Our papers were full of stories this past week that ably illustrate this point.

* A Revere man was arrested in Salem on his 50th offense of driving with a suspended license.

* A Methuen man is scheduled for a dangerousness hearing today after being arrested Wednesday night on drunken driving charges for the ninth time.

* A Methuen family says it feels victimized by the court system after a man driving with a suspended license struck and killed a family member in 2005. The driver had his license reinstated 12 hours after the fatal accident.

These are just a few of the many instances we've reported over the years of people driving with records so bad they defy imagination. Not only should these people be barred from driving, their disregard for the law and public safety is so absolute, they deserve to be behind bars for many years.

Clearly, a suspended license means nothing to these scofflaws.

On July 16 in Salem, John O'Neal of Revere was arrested for the 50th time for driving with a suspended license. O'Neal, 55, has been sent to jail 14 times for short terms for his offenses. He has missed court or failed to pay fines 120 times. When arrested, he was awaiting trial on three other unlicensed driving charges in Lynn District Court.

His Massachusetts license was suspended in 2004 after the Registry of Motor Vehicles deemed him a habitual traffic offender. A New Hampshire driver's license was suspended in 2005 after an arrest on alcohol charges.

How many more breaks will O'Neal get? How many people's lives will be put at risk with his contempt for driving laws?

Albert Lanzo, 46, of Methuen was arrested Wednesday after police say they saw him nearly hit two trees while driving 55 mph in a 35 mph zone. Officers found two beers and two miniature bottles of whiskey in the cab of his pickup truck. It was Lanzo's ninth arrest on drunken driving charges. He has been found guilty six times. He has a seven-page record of driving offenses going back to 1979.

Lanzo has received jail sentences of up to two years for his offenses, but most of the sentences were suspended.

Clearly, as Methuen police Capt. Kris McCarthy noted, none of this has prompted Lanzo to change his behavior in any way.

On Aug. 31, 2005, Dick Gregoire was standing next to his disabled car pulled off on the side of an exit from Interstate 93 in Methuen. He was struck by an SUV driven by Daniel Gadomski. Gadomski's SUV was struck by a second vehicle, pushed forward and came to rest atop Gregoire, who was killed. Gadomski's vehicle left 88 feet of skid marks.

Gadomski was driving with a license that had been suspended eight times. His driving record, eight pages long, includes fraudulent insurance claims, failing to stop for police and at least six speeding violations. One speeding ticket was in the vehicle the night Gregoire was killed.

The next day, 12 hours after Gregoire's death, Gadomski went to the Registry and had his license reinstated.

Police ruled the incident an accident, and Gadomski received just a 90-day sentence for driving with a suspended license, second offense. He was released after 35 days.

"What kind of lessons are we sending when we keep putting reckless, selfish drivers back out on the road? Massachusetts has put the safety of the public on the back burner," Gregoire's daughter Robin Sullivan told Eagle-Tribune reporter Shawn Regan. "These suspended drivers are not afraid to drive because they know they will get a slap on the wrist."

Massachusetts courts must recognize the hazards these dangerous drivers impose on an innocent public and start locking them up for lengthy prison terms. We're not talking about drivers who make one or two errors in judgment or who made a few foolish choices in their youth. These are habitual offenders with page after page of offenses in their driving records.

There needs to be a point beyond which one can never again be licensed to drive. And if that person is caught driving again, the punishment must include a long stint in prison.

The current system isn't working. In fact, as these cases ably demonstrate, it's a joke.