Editorial: Sealing low-level offenses provides clean slate

Not every mistake leads to a life of crime, but a single crime usually leads to a life of regret.

Bipartisan bills introduced in the Pennsylvania legislature this week would automatically seal the criminal records of low-level offenders who don’t commit another offense within a set time period. If successful, the legislation, also known as the Clean Slate initiative, would make Pennsylvania the first state to automate eligible record sealing.

In many misdemeanor cases, the consequences do not match the crime. While low-level offenses can seem small, any criminal record can prevent someone from finding employment or accessing higher education. But if offenders serve their sentences and show they aren’t a danger to society, they deserve a second chance — a chance this legislation would provide.

Nonviolent misdemeanors would automatically become hidden from the public after the offender is crime-free for 10 years. Summary offenses become sealed after five years without criminal activity.

Nothing changes for people who can’t meet those criteria. Those who regularly break the law and show no intention of reforming should continue to be held accountable for whatever damage they have done.

Clean Slate draws an important distinction between these repeat offenses and those primarily guilty of poor judgment. Crimes like reckless driving and trespassing don’t necessarily represent the character of people committing them, but they follow people for their entire lives.

An estimated 70 million people — roughly one-third of all American adults — have a criminal record.

A 2009 U.S. Justice Department study found that past criminal convictions, regardless of crime, cut chances of employment in half. That negative effect was twice as large for black job-seekers as for their white counterparts with criminal records.

Employers concerned about liability often pass over qualified employees with criminal backgrounds for less competent ones, and workers with arrest records tend to gravitate toward jobs that may not inquire about past arrests. These jobs usually pay less and are a poorer match for their skills, hamstringing their future success.

It’s a well-documented reality that the people disproportionately affected by a criminal record are from low-income households, and Clean Slate proactively targets these individuals.

The Clean Slate bill expands the scope of rules Gov. Tom Wolf signed into law in February. That bill allowed Pennsylvanians who’ve gone crime-free for seven to 10 years since finishing their sentences to petition courts to seal non-violent misdemeanor convictions.

Community Legal Services Litigation Director Sharon Dietrich told ThinkProgress that thousands of Pennsylvanians qualify to have records sealed but can’t afford an attorney. By automating the process, Pennsylvania will help the people most trapped in criminal pasts and least able to escape.

It’s time for low-level criminal sentences to actually end at the judge’s deadline.