Category: New legislation

Press release: New report on 2018 fair chance and expungement reforms (updated)

Washington, D.C. — The Collateral Consequences Resource Center (CCRC) has released a new report documenting the extraordinary number of laws passed in 2018 aimed at reducing barriers to successful reintegration for individuals with a criminal record.  In the past twelve months, 32 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands have enacted 61 new laws aimed at avoiding or mitigating the collateral consequences of arrest and conviction, consequences that may otherwise last a lifetime.  The CCRC report analyzes the past year’s lawmaking and summarizes all 61 new authorities, which include 57 statutes, 3 executive orders, and one ballot initiative.  The report, titled “Reducing Barriers to Reintegration: Fair chance and expungement reforms in 2018,” is available to download here. 

Last year saw the most productive legislative year since a wave of “fair chance” reforms began in 2013.  CCRC documented these earlier developments in reports on the 2013-2016 reforms and 2017 reforms.  In the period 2012–2018, every state legislature has in some way addressed the problem of reintegration.  Congress has not enacted any laws dealing with the problems presented by collateral consequences for more than a decade.

The state laws enacted in 2018 aim to break down legal and other barriers to success in the courts, the workplace, the pardon process, and at the ballot box:

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California enacts modest occupational licensing reform

On September 30, 2018, California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law AB 2138, making California the twelfth state this year to enact occupational licensing reform. This flurry of legislation will make it easier for people with a criminal record to obtain occupational and professional licenses. (As discussed in recent posts, the Institute for Justice’s model occupational licensing act and the National Employment Law Project’s model state law have influenced this legislative trend.) However, California’s take on licensing reform is relatively tepid compared to more extensive reforms in states like Indiana, Kansas, New Hampshire, Tennessee, and Wisconsin.

In California, nearly 30 percent of jobs require licensure, certification, or clearance. When AB 2138 takes effect in 2020, it will prohibit licensing boards from denying a license based on certain acts not resulting in conviction, or certain less serious convictions after seven years. The law will require boards to consider rehabilitation evidence for any conviction (not just misdemeanors, as under existing law), to establish more detailed criteria for evaluating convictions, and to issue annual reports.

While a more robust version of the bill first passed the California Assembly, it was weakened in the California State Senate, and ultimately, the Senate’s version prevailed. The legislative process and bill’s provisions are discussed in more detail below.

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David Schlussel joins CCRC as its first Fellow

I am delighted to announce that David Schlussel will join CCRC as its first Fellow at the end of this month.  Most recently, David served as a law clerk for the Honorable David O. Carter on the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. While attending law school at Berkeley, David represented clients in juvenile delinquency, school discipline, and clean slate proceedings as a clinical student for the East Bay Community Law Center. He also interned at public defender offices, taught outreach courses in Juvenile Hall, and wrote a law review note on marijuana, race, and collateral consequences. David has been interested in inequities in the criminal justice system since college, when he volunteered as a GED tutor at the New Haven jail.

During his fellowship year, David will be maintaining CCRC resources, including the Restoration of Rights Project; reporting on new laws and developments in the courts; and drafting analytical pieces on significant scholarship and research relating to collateral consequences.  One of his first assignments will be preparing a round-up of the “second chance” legislation enacted during 2018 – to date, more than 50 separate laws in thirty-two states.  During his tenure, David hopes to participate in drafting an amicus brief, an opportunity that could come very soon with a major new challenge to Pennsylvania’s sex offender registration scheme pending in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
David’s piece on California’s new occupational licensing law that will post later today on the site is the first of what I expect will be many of his thought-provoking analyses of significant new “second chance” legislation.
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Marijuana decriminalization drives expungement reform

The national trend toward expanding opportunities for restoration of rights after conviction has continued to accelerate throughout 2018.  By our count, so far this year alone 31 states have broadened existing second chance laws or enacted entirely new ones, enhancing the prospects for successful reentry and reintegration for many thousands of Americans.  On November 6, Florida could take the most politically momentous step of the year if its voters approve a ballot initiative amending the state constitution to re-enfranchise more than a million and a half individuals who are now permanently barred from voting because of a past felony conviction.  We expect to publish a full report on these 2018 reforms, similar to the report we published last winter on 2017 laws, by the end of the year.  Expect it to feature the broad occupational licensing reforms enacted in more than a dozen states since last spring.

Another important series of second chance reforms this year has accompanied marijuana decriminalization.  These reforms are documented and analyzed by Professor Douglas Berman in an important new paper titled “Leveraging Marijuana Reform to Enhance Expungement Practices.”  Published in a symposium issue of the Federal Sentencing Reporter devoted to various aspects of collateral consequences and criminal records management, Professor Berman’s paper showcases issues that will becomes increasingly important as the War on Drugs winds down.  Professor Berman is the executive director of Ohio State University’s Drug Enforcement and Policy Center, whose official launch is November 2.  We expect that the Center under his management will give restoration of rights an important place on its policy agenda.

The abstract of Professor Berman’s article follows:  (more…)

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NH limits denial of licenses based on criminal record

On July 2, 2018, New Hampshire’s Governor Sununu signed into law SB 589, making his state the 10th so far in 2018 to approve comprehensive limits on consideration of criminal record in occupational and professional licensing.  Like enactments earlier this year in Indiana, Kansas, Tennessee, and Wisconsin, New Hampshire’s new law is intended to ensure that people with the requisite professional qualifications will not be unfairly denied a license based on their record of arrest or conviction.  In this respect, it reflects the provisions of the Institute for Justice’s model occupational licensing act.

New Hampshire’s new law, which goes into effect on August 31, authorizes individuals to seek a preliminary determination as to whether their criminal record will be disqualifying, and allows disqualification only based on a demonstrated public safety concern arising from the facts and circumstances of an individual’s situation.  It requires a board to give reasons for denial in writing, to explain what remedial measures an individual may take to address the board’s concerns, and limits the amount of the fee the board may charge to render its determination.  Finally, it requires each board to report annually on the number of licenses granted and denied to people with a criminal record.  The provisions of the new law are explained in further detail below.

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