Category: Commentary

Michigan to be sixth state with automatic conviction relief

*Update (10/12/20): Gov. Whitmer signed the legislation into law. On September 23, the Michigan legislature approved a series of bills that would dramatically reform that state’s “set-aside” authority, colloquially known as “expungement.” The bills, which are headed to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for signature, would significantly expand eligibility for expungement under the existing petition-based application system, and establish a new automatic mechanism to expunge certain convictions without a person having to ask for it. It is estimated that the bills will make hundreds of thousands of Michiganders eligible for expungement for the first time, and that relief will be delivered automatically to a significant percentage of them when the automatic feature becomes operative in October 2022. The other provisions of the bills are effective immediately. This package would make Michigan the sixth state to enact an automatic conviction-sealing law covering a range of offenses. It would also make Michigan the third state to make relief automatic for some felony convictions, joining New Jersey and California. (An additional three states plus California have enacted more specialized laws to automatically seal low-level marijuana convictions.) The specific provisions of the Michigan bills, as well as automatic sealing laws in other states, are discussed below.

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“The Many Roads to Reintegration”: A 50-state report on laws restoring rights and opportunities

We are pleased to release a new report describing the present landscape of laws in the United States aimed at restoring rights and opportunities after an arrest or conviction. This report, titled The Many Roads to Reintegration, is an update and refresh of our previous national survey, last revised in 2018. The report covers voting and firearms rights, an array of record relief remedies such as expungement and pardon, and consideration of criminal record in employment and occupational licensing. In each section of the report we assign a grade to each state for each type of relief. We collate these grades to produce an overall ranking on the nine categories that we graded. That ranking is reproduced below. We are encouraged by the amazing progress that has been made in the past few years toward neutralizing the effect of a criminal record since the present reform era got underway less than a decade ago. The last two years in particular have produced a bumper crop of new laws in almost every U.S. jurisdiction. Some of our top performers have been long-time leaders in promoting reintegration, including Illinois, Utah, and Minnesota. But some of the most progressive lawmaking has come from states […]

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Who Must Pay to Regain the Vote? A 50-State Survey

We are pleased to publish a new 50-state report on how unpaid court debt blocks restoration of voting rights lost as a result of conviction: Who Must Pay to Regain the Vote? A 50-State Survey This report examines the extent to which state reenfranchisement laws consider payment of legal financial obligations (LFOs), including fines, fees, and restitution, in determining whether and when to restore voting rights to people disenfranchised due to a felony conviction. This issue has come to the fore as a result of the high-stakes federal litigation in Florida over that state’s 2018 ballot initiative, which many expected would restore voting rights to more than a million people disenfranchised because of their criminal record, in some cases for crimes that occurred decades ago. However, the initiative has been interpreted by Florida’s legislature and supreme court to condition reenfranchisement on payment of all outstanding fines, fees, costs, and restitution, which threatens to drastically limit its anticipated reach. After a group of voters and organizations sued, a federal judge found this “pay-to-vote” system unconstitutional. The case is currently on appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. CCRC expects to file an amicus brief next week that […]

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IRS blocks stimulus tax relief to people in prison; court orders relief

*Update (10/19/20): Per federal court orders, incarcerated individuals may now apply for stimulus payments.  The current deadline to apply is November 4, 2020.  More information is available at this link. In response to the public health and economic challenges of COVID-19, Congress in March 2020 enacted the CARES Act.  We have written at length about the Small Business Administration’s unfortunate and unauthorized disqualification of small business owners from Paycheck Protection and disaster relief because of their criminal record.  It turns out that the SBA is not the only federal agency discriminating against people with a record in carrying out the CARES Act.  The IRS has also gotten into the act, in what may be an even more lawless fashion. The CARES Act authorizes stimulus payments in the form of a tax rebate of $1200 per adult and $500 per child for households with incomes below a certain level.  See P.L. 116-136, sec. 2201.  Specific categories of individuals are excluded from receiving these payments (e.g., any “nonresident alien individual” or an estate or trust), but nothing in the CARES Act excludes people who happen to be in prison or jail or any other detention facility.  Likewise, no federal regulation excludes incarcerated […]

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CCRC in the Post: Protesting should not result in a lifelong record

CCRC’s Margaret Love and David Schlussel published an op-ed in the Washington Post on Monday: “Protesting should not result in a lifelong criminal record.”  The piece begins: Sparked by the killing of George Floyd on May 25, protesters across the country have been demonstrating against police violence and racism. As of June 4, the Associated Press tallied more than 10,000 arrests during and after protests, and the number has surely increased. Most of those arrested will almost certainly be released without charges or have their charges dropped. Others will face charges and may be convicted. Regardless of the outcome, the mere fact of an arrest will leave a person with a criminal record in most states, creating long-term barriers to employment and housing, and in other areas of daily life. Protesters should not wind up with a lifelong criminal record. States should provide for automatic expungement of records that do not result in a conviction, particularly where the government does not even bring charges. States should also expand the availability of relief for convictions. . . . . Our research indicates that automatic or expedited expungement of many non-conviction records is available in 15 states, thanks to recent reforms. Thirty-three additional […]

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