Tag: expungement

Study measures gap between availability and delivery of “second chance” relief

Professor Colleen V. Chien of Santa Clara University has published a major empirical study in the Michigan Law Review that examines the gap between eligibility for and actual delivery of relief from contact with the criminal justice system, a construct she calls the “second chance gap.” (The term is defined with examples here.) Last week, Chien led a team of law students, researchers and data analysts from Santa Clara University in launching the Paper Prisons Initiative, a project that draws on her study’s methodology to estimate this gap for each state’s record relief laws. During the current wave of criminal record reforms that began around 2013, every state legislature has taken steps to chip away at the negative effects of a record through authorizing or expanding expungement, sealing, and other forms of record relief. At the same time, it has become evident that bureaucratic and structural obstacles prevent many of these laws from achieving their full promise—particularly when they require a potential beneficiary to navigate a complex and burdensome judicial or administrative process. Last June, Professors Sonja B. Starr and J.J. Prescott published the first broad-based empirical study of a state law limiting public access to criminal records, revealing that just 6.5% of those eligible for relief in Michigan successfully completed the application process within five years. This conclusion has given additional impetus to the movement to make record-sealing automatic: six states now authorize “clean slate” relief for a range of conviction records, 16 states do so for non-conviction records, and clean slate campaigns are underway in several additional states. In “America’s Paper Prisons: The Second Chance Gap,”  Professor Chien provides a more general perspective on the gap between eligibility and delivery of second chance relief documented for Michigan by Starr and Prescott. In her article, Chien looks at three forms of relief from contact with the criminal justice system—record-clearing, restoration of voting rights, and shortening prison sentences. Based on her analysis, the paper concludes that in many cases only a small fraction of those eligible for relief (usually less than 10%) have received it. Most notably, she uses novel data collection and analysis to estimate that at least 20 to 30 million American adults have non-conviction records that appear to be clearable under existing law but that have not been cleared. In follow-up state-specific papers available on the Paper Prisons Initiative website, she and her team have estimated the second chance expungement gap in convictions relief for a number of states. I. The first part of “America’s Paper Prisons” explores the reasons for the “second chance gap”: In the same way that the accused remain innocent until proven guilty in the U.S. criminal justice system, many second chance programs require defendants to “prove” that they deserve second chances before awarding them. As such, getting one’s second chance through petition-based processes may include enduring a bureaucratic process, amassing information through a variety of sources, and being evaluated by an adjudicative or administrative body. The high cost of doing so in many cases may be insurmountable. Chien divides the barriers that contribute to the second chance gap into three categories: administrative barriers, like informational and transactional costs; structural barriers, like a requirement to pay court debt and participate in a formal court hearing; and substantive barriers, like perceptions that the costs of the process outweigh its benefits.[1] II. The second part of Chien’s paper estimates the second chance gap for an assortment of relief mechanisms, drawing on both original data collection and secondary sources. Chien uses two metrics: the “uptake gap,” which measures the share of individuals over time who are eligible and have not applied or not received relief; and the “current gap,” which looks at the share of individuals at the certain moment in time who are eligible but have not received relief. Her analysis shows, on a nearly uniform basis, that only a small percentage of eligible individuals obtain relief in petition-based programs. The relief mechanisms she studies confer different benefits, are animated by differing policy objectives, and vary in eligibility criteria and administrative process. Still, a general pattern is clear across the following second chance gaps that Chien presents: Early release of prisoners During President Obama’s Clemency Initiative, only an estimated 3% of candidates who were eligible under the program’s criteria actually received clemency.[2] Under the federal statute allowing release of federal prisoners for “extraordinary and compelling reasons” (a.k.a. “compassionate release”), just 2 federal prisoners were granted release during a 13-month period in 2015-16.[3] Two California ballot measures, one allowing resentencing and reduction in classification for people convicted of certain theft and drug possession felony convictions (Prop. 47), and another allowing the same for certain marijuana convictions (Prop. 64), had 9% and 3% estimated uptake rates, respectively. Restoration of voting rights In 12 states that require people who have lost their voting rights due to a felony conviction to apply for restoration of their rights—either through a pardon application, judicial restoration procedure, or other administrative process—an estimated 12% of those who had completed their incarceration and supervision time had regained their voting rights over the course of various sampled time periods.[4] Expungement or sealing of criminal records Chien and researchers at Santa Clara and Columbia Universities provide an estimate of the national “current gap” in non-conviction relief. They created a novel dataset of 60,000 criminal histories of gig-economy jobseekers randomly chosen at the state level, with background checks between 2017-18, and analyzed them with reference to the non-conviction record-clearance laws of all 50 states. They conclude that an estimated 28 million American adults have non-conviction records that are either fully or partially clearable (state-by-state results are also provided in the appendices). Estimated uptake rates for the expungement of eligible conviction records are generally low across several states, based on original analysis by Chien and the Paper Prisons Initiative. The following are uptake estimates for expungement of eligible conviction records: Washington (<3%); New York (<1%); North Carolina (~13%); Michigan (6.5%), Connecticut (~<3%); and for the expungement of either conviction or non-conviction records: Oregon (~6%), Colorado (5%), Delaware (6%), Iowa (~22%); Missouri (1%), Minnesota (~6%).[5] III. The third part of the paper examines practices to narrow the second chance gap, with a menu of insights for those designing and implementing record reforms. Chien illustrates how small differences in how a law is drafted or implemented can lead to divergent outcomes, even when the burden of delivering relief is placed on the government. For example, Alaska and Vermont both have rules purporting to restrict the dissemination of non-conviction records after specified time periods. Alaska prohibits online publication of a case sixty days after all charges result in acquittal or non-dismissal. Vermont courts seal records 12 months after a dismissal or finding of no probable cause. But while Vermont non-conviction records almost never appear on background checks, Alaskan records do, likely owing to the Vermont state repository’s decision not to report information on non-convictions even before the 12-month waiting period has run. This section includes a useful discussion of how to draft eligibility criteria to allow for implementation at scale, including avoiding “hard-to-ascertain criteria” that present administrability problems. For instance, determining whether fines and fees have been paid is a constant challenge, very specific offenses grade and classification requirements are not always recorded, and specific disposition criteria are vulnerable to changes in definition and “unclean” (inaccurate or incomplete) data (Table 5). IV. Chien’s final section discusses several open policy and research questions concerning access to relief (the inequities of debt-related barriers to automated relief[6]; the challenges of unclean data and ambiguous dispositions) and the effect of relief (the persistence of sealed records on the internet and in electronic databases[7]; the lack of notice to beneficiaries of automatic relief). Chien also tackles a concern at the intersection of automatic record relief and racial discrimination in hiring. Studies have found that “Ban the Box” policies, which prohibit criminal history inquiries until later in the hiring process, can lead employers—in the absence of this information—to discriminate against young men of color on the assumption that they have criminal records. Professors Jennifer Doleac and Sarah Lageson, who conducted some of these studies, argued last year that a similar harmful effect might result from broad-based automatic sealing laws. Here, Chien distinguishes automatic sealing from Ban the Box by arguing that because automatic sealing does not apply to all records, but only to a subset of records that meet specific eligibility criteria, employers “won’t know what they are missing,” and as a result will be less likely to replace individualized determinations with generalized discrimination. However, Chien acknowledges the need for more data and research, and that implementation matters. Another open question not addressed here is the extent to which access barriers can be diminished short of a full “clean slate” solution. While there is growing support for automatic relief, especially when it comes to restoring voting rights and clearing many criminal records, it seems that individualized review is likely to remain the norm in the near term for questions like early release from prison or sealing a serious felony conviction. In many cases, full discretionary review may be replaced with a presumption in favor of relief, which can be overcome following official objection. Moreover, even when a discretionary decision is required, barriers can be minimized by such measures as assigning administrative tasks to the government and providing counsel to those who need it (two key provisions in Virginia’s “transformative” new record-sealing legislation). Overall, Prof. Chien’s study makes wide-ranging contributions to the field of criminal record relief, bringing to the fore the urgency and challenges of narrowing the second chance gap. CCRC was pleased to assist with Chien’s analysis of state laws for expunging non-conviction records.  We are also a partner on the new Paper Prisons Initiative, which “conducts empirical research to draw attention to the tens of millions of Americans burdened by contact with the criminal justice system despite being eligible for relief from this contact,” and which has already produced reports estimating the “second chance gap” for record relief in 10 states. [1] By comparison, Starr and Prescott attribute the low uptake of Michigan expungements to six likely factors: (1) lack of information; (2) administrative hassle and time constraints; (3) fees and costs; (4) distrust and fear of the criminal justice system; (5) lack of counsel; and (6) insufficient motivation. [2] Chien cites a study of the Initiative by the U.S. Sentencing Commission that attributed at least some part of this gap to President Obama’s decision to apply the criteria announced at the outset of the Initiative more flexibly, and to other administrative issues. In the end, only 5% of those who received commutations satisfied all of the announced criteria. See Glenn Schmitt et al, U.S. Sent’g Comm’n, An Analysis of the Implementation of the 2014 Clemency Initiative (2017), https://www.ussc.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/research-and-publications/research-publications/2017/20170901_clemency.pdf. [3] Chien notes that the requirement that the Bureau of Prisons support a prisoner’s petition for compassionate release was repealed by the First Step Act in 2018, resulting in a substantial increase in petitions granted by federal courts. In 2020 health risks due to COVID-19 led to many more grants. [4] Chien notes that this estimated percentage may be low because it does not account for the small subset of offenses ineligible for reenfranchisement or for felony-reenfranchisement waiting times. It also does not appear to account for people who have completed incarceration and supervision but remain ineligible to restore their voting rights due to outstanding court debt, in at least some of the states in question (i.e., Alabama, Arizona, Tennessee). [5] The uptake estimates are derived from the Paper Prisons Initiative’s multi-year comparison of estimated eligible records with estimated expungement rates (except the Michigan estimate, which is based on the Prescott and Starr empirical study). These figures, provided by Chien, were updated from the time of her paper’s publication to take into account a November 2020 SEARCH report, and are available on the Paper Prisons website, https://paperprisons.org, within the individual state expungement or sealing gap reports. See Becki Goggins et al.; Survey of State Criminal History Information Systems, 2020: A Criminal Justice Information Policy Report, SEARCH (2020), available at https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/bjs/grants/255651.pdf. [6] Notably, Pennsylvania enacted legislation last year eliminating unpaid fines and fees (excluding restitution and a filing fee) as barriers to existing automated and petition-based sealing. [7] Virginia’s newly enrolled record-sealing legislation includes a provision requiring that private companies that buy and sell criminal records to routinely delete sealed records (this is also the current practice of Pennsylvania state courts). The bill creates a private right of action for individuals against companies that refuse to do so. Read more

The Clean Slate Initiative works to advance automated record clearance

We are pleased to publish a description of the Clean Slate Initiative we invited from its newly installed Managing Director. The Clean Slate Initiative: Working to Ensure A Criminal Record is Not a Life Sentence to Poverty By Sheena Meade* As our nation responds to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is an imperative that lawmakers enact policies that include the tens of millions of justice-involved people and their families— already facing economic vulnerability from the stigma of a criminal record. One in three Americans, 70 million people, have some type of criminal record, and these records can create lifelong barriers to opportunity for them and their families.  Nearly 9 in 10 employers, 4 in 5 landlords, and 3 in 5 colleges are now using background checks. Any record—no matter how old or minor—can put employment, housing, education, and other basics permanently out of reach.  This harm is generational: Nearly half of children have at least one parent with a criminal record, resulting in difficulty for their parents to secure stable employment, economic stability and housing — all of which lead to less educational opportunities and hindered cognitive development.  While most states allow people to petition for expungement or sealing of at least certain types of records, due to the cumbersome and complicated petition-based system used in most states, only a tiny fraction of people eligible for expungement or sealing ever obtain the relief they need. Navigating the complex record-clearing process can prove extremely challenging, often requiring expensive legal assistance and court fees—making it impossible for millions to move on with their lives. As a national bipartisan coalition, the Clean Slate Initiative is working to fix this broken system in states across the country by advancing policies to automatically clear eligible criminal records. By sealing or expunging certain records after an individual remains crime free for a period of time we can remove these barriers, get people back to work and open the door to opportunity for them and their family.  Over the next two years, the Clean Slate Initiative is working with state partners in over a dozen states to launch legislative efforts to automate record clearing, expand eligibility and support implementation.  We’ve already seen the success of clean slate legislation in Pennsylvania. In just one year of implementation in Pennsylvania, nearly 35 million cases and 47.3 million offenses have been sealed from public view — helping more than 1.15 million Pennsylvanians get relief. And now, Pennsylvania is moving to expand its clean slate legislation to include more individuals and eliminate barriers to expungement. Utah passed a similar Clean Slate bill and is in the process of implementing the new law.  Now, we’re working with state partners in Michigan, North Carolina, New York, Washington, Louisiana, Connecticut and more to expand the bipartisan movement for automated record expungement growing across the country. This movement has grown into national momentum for Congress to hear a bipartisan proposal for sealing criminal records at the federal level.  Clean slate policies give millions of individuals who have earned a second chance the opportunity to better their lives and meaningfully contribute to their communities. Particularly in a time with unique challenges for our society and economy during a pandemic, we must consider the disproportionate economic vulnerability of justice-involved people and ensure the stigma that comes with a record is not a life sentence to poverty.  *Sheena Meade transforms pain into purpose and power. Prior to joining the Clean Slate Initiative as its first Managing Director, Sheena served in a variety of leadership roles focused on building long-term, sustainable change for communities. Most recently, Sheena served as a Criminal Justice Program Officer at Galaxy Gives, a philanthropic investment organization, where she advised grantees and helped develop and lead a Criminal Justice Fellowship program to help grantees hone professional skills to build stronger, more impactful organizations.   Read more

Model law proposes automatic expungement of non-conviction records

An advisory group drawn from across the criminal justice system has completed work on a model law that recommends automatic expungement of most arrests and charges that do not result in conviction.  Margaret Love and David Schlussel of the Collateral Consequences Resource Center served as reporters for the model law.  It is available in PDF and HTML formats. “Many people may not realize how even cases that terminate in a person’s favor lead to lost opportunities and discrimination,” says Sharon Dietrich, Litigation Director of Community Legal Services of Philadelphia, and one of the advisors of the model law project.  “Over the years, my legal aid program has seen thousands of cases where non-convictions cost people jobs.” In proposing broad restrictions on access to and use of non-conviction records, the project aims to contribute to conversations underway in legislatures across the country about how to improve opportunities for people with a criminal record.  Already in 2019, states have enacted more than 130 new laws addressing the collateral consequences of arrest and conviction.  The group regards its model as the first step in a broader law reform initiative that will address conviction records as well. Law enforcement officials make over 10 million arrests each year, a substantial percentage of which do not lead to charges or conviction.  Records of these arrests have become widely available as a result of digitized records systems and a new commerce in background screening and data aggregation.  These checks often turn up an “open” arrest or charges without any final disposition, which may seem to an employer or landlord more ominous than a closed case. Very few states have taken steps to deal with the high percentage of records in repositories and court systems with no final disposition indicated.  Paul McDonnell, Deputy Counsel for New York’s Office of Court Administration and a project advisor, noted: “Criminal records that include no final disposition make it appear to the untrained eye that an individual has an open, pending case, which can have serious results for that person. New York has recently made legislative progress in addressing this problem, though more can be done.” Current state and federal laws restricting access to and use of non-conviction records have limited application and are hard to enforce.  Eligibility criteria tend to be either unclear or restrictive, and petition-based procedures tend to be burdensome, expensive, and intimidating.  In recent years, lawmakers and reform advocates have expressed a growing interest in curbing the widespread dissemination and use of non-convictions, leading some states to simplify and broaden eligibility for relief, reduce procedural and financial barriers to access, and in a handful of states to make relief automatic. Rep. Mike Weissman, a Colorado State Representative and model law project advisor, noted that Colorado has recently overhauled its laws on criminal records with broad bipartisan support.  “It is heartening to see similar reforms underway in other states, both red and blue, as well.  I commend the practitioners and researchers who helped formulate the model law for illustrating avenues for further progress in reducing collateral consequences.” The model law would take this wave of criminal record reforms to a new level.  It recommends that expungement be immediate and automatic where all charges are terminated in favor of an accused.  Uncharged arrests should also be automatically expunged after a brief waiting period, as should dismissed or acquitted charges in cases where other charges result in conviction.  Cases that indicate no final disposition should also be expunged, unless there is indication that they are in fact pending. The model law also recommends that expunged non-conviction records should not be used against a person in a range of criminal justice decisions, including by law enforcement agencies.  It would prohibit commercial providers of criminal background checks from disseminating expunged and dated non-conviction records, and civil decision-makers from considering them. David LaBahn, President of the national Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, indicated that organization’s support for the model law, stating that the collateral consequences of non-convictions “do not serve to make the community safer,” and that “the current structures in place to expunge a non-conviction record can be confusing and difficult for the layperson to navigate alone.” This model law sets the stage for jurisdictions to address record relief for convictions more generally, and its structure and principles can be brought to bear on that important work. The Collateral Consequences Resource Center organized this model law project.  An early draft of the model law was discussed at an August 2019 Roundtable conference at the University of Michigan that was supported by the Charles Koch Foundation.  The model law report was supported by Arnold Ventures. Read the model law in PDF or HTML. Read more

Vermont AG supports opportunities for diversion and expungement

Vermont Business Magazine recently showcased the leadership shown by Vermont Attorney General TJ Donovan in criminal justice reform.  Most notably, he has streamlined the process for seeking expungement, and increased opportunities to avoid a record entirely through greater use of diversion for less serious offenses.  The importance of enabling people to avoid a criminal record altogether through these two mechanisms cannot be overstated.  Donovan also championed last year’s bail reforms that will ensure low-income individuals are not held in jail prior to trial simply because they are poor. The article is worth posting in full as an illustration of a new breed of prosecutor committed to reducing the ill effects of the “tough on crime” era on individuals and communities least able to overcome them. Attorney General TJ Donovan will testify today before the Joint Legislative Justice Oversight Committee in support of expungements for low-level offenses, one of the signature issues of his Community Justice Division. The Community Justice Division has made significant progress in a wide range of criminal justice reform initiatives. Notably, referrals to Court Diversion programs have more than doubled in the past year. Also, the bail reform bill the Community Justice Division advocated for is now law. In addition, the process of seeking an expungement has been streamlined and charges that do not result in convictions will be expunged or sealed rapidly in most cases. The Community Justice Division was created by Attorney General Donovan in 2017. Since July 2017, the rate of referral to all Court Diversion programs in Vermont has more than doubled, from 10% to 24%. The steep increase in Court Diversion participation is the result of statutory and programmatic changes led by Attorney General Donovan. Act 61, passed in 2017, made important changes to the Court Diversion and Pretrial Services programs in order to expand access. The majority of Diversion participants are charged with misdemeanors, such as disorderly conduct, petit larceny, and unlawful mischief. Referrals to Court Diversion programs are made by State’s Attorneys and all Diversion programs are administered by the Attorney General’s Office. “The Diversion model allows individuals the opportunity to take responsibility for their actions, repair the harm they have done, and get the help they need to make their victims, the community, and themselves whole,” said Attorney General Donovan. Once a participant successfully completes Diversion his or her case will be dismissed. Act 61 also created the new Tamarack Program, which provides a court diversion path for individuals who suffer from mental health and substance abuse challenges. Remarking on the increase in referrals, Attorney General Donovan stated, “I am very pleased to see the remarkable expansion of Diversion statewide and I am grateful to our legislative partners and the State’s Attorneys for their assistance in these reforms. This expansion will give more Vermonters the chance to repair harm they may have done to their community without carrying the burden of a criminal conviction that could damage their chances for stable and productive lives.” The Attorney General also championed a significant bail reform bill during the 2018 legislative session, which is now law. The bail reform law, Act 164, contains a package of reforms to ensure low-income individuals are not held in jail prior to trial simply because they are poor. “Staying in prison even for a short time can have dire economic consequences and a devastating effect on families,” Attorney General Donovan said. “Bail reform will help ensure that only those who are a danger to the community or a genuine risk of flight from prosecution will be held in jail prior to trial.” Attorney General Donovan has taken a leading role in supporting expungements for low-level offenses. Expungements erase an individual’s criminal record after they have lived without further criminal involvement for a period of time. General Donovan is scheduled to testify today before the Joint Legislative Justice Oversight Committee that the legislature should further lower barriers to expungement by decreasing the fees necessary to file a petition for expungement with the courts. “Expungement is a vital tool for increasing access to jobs and economic opportunity for low-income Vermonters,” said Attorney General Donovan. Beyond these two areas, the Community Justice Division has supported the expansion of medication-assisted treatment for Vermont inmates. “This type of support for addicted inmates is a vital issue of public safety for Vermonters and their families. It will save lives while reducing unsafe, addiction-driven behavior in our communities.” The Attorney General’s Community Justice Division was created by Attorney General Donovan in 2017. It houses and supports the Mental Health Crisis Response Commission, which investigates police interactions with mentally ill individuals in order to promote safer outcomes and protect life and dignity. It also houses and supports the Racial Disparities in Criminal and Juvenile Justice Advisory Board, looking for ways to address and end the injustice of unequal outcomes on the basis of race in criminal and juvenile proceedings. The Community Justice Division also lends assistance to the Vermont NEA’s efforts to cut the school-to-prison pipeline with its Racial Justice Taskforce. Read more

More states enact major “second chance” reforms

In recent weeks, three more states — Colorado, Louisiana and Vermont — have enacted laws intended to make it easier for people with a criminal record to find and keep employment, or otherwise to regain rights and status. We are just now noting Wyoming’s enactment in March 2018 of general standards for professional and occupational licensure, which impose new restrictions on how criminal record may be taken into account by licensing agencies, and its amendment of more than a dozen specific licensing laws. In the first five months of 2018 alone, a total of 21 states have enacted legislation to improve opportunities for people with a criminal record, with more similar laws evidently on the way.  States have enacted several different types of “second chance” laws this year, from expansion of voting rights to expansion of judicial authority to relieve collateral consequences at sentencing. On May 25, Vermont Governor Phil Scott signed into law an expansion of the state’s expungement authority for both adult and juvenile offenders, reducing waiting periods and other eligibility criteria for qualifying felony and misdemeanor convictions.  The new law also authorizes courts to expunge non-conviction records 12 months after the conclusion of the case, without need for a petition from the defendant, and without regard to the nature of the offense.  This is the third time in recent years that Vermont has extended eligibility for expungement. On May 29, Colorado Governor Hickenlooper signed a bill extending the state’s existing authority for sentencing courts to waive application of collateral consequences affecting employment, licensing, and other opportunities and benefits, to make this relief available in all cases regardless of sentence.  Previously this waiver authority was available only in cases involving a community-based penalty.  Courts are authorized to take action as early as sentencing and throughout the period an individual is under sentence.  In this respect, the law resembles the authority proposed by the American Law Institute in the collateral consequences provisions of its new Mode Penal Code: Sentencing.  The Colorado law is described in detail in the Colorado profile from the Restoration of Rights Project. At the end of May, Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards approved several “second chance” bills:  One new law extends voting rights to anyone under sentence for a felony who has not been actually incarcerated in the past five years; two additional laws make minor adjustments to the state expungement law, to exempt deferred adjudication cases from the 15-year eligibility waiting period for a second expungement, and to add to the requirements for filing an expungement motion.  Another new law requires the governor to conduct regular periodic reviews of the standards applied by occupational licensing agencies.  As finally enacted, this last-mentioned law substantially watered down provisions in earlier versions of the legislation that would have limited agency consideration of criminal records in licensing actions. Earlier this spring, Wyoming enacted a new provision of its general state licensing code establishing a “direct relationship” standard for consideration of conviction by all licensing agencies not otherwise subject to a specific contrary statutory standard. See Wyo. Stat. § 33-1-304.  See Enrolled Act 63 (March 2018), available at http://www.wyoleg.gov/2018/Enroll/SF0042.pdf.  This provision prohibits consideration of prior convictions that are more than 20 years old, except where the person is still under sentence or the sentence was completed fewer than 10 years ago, and unless the elements of the offense are “directly related to the specific duties and responsibilities of that profession or occupation.”  Among the new law’s policies is that agencies should ensure that applicants have an adequate opportunity to appeal a denial. Wyoming also amended more than a dozen specific professional and occupational licensing statutes to rescind vague qualifications like “good moral character,” and to substitute functional criteria specifically tying the nature of a particular crime to the licensed activity pursuant to a direct relationship standard.  Licensing schemes affected include those regulating teachers, guides and outfitters, engineers, veterinarians, and nursing home administrators.  Licensing standards for chiropractors, nurses, optometrists, dental hygienists, social workers, and marriage and family counselors and substance abuse counselors were also amended.  Securities dealers and investment advisers, insurance agents, and athlete agents are covered by the reforms. Legislatures in several other states have passed bills that are currently awaiting approval of the governor, including Illinois, New Hampshire, and Tennessee.  The only “second chance” legislation we know of that was disapproved by the governor is the South Carolina legislature’s unsuccessful attempt to authorize expungement of drug convictions. We expect again to provide a summary of all new laws enacted in 2018 toward the end of the year, and we will also be keeping the state profiles and other resources in the Restoration of Rights Project up to date in real time.       Read more