Some people live by the saying "the punishment should fit the crime." I don't agree with these people on all crimes, but it is true that some punishments could be changed for the better.
For a simple example, think about the punishment for driving uninsured or without a valid drivers license. Currently, driving without a valid license or insurance is a misdemeanor in Indiana. A court appearance is required, and usually the person's driving license is suspended for a period the court recommends. Unfortunately, if some people are willing to drive without licenses or insurance in the first place, they will probably continue to drive even after the court suspends their licenses.
There has to be a better way of taking people like this off the road. We wouldn't want to implement anything too harsh-¡-¡-¡ - just a law to ensure people who drive without insurance or a license will stay out of the driver's seat. We might do well to look to some overseas countries for guidance. Scotland has a promising and ingenious way to keep these people from driving - by destroying their cars if they are caught.
According to The Courier - a newspaper based in Dundee, Scotland - a driver caught without a license or insurance in a city called Tayside could have his car confiscated and destroyed. Before anyone thinks this punishment is a bit harsh, the cars aren't destroyed immediately after they are taken. The drivers have seven days to provide valid documents to get their cars released. If the documents aren't provided within the seven-day grace period, the cars go to the junkyard to be crushed.
I think we could take this law from Scotland and make it our own. People who break simple laws put everyone on the road at risk. If someone is driving without a license, it probably means he wasn't capable of passing simple driving tests or shouldn't be behind the wheel because of past infractions. I don't want an incompetent or dangerous driver on the roads with me. Drivers who don't have insurance cost everyone money because of higher premiums and the damage they cause when they do have accidents. Lives and money could easily be saved if we kept these people off the road.
I can't think of a better deterrent that would keep people from driving when they shouldn't. Let us imagine I'm a criminal. If I didn't have a license or insurance, I wouldn't be too worried about getting pulled over and having my license revoked. I would go to court, receive my punishment and totally ignore it. I already proved that I didn't care about the law when I broke it in the first place, why not break it again and suffer another meaningless penalty?
If my car were going to be taken from me and destroyed, though, it would be a whole different situation. I would think twice about whether or not to get behind the wheel because of the penalty. In most situations, it would probably be relatively easy to fix any problem that kept me from obtaining a valid drivers license or insurance. On the other hand, it wouldn't be that easy to replace my car because they tend to cost more than the average criminal has sitting around the house. Even without the financial loss, I wouldn't want to lose my car because then I wouldn't have anything to drive if I did fix the problem.
The only people who would be opposed to a law similar to Scotland's are those who break the law in the first place. All of us law-abiding citizens wouldn't have anything to worry about-¡-¡ - except maybe longer lines at the junkyard.
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