Over the last year, DJC has had the pleasure of working with JoLu Productions, The Fines and Fees Justice Center, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to create the short documentary Fined Out: Road to Restoration–Michigan. The film shows how Michiganders face a cycle of fines and fees that can lead to incarceration, and the work being done via DJC’s Road to Restoration clinics and Operation Drive to help people reinstate their driver’s licenses and get back on the road. The Fined Out team also created a film about how people who were directly impacted by fines and fees advocated in the legislature to stem that oppressive system in New Mexico. On the evening of September 23rd, we were thrilled to invite our community to a live screening of both films with two panel discussions that were livestreamed on Instagram and have been uploaded to YouTube (you can watch them here and here.)
Our audience was welcomed by DJC’s Paralegal Jasmine Valentine and JoLu Producer Sarah O, who introduced the Michigan film, and Sarah let the audience know that the next extension of the project would be a game that allows people to experience how fines and fees can become an insurmountable obstacle that can lead to incarceration. Following the viewing of the film, there was a policy panel, moderated by Megan Thibos of the United Way of SE Michigan and featuring DJC staff attorney Shareece McCauley, Phil Mayor of the ACLU, and Jayesh Patel of Street Democracy. The panel discussed MI traffic enforcement prior to 2021, and the task force that led to several criminal legal reforms in the state. Shareece then spoke about the need to create the Road to Restoration clinics to ensure that those reforms had the intended impact, while Phil spoke to challenging the unconstitutional practices of fines and fees in SE Michigan.
While panelists focused on traffic enforcement and the courts, they also discussed how Detroit’s excessive auto insurance rates set people up for failure. The panelists agreed that the majority of uninsured drivers were uninsured simply because costs are too high, and not because they want to disobey the law. All three panelists argued that advocacy was a key way to make change, as well as voting for judges who play a huge role in fines and fees enforcement.
After a brief intermission, DJC’s Executive Director Nancy A Parker spoke to the audience about the way jurisdictions are funded on fines and fees, and how the system was meant to exacerbate the divide between the haves and have-nots. She then invited the audience to watch Fined Out’s New Mexico film.
We then welcomed our lived experience panel, moderated by MI Liberation’s Marjon Parham, to the front of the room. Our two panelists, Mercedes Parrish and Ebony Williams, were both DJC clients who, after working with Rubina Mustafa, were able to restore their licenses. Marjon invited the panelists to speak to how they came to a place where they sought the help they needed. Mercedes spoke about having three disabled children at home that she needed to transport to doctor’s appointments and being tired of always looking over her shoulder while driving with a suspended license. Ebony shared that she hadn’t had a license for ten years. When she went to have her name changed at the Secretary of State, they wouldn’t allow it if she had outstanding fines, fees, or warrants. She was connected with DJC to help with that process. Both Mercedes and Ebony have now been able to drive legally for years, and they encouraged anyone in the audience who needed help to seek it; Mercedes also encouraged anyone who had experienced a license suspension to speak out about it and make change.
We are so grateful to our moderators and panelists, to Sarah O for traveling to Detroit for the screening, and, of course, to our audience in person and online for a fantastic evening. Stream Road to Restoration: Michigan and Road to Reform: New Mexico online for free by visiting finedout.com. If you were unable to attend and want to keep up to date on our fines and fees work, please sign up for our newsletter here.