{"id":371921,"date":"2020-10-06T06:49:38","date_gmt":"2020-10-06T13:49:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?post_type=blog&#038;p=371921"},"modified":"2023-12-07T14:41:23","modified_gmt":"2023-12-07T22:41:23","slug":"maps_advocate_equitable_fines","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/blog\/maps_advocate_equitable_fines","title":{"rendered":"New York Uses Maps to Advocate for Justice in Driver\u2019s License Suspensions"},"author":6771,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","castos_file_data":"","podmotor_file_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[461441],"tags":[471322,471841,271,601],"industry":[],"esri-blog-category":[478482],"esri_blog_department":[478192],"class_list":["post-371921","blog","type-blog","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-equity-social-justice","tag-inequity","tag-justice","tag-mapping","tag-spatial-analytics","esri-blog-category-services","esri_blog_department-gis-for-good"],"acf":{"video_source":"","video_start":"","video_stop":"","short_description":"Maps that convey the pain of cycles of poverty and punishment are central to an advocacy effort that led to legislation in New York State.","pdf":{"host_remotely":false,"file":"","file_url":""},"flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"sidebar","layout":"standard","image_reference":null,"image_reference_figure":"","spotlight_image":null,"section_title":"","spotlight_name":"","position":"Right","content":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/en-us\/arcgis\/products\/mapping\">Mapping<\/a> helped the Driven by Justice Coalition show the disproportionate rates and numbers of driver\u2019s license suspensions for unpaid traffic tickets in communities of color and low-income.\r\n\r\nKey Takeaways\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Data-driven interactive maps prove powerful for New York advocates.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Maps communicate the relationship between driver\u2019s license suspensions and communities of color and low income.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Seeing patterns of inequity helps legislators\u00a0recognize policies that cause disproportionate harm to their constituents.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>","snippet":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"Driver\u2019s license suspensions can pose huge barriers in low-income communities. In 41 US states, the penalty for unpaid traffic tickets is to have a driver\u2019s license suspended or revoked, or renewal refused\u2014a move that limits ability to travel for work, childcare, and other daily needs. In New York State, a coalition concerned about the ethics and impacts of motor vehicle fines and penalties opened the eyes of legislators, using maps to prove its case.\r\n\r\n\u201cIt\u2019s all too common to miss a notice about an unpaid traffic ticket and then learn from an arresting officer that you have been driving with a suspended license,\u201d said Katie Adamides, New York State director, Fines and Fees Justice Center (FFJC).\r\n\r\nThose able to pay fines and fees will pay and leave the system. But, Adamides says, for those who cannot pay, \u201cit\u2019s the beginning of not having the freedom of movement, being afraid, and making awful calculations to either forego basic needs or commit a crime by driving on a suspended license.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe data reveals a connection between poverty and punishment. FFJC turned to the Self-Represented Litigation Network to bring the data to life with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/en-us\/capabilities\/spatial-analytics-data-science\/overview\">spatial analytics<\/a> and mapmaking (see the sidebar below).\r\n\r\nThe stories these maps tell helped inspire the Driver\u2019s License Suspension Reform Act, which will eliminate suspensions for unpaid tickets and require income-based payment plans. The New York State Legislature passed the bill, which is awaiting the governor\u2019s signature."},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":371971,"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":"https:\/\/finesandfeesjusticecenter.org\/story-map\/new-york-drivers-license-suspensions\/"},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"<h3><strong>Fees Compound Poverty<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nAt least 11 million Americans have driver\u2019s license suspensions due to unpaid court debt, according to FFJC. More than 75 percent of those polled said they continue to drive multiple times per week because their vehicle is essential to their lives and livelihoods.\r\n\r\nWithout a vehicle, it can be impossible to fend for family, manage health care and childcare, or get to court.\r\n\r\n\u201cInstead of serving the public safety interest that people think suspensions serve, our current system actually creates additional public safety problems,\u201d Adamides said. \u201cWe are diverting policing resources to criminalize people whose only real issue is they can\u2019t afford to pay, and we create a situation where people are driving without insurance. The fees people can't afford to pay don\u2019t actually generate revenue.\u201d"},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":371951,"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"Taking away a license to coerce payment is a flawed concept, Adamides says.\r\n\r\n\u201cIf you look at our maps, it shows that it may work sometimes, but not for people who can't afford to pay,\u201d Adamides said. \u201cThe majority of suspensions in low-income communities are unresolved a year later, showing that people are most likely not paying because they just don\u2019t have the money.\u201d\r\n<h3><strong>Disproportionate Harm to Communities of Color<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n\u201cMaps were a really useful tool because the siloing of data in New York State had made it hard to see \u00a0inequality,\u201d Adamides said. \u201cWe needed to do a regression analysis from two different data sources to visualize the problematic trends.\u201d"},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":371961,"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":"https:\/\/finesandfeesjusticecenter.org\/story-map\/new-york-drivers-license-suspensions\/"},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"The Driven by Justice Coalition found that in New York City, the 10 ZIP codes with the highest concentration of people of color are two and a half times more likely to have traffic debt suspensions than those with the highest concentration of White ZIP codes. In the rest of the state, people of color face four times more debt suspensions. The rate is almost nine times higher in the 10 lowest-income ZIP codes than in the 10 wealthiest ZIP codes.\r\n\r\n\u201cWhen we're talking about the right thing to do, we\u2019ve got to be clear on the facts about how things are and how they ought to be,\u201d Adamides said. \u201cMaps are key to communication because they make a technical, inaccessible issue accessible.\u201d\r\n<h3><strong>Changing Legislators\u2019 Minds<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nAdamides credits interactive maps as key to the coalition\u2019s strategy in communicating with legislators in New York State and beyond.\r\n\r\n\u201cGiving them a tool that allowed them to drill down into a locality helped lawmakers connect with and feel responsibility for their constituents,\u201d she said. \u201cThat helped us show them that it wasn\u2019t just a problem for the state; it was a problem for them.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe advocacy included statistics and reports specific to each legislator.\r\n\r\n\u201cI have to say that the maps were almost too powerful,\u201d Adamides said. \u201cIf I opened them up at the top of the meeting, no one was going to hear the words coming from my mouth because the maps are more engaging.\u201d\r\n\r\nWhether the legislators agreed with the analysis or the way policy needed to change, the maps provided authoritative information in a way that made it easy to understand and use in making decisions on the issues.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe maps locked in our credibility immediately, and rightfully so, because we have the data and know what we\u2019re talking about,\u201d Adamides said. \u201cLegislators turn to trusted sources for guidance and analysis, and through our analysis and mapping work, we became an authority on this issue.\u201d\r\n\r\nSimilar driver\u2019s license suspension reform legislation is pending in several other states. Staff at FFJC are advocating with maps and data for further legislation across the country through its national \u201cFree to Drive\u201d coalition and campaign.\r\n\r\n\u201cThis reform has been happening all across the country\u2014in Mississippi, Idaho, Montana, California,\u201d Adamides said. \u201cMississippi and California are not usually on the same page, but they are on this issue because it\u2019s a logical and right thing to do.\u201d\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nLearn more about how <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/en-us\/racial-equity\/overview\">GIS helps examine racial inequities<\/a>."},{"acf_fc_layout":"sidebar","layout":"standard","image_reference":null,"image_reference_figure":"","spotlight_image":null,"section_title":"","spotlight_name":"","position":"Center","content":"<h2><strong>Mapping Makes Inroads in Examining Access to Justice<\/strong><\/h2>\r\nThe mapping and spatial analysis that underpin the examination of driver\u2019s license suspensions by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.drivenbyjustice.org\">Driven by Justice Coalition<\/a> were done by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.srln.org\/\">Self-Represented Litigation Network<\/a> (SRLN), which creates and hosts data, maps, and apps for this and other justice issues via Esri\u2019s ArcGIS Online.\r\n\r\n\u201cEveryone knows about access to health care, but access to justice is a new concept to the public and one that deserves more attention,\u201d said Alison Davis-Holland, cartography and story maps lead at SRLN. \u201cWe work to educate and communicate that access to justice has exponential effects because it improves the whole system from individual to family to community. When people can meet their basic needs, then they can flourish.\u201d\r\n\r\nSRLN serves a network of justice system professionals who work to expand access to justice for people without lawyers. It also provides a full-service mapping and storytelling unit that applies <a href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/en-us\/location-intelligence\">location intelligence<\/a> to examine justice for a variety of different projects.\r\n\r\n\u201cLawyers understand the power of maps and can create their own, but not always with the level of expertise and the depth of analysis that a professional GIS team provides,\u201d said Katherine Alteneder, consulting senior strategic advisor at SRLN. \u201cWe created our GIS team to apply this power to small organizations that often can\u2019t afford their own communications person.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cAll justice is local,\u201d Davis-Holland said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been able to apply techniques like smart mapping to examine access to justice in localities, using GIS to quantify and ground truth assumptions with data.\u201d\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nVisit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.srln.org\/taxonomy\/term\/598\">SRLN\u2019s Map Gallery<\/a> to view the many interactive maps created to address different access-to-justice issues.","snippet":""}],"references":null},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.9 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>New York Uses Maps to Advocate for Justice in Driver\u2019s License Suspensions<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Maps that convey the inequity of driver&#039;s license suspensions for unpaid fines were central to reform legislation in New York state.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/blog\/maps_advocate_equitable_fines\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New York Uses Maps to Advocate for Justice in Driver\u2019s License Suspensions\" 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