kokal and Jake Shore, who put together Fined Out. They’ll discuss the reporting process of the series, share behind-the-scenes information from their research and talk about steps forward.
Join our live discussion by visiting this page, The Island Packet’s Facebook page or YouTube on Wednesday, May 5 at noon.
This story was originally published May 3, 2021 at 2:20 PM.
