Many people with a criminal record have the chance to have their record wiped clean thanks to clean slate laws. Reducing housing and employment discrimination can be achieved by making a criminal record no longer public. People who were unfairly targeted to begin with will be given a second chance. Expungement is seen as a way to address the errors of a legal system based on race.
There is a second chance gap caused by court petitions that cause people to drop out of the expungement process or never try at all. A study in Michigan found that only a small percentage of people were successful in completing the process. By making the process both automatic and automated, many hope that expungement can reach more people, particularly those who can't afford an attorney, or who don't want to re engage with the court system. Automatic record clearance has been implemented in over a dozen states.
Many states don't have the data infrastructure needed to seal criminal records. Tens of thousands of people who are legally eligible for record clearance are waiting. New research in California shows that a clean slate law may have the effect of increasing racial inequality because it's written so narrowly. People with more serious records are usually excluded from clean slate policies. The issue of who has a more serious criminal record is based on race, neighborhood, and income.
bipartisan support has been given to clean slate laws. It is possible to make laws politically acceptable to both sides of the aisle. A recent public opinion survey found that nearly 55 percent of respondents were opposed to expungement due to the fact that it kept communities safe. Less than 15% of respondents felt that a person shouldn't be able to get an expungement, with support for record clearance policy rising for property and substance-related offenses and after a person has been crime-free for seven to ten years. Expungement policy for low-level, non-violent crimes has been encouraged by both the political framework and public opinion.
The violent/nonviolent crime dichotomy is complicated by the fact that many states deem a wide range of offenses to be violent. We often think of crime-free as being more complex than it really is. Criminal behavior can be measured by new arrests or criminal charges. It's possible to be stopped by police if you live in an overpoliced neighborhood.
There are over two million Californians who have been arrested at least once. Black people were more likely to have been convicted of a criminal charge and were more likely to have a felony record. 40 percent of black people are barred from expungement due to the type of crime, compared to 26 to 31 percent of other people. Black people are more likely to have felony convictions that prevent them from getting their records expunged. Black people are less likely to have a conviction that fits the criteria and are more likely to have been sentenced to prison for their conviction, making them ineligible for record clearance.
According to the study authors,Automating record clearance alone is not going to reduce racial disparity in who has a criminal record A policy change that extends record clearance eligibility to a wider range of cases will be needed to reduce the racial gap. This isn't a technology problem, it's a political problem
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