Category: Commentary

“High Time for Marijuana Expungement”

Any state that legalizes or decriminalizes marijuana should automatically include an expungement provision that clears the criminal record of individuals who engaged in activities deemed lawful under the new legalization or decriminalization laws.  This is the thesis of my new article, “High Time for Criminal Justice Reform: Marijuana Expungement Statutes in States with Legalized or Decriminalized Laws.”  At the federal level, Senator Cory Booker’s recently reintroduced Senate Bill 597, the “Marijuana Justice Act of 2019,” would do just that: remove marijuana from the Schedule of Controlled Substances and expunge records of marijuana possession and use convictions.  At the same time, some local governments are focusing on more efficient and expeditious expungement processes.  Earlier this year, the San Francisco District Attorney partnered with Code for America to identify and process eligible marijuana cases, including past convictions dating back to 1975.  The Denver District Attorney launched “Turn Over a New Leaf Program,” which helps individuals who committed now-repealed marijuana-related offenses vacate the records of their convictions.  While Colorado has a marijuana sealing statute (Col. Rev. Stat. § 24-72-710 allows sealing of misdemeanor marijuana possession or use offenses if an individual files a petition, pays a filing fee plus $65, and proves that […]

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CCRC launches major study of non-conviction records

CCRC is pleased to announce that we are undertaking a major study of the public availability and use of non-conviction records – including arrests that are never charged, charges that are dismissed, deferred and diversionary dispositions, and acquittals.   Law enforcement agencies and courts frequently make these records available to the public allowing widespread dissemination on the internet, both directly and through private for-profit databases.  Their appearance in background checks can lead to significant discrimination against people who have never been convicted of a crime, and result unfairly in barriers to employment, housing, education, and many other opportunities.  Research has shown that limiting public access to these records through mechanisms like sealing and expungement is valuable in economic terms for those who receive this relief, and improvements in their economic status will in turn benefit their families and communities. While almost every U.S. jurisdiction makes some provision for limiting public access to non-conviction records, such relief varies widely in availability and effect, and is often difficult to take advantage of without a lawyer.  What’s more, arrest records may remain accessible on the internet long after official court files have been made confidential or even destroyed.  While CCRC’s Restoration of Rights Project now includes state-by-state […]

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New edition of collateral consequences treatise now available

The 2018-2019 edition of the West/NACDL treatise on collateral consequences is now available for purchase, at a publisher’s promotional discount. Wayne A. Logan has joined Margaret Love and Jenny Roberts as a co-author of this comprehensive resource: Collateral Consequences of Criminal Conviction: Law, Policy & Practice. This third edition of the treatise has been entirely updated, and includes new material on regulation of criminal background checking; consideration of collateral consequences in the criminal case; laws providing for restoration of rights and status, including in employment and occupational licensing; and, recent court decisions on sex offender registration and related penalties.  Appendices include detailed state-by-state analysis of restoration laws, and other primary source materials.  The full table of contents for this 1048-page book is available here.  The publisher describes the book as follows:  Today, many millions of Americans have a criminal record of some kind, potentially triggering a vast array of highly burdensome and stigmatizing consequences that can have life-long debilitating effects. This volume provides comprehensive discussion and analysis of these after-effects of the nation’s ongoing “tough on crime” policies, ranging from loss of civil rights and employment opportunities, to registration and residency restrictions.  It serves as a single go-to resource for practicing […]

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Prisoners fighting California fires denied licenses after release

Nick Sibilla, a legislative analyst at the Institute for Justice, has published this fine op ed piece in today’s USA Today, describing how the 2,000 state prisoners currently engaged in fighting the largest fire in California history, are barred from obtaining the necessary EMT license that would enable them to continue this work after their release.  It contains, inter alia, a description of the two bills currently pending in the California legislature that would end what Nick describes as a “bitterly ironic” situation, where prisoners gain valuable training in certain vocations that they cannot use after their release.  The piece seems particularly relevant, in light of the amazing work being done on occupational licensing reform across the country, much of it inspired by the Institute for Justice’s Model Collateral Consequences in Occupational Licensing Act.   See, e.g. New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Kansas, Indiana, Arizona, and Tennessee.  We hope California will soon join this group of enlightened jurisdictions, and that other states will follow in the coming year. Despite fighting California’s largest fires, inmates are denied licenses they need to become firefighters after they get out. by Nick Sibilla, USA Today, August 20, 2018 As California struggles to contain the largest fire in state history, […]

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Appreciating the full consequences of a misdemeanor

Misdemeanor punishment is often deemed lenient, especially in the shadow of mass incarceration’s long prison sentences.  A typical sentence for a misdemeanor commonly consists of probation and a fine.  The full collateral and informal consequences of that misdemeanor, however, will often be far more punitive.  Those consequences can include months in jail, either pretrial or as a consequence of failing to pay fines and fees; reduced employment and earning capacity triggered by arrest and conviction records; the loss of housing, public benefits, financial aid, and immigration status.  In other words, the full punitive consequences of a misdemeanor are far from lenient, and the extra-judicial consequences can so far outweigh the legal sentence that it hardly makes sense to refer to them as “collateral.” Misdemeanors have traditionally received short shrift in the legal scholarship and in the public debate over criminal justice.  But this inattention is a mistake.  Misdemeanors make up 80 percent of U.S. criminal dockets.  Most convictions in this country are for misdemeanors—this is what our criminal system does most of the time to the most people.  For a brief overview of major issues and misdemeanor scholarship, you can take a look at this survey, Misdemeanors, 11 Ann. Rev. […]

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