Without A Driver’s License, Rebuilding After Prison Is Harder. These Clinics Offer A Path Forward.

By Rachel Crumpler

Brentley, a female incarcerated astatine Western Correctional Center for Women successful Black Mountain, is nearing her merchandise from situation successful June 2027. She’s tense astir starting complete from scratch. 

One mobility had been weighing connected her: How would she rebuild her life pinch a suspended driver’s license? 

Finding lodging and employment, attending wellness attraction appointments, buying groceries and gathering pinch probation and parole officers — astir each basal task aft merchandise will require transportation. In occidental North Carolina, wherever Brentley — whom NC Health News is identifying by her first sanction — plans to enactment aft her release, nationalist proscription options are limited. It’s nan aforesaid successful galore counties crossed nan state.

So erstwhile she saw a flyer connected a bulletin committee astatine nan situation advertizing nan driver’s licence restoration clinic, Brentley signed up. 

Western Correctional Center for Women, a minimum-security situation successful Black Mountain pinch nan capacity to location up to 366 women. Credit: Rachel Crumpler / NC Health News

This week, she was 1 of 30 women who participated successful a driver’s licence restoration session led by Duke University School of Law Pro Bono Program and Pisgah Legal Services, a nonprofit providing free ineligible assistance to low-income group successful occidental North Carolina. Law students and pro bono attorneys met one-on-one pinch nan women to reappraisal their driver’s licence records and explicate nan steps needed for reinstatement.

“I cognize my licence is suspended,” Brentley said astatine nan opening of her meeting. “I don’t cognize what I request to do to get it back.” 

A shocking number of North Carolinians are successful nan aforesaid position — astir often because of unpaid postulation fines and fees aliases missed tribunal dates. Nearly 900,000 people successful North Carolina had suspended licenses for 1 of those reasons arsenic of January 2025, according to a report connected driver’s licence suspensions from nan Wilson Center for Science and Justice astatine Duke Law. That represents astir 1 successful 10 of nan state’s almost 8 cardinal licensed big drivers.

‘You request a license’

“Let’s beryllium real: You request a license,” Brentley said. “You request a conveyance to beryllium productive and to get around, to get a job. If you don’t, for a definite magnitude of time, usually, yet you’re going to drive. I don’t want to do that anymore.”

Brentley meets pinch Will VanRenterghem, a first-year rule student astatine Duke University, and Ed Treat, a Pisgah Legal Services unit attorney, during a driver’s licence restoration session held March 10, 2026. It’s 1 of 7 specified events that person been held wrong North Carolina prisons since autumn 2024. Credit: Rachel Crumpler / NC Health News

By nan extremity of her gathering pinch Will VanRenterghem, a first-year rule student astatine Duke, and Pisgah Legal Services unit lawyer Ed Treat, Brentley knew her way guardant — and her alleviation was visible. 

They explained that she had 1 suspension connected her licence tied to a 2019 DWI charge. After her release, they said, Brentley will request to meet pinch a constituent usage assessor — for a interest — who could require curen earlier her licence tin beryllium reinstated.

Treat told her that a batch of classes are now offered online, which could thief her fulfill nan requirement.

“I want to get retired and conscionable group a bully foundation,” she said. Having a licence is an important portion of that.

Others served by nan session had aggregate suspensions on pinch an accumulation of fees — immoderate totaling successful nan thousands of dollars. Each female near pinch an proposal missive outlining adjacent steps to return to get their licence and an annotated transcript of their DMV records explaining nan causes of suspensions successful plain language.

Recognizing really often licence suspensions complicate reentry to nan organization aft release, nan N.C. Department of Adult Correction has precocious started holding driver’s licence restoration clinics astatine prisons successful business pinch North Carolina rule schools and pro bono attorneys.

“You cannot do thing without a licence aliases an ID card, and truthful it is virtually nan foundational portion to everything other that you person to do erstwhile you merchandise from prison,” N.C. Department of Adult Correction Secretary Leslie Cooley Dismukes told NC Health News. “We’ve sewage to make judge that we’ve sewage that successful spot truthful that group tin win successful nan different areas.”

First Lady Anna Stein (left), alongside nan first ladies of Oklahoma and North Dakota, and N.C. Department of Adult Correction Secretary Leslie Cooley Dismukes talk pinch Duke University rule students helping tally a driver’s licence restoration session astatine Western Correctional Center for Women. Stein and Dismukes said having a suspended driver’s licence is simply a awesome obstruction for group reentering nan organization aft incarceration. Credit: Rachel Crumpler / NC Health News

A obstruction to reentry

For galore group leaving prison, a suspended driver’s licence quickly becomes a major obstacle to rebuilding their lives. 

That was Greg Singleton’s predicament erstwhile he was released from situation successful 1996.

At first, he recovered a occupation astatine a barren cleaner successful Raleigh that was wrong stepping region of nan transitional location wherever he was living. After his inheritance cheque came back, he said, he was fired. The adjacent position he lined up was miles away. 

“I drove a mates of months without a driver’s licence retired of survival,” Singleton said. “I was trying to get my life successful order, trying to get immoderate income coming in. 

“I prayed each tyre rotation that I would not get stopped by nan police.” 

Now Singleton useful pinch formerly incarcerated group often facing akin dilemmas. As dean of world programs astatine Opportunities Industrialization Center of Rocky Mount, he helps link group pinch acquisition and occupation training. 

Singleton said he’s many times seen really proscription entree is important to reentry success. It’s really group link to resources and support, specified arsenic taking courses astatine organization colleges and seeking intelligence wellness and constituent usage treatment.

The miles betwixt locations tin consciousness and practically beryllium insurmountable, he said. Alternatives to driving — specified arsenic nationalist proscription — often don’t scope wherever group request to spell and services tin beryllium unpredictable. Uber and different ride-share services get expensive, particularly for group conscionable getting backmost connected their feet. Relying connected rides from family and friends only goes truthful far.

He noted that trucking jobs, which require a Commercial Driver’s License, are 1 of nan increasing employment opportunities for group pinch criminal records. But that way isn’t disposable if personification doesn’t moreover person a regular driver’s license. 

Those connections were clear to nan fistful of women who participated successful nan driver’s licence restoration session connected March 10 and who are portion of a program wherever they are moving to gain their commercialized licenses while incarcerated. 

‘Counterproductive’ policy

A driver’s licence tin beryllium suspended for galore reasons successful North Carolina, but according to Duke’s Wilson Center, nan 2 biggest causes of suspensions are for nonaccomplishment to salary fines and fees, and for nonaccomplishment to look successful court. 

Top reasons a driver’s licence tin beryllium suspended:

• Failure to appear: If a personification misses their tribunal date, nan tribunal sends announcement to nan DMV 20 days aft nan missed tribunal day and adds a $200 interest for nan non-appearance. The personification has 60 days to resoluteness nan matter aliases nan DMV suspends their driver’s license.
• Failure to comply: If a personification does not salary their postulation good aliases interest wrong 40 days of nan owed date, nan tribunal notifies nan DMV. The personification has 60 days to salary nan magnitude owed aliases nan DMV suspends their driver’s license. 

Credit: Wilson Center for Science and Justice astatine Duke Law

Failures to look tin beryllium dismissed if nan charismatic agrees. Failure-to-pay suspensions stay successful spot until nan personification pays outstanding tribunal fines and fees aliases successfully petitions nan tribunal to waive them. 

Source: Wilson Center for Science and Justice astatine Duke Law

Laura Webb, task head of nan Fair Chance Criminal Justice Project astatine nan North Carolina Justice Center, said these types of licence suspensions tin trap group successful a vicious cycle. She’s helped hundreds of group reconstruct their licenses. 

“They can’t salary their tickets,” Webb said. “They mightiness get a spot loop summons that is retired of scope for them financially. They’re not capable to salary it, their licence gets suspended, and past because their licence is suspended, they mightiness suffer their job, and past they’re decidedly not capable to salary it.

“Suspending someone’s driver’s licence and wholly limiting their expertise to get astir does not thief personification travel to court,” Webb said. “They’re astir apt going to usage constricted resources to get to tribunal aliases thrust illegally, which we don’t want to spot happen, and truthful it’s counterproductive. 

“It’s besides counterproductive to suspend someone’s driver’s licence who you want to spot salary their debt, because often not having a driver’s licence leads to you losing nan job, nan occupation that you request to get income to salary your debt,” she said. 

Whitley Carpenter, elder criminal justness counsel and argumentation head astatine Forward Justice, said she’s seen nan aforesaid thing. 

“Most group are not trying to subordinate nan system,” Carpenter said. “What it creates is 2 tiers for nan tribunal system. Someone that comes successful and has nan resources tin time off and spell connected astir their life. They tin salary nan tribunal fees and ne'er beryllium bothered again. Someone that has to take betwixt feeding their children aliases paying their tribunal debt, past leaves, has a revoked license, has to fig retired really to maneuver astir life without a license, and past yet gets benignant of caught successful a strategy of driving connected a revoked licence because there’s not really immoderate different alternatives. Then they incur much fees.” 

Data shows that resolving driver’s licence suspensions often takes years. The statewide mean clip to resoluteness a nonaccomplishment to look was 1,605 days — almost 4 and a half years. For nonaccomplishment to comply pinch fees, nan mean clip to solution was 927 days, according to Duke Wilson Center analysis, though times varied wide betwixt counties. 

In caller years, more than half of states nationwide person passed authorities to destruct aliases curb debt-based suspensions. North Carolina has not. 

Advocates person been pushing for alteration for years, highlighting nan wide effect of driver’s licence suspensions connected economical and wellness outcomes.

“We are successful nan increasing number of states that still suspend driver’s licenses for these issues that are not related to nationalist safety,” Webb said.

House Bill 980, sponsored by Rep. Allen Chesser (R-Middlesex), includes reforms that would extremity automatic announcement to nan DMV to suspend someone’s licence erstwhile nan nonaccomplishment to salary aliases nonaccomplishment to look happens. The measure proposes appropriating $250,000 for a tribunal matter reminder system.

“That doesn’t mean that nan nonaccomplishment to salary would spell distant aliases nan nonaccomplishment to look would spell away,” said Carpenter, who supports nan legislation. “It’s conscionable not straight tied to someone’s expertise to legally thrust successful nan state. We person to fig retired different measurement to guarantee compliance without taking distant thing that makes it harder to comply.”

The measure hasn’t moved since it was revenge successful April 2025.

People without a licence stay successful a hindrance — they thrust anyway, which tin substance further criminal involvement. Driving while a licence is revoked is simply a criminal discourtesy resulting successful an added good and up to 20 days successful jail. Despite this, each year, location are astir 200,000 specified cases successful North Carolina, according to a 2025 study from Duke’s Wilson Center.

Singleton, a reentry advocate, said a argumentation alteration would make economical sense.

“If we reconstruct licenses to those that want it, we person an opportunity to amended nan North Carolina workforce,” Singleton said. “If we amended nan North Carolina workforce, we amended economical development.”

Expanding driver’s licence restoration clinics

State leaders opportunity addressing licence suspensions is 1 measurement to reduce barriers to reentry.

Among nan galore goals of nan Department of Adult Correction is to make judge that each of nan much than 18,000 group released from North Carolina prisons each twelvemonth time off pinch recognition successful manus — whether a driver’s licence aliases authorities ID card. 

Holding these driver’s licence restoration clinics wrong prisons is simply a caller strategy. So far, 7 clinics person been held.

Campbell University’s Blanchard Community Law Clinic collaborated pinch nan Department of Adult Correction to tally nan first session successful autumn 2024. Now nan schoolhouse useful pinch nan section to clasp a session each semester, giving students an opportunity to activity pinch existent clients.

“The much group that we tin thief if there’s a measurement to reconstruct their driver’s license, I deliberation it really does use them and benefits their organization and makes everyone safer,” said Kris Parks, a unit lawyer astatine nan Campbell clinic. 

Duke Law sewage progressive successful helping lead driver’s licence restoration clinics wrong prisons past autumn and has now completed three, including 10 rule students who spent portion of their outpouring break helping 65 group astatine Western Correctional Center for Women connected March 10 and Craggy Correctional Center connected March 11.

Secretary Dismukes wants to support ramping up nan number of clinics held astatine prisons crossed nan state. She said she hopes to partner pinch each of North Carolina’s rule schools to make that happen.

For Treat, an lawyer astatine Pisgah Legal Services, helping group reconstruct their licence is simply a important measurement toward stableness and reentry success. 

“I deliberation it’s really conscionable benignant of almost negligent for america arsenic a nine to nonstop personification location from situation without a driver’s license,” he said. 

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