Several 
state 
lawmakers 
introduced a new expungement 
reform plan package on Sept. 
9. 
The 
package 
includes 
six separate bills aimed at 
changing 
various 
aspects 
of the state’s expungement 
system. Expungement refers 
to the legal process of sealing 
a past criminal offence to 
make them unavailable. 
If passed, the bills would 
allow for a shortened eligibility 
period, 
expungement 
for 
crimes 
that 
are 
currently 
permissible under current law, 
coverage of a wider range of 
offenses and more.
According to one of the 
package’s sponsors, state Rep. 
Yousef Rabhi, D-Ann Arbor, 
issues exist with the current 
expungement system. 

“Once someone has been 
convicted of a misdemeanor 
or a felony and they have 
served 
their 
time, 
their 
crimes 
are 
still 
on 
their 
record which is something 
that prevents people, often, 
from 
getting 
employment 
or 
housing 
opportunities,” 
Rabhi said. “So, making sure 
people have a clean slate once 
they’ve paid their debt to 
society is important so that 
we 
can 
reduce 
recidivism 
and the amount of folks that 
are becoming reincarcerated 
because 
they 
can’t 
find 
employment or housing.”
According to Rabhi, much 
of the bill puts a focus on 
marijuana-related 
charges. 
This comes after the passage of 
Proposition 1 last year, making 
recreational 
marijuana 
use 
legal in the state of Michigan.
“We’ve specifically tried 

to address marijuana related 
crimes that are legal under 
current law and allowing those 
expungements to be expedited 
as well,” Rabhi said. “Again, 
this package doesn’t go as far 
as it could, but this is a serious 
step in the right direction, and 
it’s going farther than most 
states in the country are.”
According 
to 
LSA 
senior 
Eric 
TerBush, 
who 
contributes cannabis content 
to 
Detroit-based 
financial 
news organization Benzinga, 
creating 
a 
strong, 
all-
encompassing 
system 
for 
cannabis, including criminal 
justice 
reform, 
happens 
incrementally.
“We 
didn’t 
get 
to 
recreational 
cannabis 
overnight, 
we 
didn’t 
get 
to a wide medical system 
overnight,” TerBush said. “It 
was small steps forward on 
the hard work of a lot 
of people who are very 
passionate, 
and 
don’t 
imagine 
expungement 
will be any different 
than that same hard 
work by those people 
stepping forward.” 
Hannah Agnew, LSA 
senior and president of 
the Student Executive 
Committee 
for 
the 
Prison 
Creative 
Arts 
Project, said while the 
package is a good start 
for 
tackling 
criminal 
justice reform, there is 
more work to be done.
“I’m 
definitely 
hopeful,” Agnew said. 
“It’s really important to 
be looking at disparities 
in drug laws, especially 
because 
there 
are 
so 
many 
folks 
that 
are 
incarcerated 
on 
minor drug laws. That 
shouldn’t 
take 
away 
from the fact that mass 
incarceration 
is 
also 
affecting 
people 
with 
more serious laws, and 
it’s not just people with 

those minor drug offenses 
that we should be looking at.”
Rabhi 
said 
the 
disproportionate 
nature 
of 
drug-related 
convictions 
makes 
expungement 
an 
economic inequality issue.
“If you have the resources 
to hire an attorney and work 
through the legal process, 
once 
you’re 
eligible 
for 
expungement, it’s easy to get 
your record expunged,” Rabhi 
said. “But for the vast majority 
of Michiganders that don’t 
have access to those resources, 
it’s a financial burden.”
TerBush said one concern 
he 
has 
about 
automatic 
expungement is that many 
marijuana 
convictions 
may 
not tell the whole story of the 
case.
“Something 
I’ve 
learned 
working with legislators is 
that a lot of the times in iffy 
cases, say, violent crime with 
possession, people who can 
will plead down to, say, felony 
possession,” 
TerBush 
said. 
“My only concern with an 
automatic expungement would 
be those people who might, 
for lack of a better phrase, slip 
through the cracks. Not that 
right now there’s a current 
system to really accommodate 
for that disparity, but my 
only concern would be actual 
dangerous people getting a 
clean slate completely.”
Rabhi said he was excited 
to see bipartisan support and 
collaboration for the package.
“We’re in a very unique 
time right now in the state of 
Michigan where Democrats 
have 
been 
pushing 
for 
criminal justice reforms for 
many years, but we finally 
have a Republican caucus 
where there is an appetite 
for looking at these types of 
reforms,” Rabhi said. “I’m 
really excited to be working in 
a bipartisan way with some of 
my Republican colleagues to 
push some of these initiatives 
forward.”

OTHE R IS L ANDS : M APPING A COMPLE X SOCIET Y

2 — Tuesday, September 17, 2019
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News

KELSEY PEASE/Daily
LSA sophomore Emma Pinchak takes in the new art exhibit, “Other Crusoes, Other Islands: Mapping a Complex Legacy,” which recently opened in 
Hatcher Graduate Library Monday morning.

TUESDAY:
By Design 

THURSDAY:
Twitter Talk
FRIDAY:
Behind the Story
WEDNESDAY:
This Week in History 

MONDAY:
Looking at the Numbers

ATTICUS RAASCH
Daily Staff Reporter

State legislators share bi-partisan reform package with six separate bills aimed at changing 
Michigan’s system regarding sealing a past criminal offence to make them unavailable 

Lawmakers introduce expungement plan 

Sudoku Syndication
http://sudokusyndication.com/sudoku/generator/print/

1 of 1
10/27/08 1:10 PM

4
8

9

6

9

5

2

5

7

1
3

5

4

1

8

9

7

8
5

4

2

7

9

4

6

8

7
5

© sudokusolver.com. For personal use only.

Generate and solve Sudoku, Super Sudoku and Godoku puzzles at sudokusyndication.com!

HAVE HOPE
puzzle by sudokusyndication.com

Stanford Lipsey Student Publications Building
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1327
www.michigandaily.com

ARTS SECTION
arts@michigandaily.com

SPORTS SECTION
sports@michigandaily.com

ADVERTISING
dailydisplay@gmail.com

NEWS TIPS
news@michigandaily.com

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
tothedaily@michigandaily.com

EDITORIAL PAGE
opinion@michigandaily.com

TOMMY DYE
Business Manager
734-418-4115 ext. 1241
tomedye@michigandaily.com

MAYA GOLDMAN
Editor in Chief
734-418-4115 ext. 1251
mayagold@michigandaily.com

PHOTOGRAPHY SECTION
photo@michigandaily.com

NEWSROOM
734-418-4115 opt. 3 

CORRECTIONS
corrections@michigandaily.com

The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is published Monday through Friday during 
the fall and winter terms by students at the University OF Michigan. One copy is 
available free of charge to all readers. Additional copies may be picked up at the 
Daily’s office for $2. Subscriptions for September-April are $250 and year long 
subscriptions are $275. University affiliates are subject to a reduced subscription 
rate. On-campus subscriptions for fall term are $35. Subscriptions must be prepaid. 

FINNTAN STORER
Managing Editor 
 frstorer@michigandaily.com

GRACE KAY and ELIZABETH LAWRENCE 
Managing News Editors news@michigandaily.com

Senior News Editors: Sayali Amin, Rachel Cunningham, Remy Farkas, Leah 
Graham, Amara Shaikh 
Assistant News Editors: Barbara Collins, Julia Fanzeres, Claire Hao, Alex 
Harring, Angelina Little, Madeline McLaughlin, Ben Rosenfeld, Emma Stein, 
Zayna Syed, Liat Weinstein

JOEL DANILEWITZ and MAGDALENA MIHAYLOVA
Editorial Page Editors tothedaily@michigandaily.com

Senior Opinion Editors: Emily Considine, Krystal Hur, Ethan Kessler, Miles 
Stephenson, Erin White

MAX MARCOVITCH and ETHAN SEARS 
Managing Sports Editors sportseditors@michigandaily.com

ARYA NAIDU and VERITY STURM
Managing Arts Editors 
 arts@michigandaily.com

Senior Arts Editors: Clara Scott, Emma Chang, Cassandra Mansuetti, Sam 
Della Fera, Trina Pal
Arts Beat Editors: John Decker, Sayan Ghosh, Mike Watkins, Ally Owens, 
Stephen Satarino, Izzy Hasslund, Margaret Sheridan 

ALEXIS RANKIN and ALEC COHEN
Managing Photo Editors photo@michigandaily.com

ROSEANNE CHAO and JACK SILBERMAN
Managing Design Editors 
design@michigandaily.com
Senior Design Editor: Sherry Chen 

ANDREA PÉREZ BALDERRAMA
Statement Editor statement@michigandaily.com 

Deputy Editors: Matthew Harmon, Shannon Ors

SILAS LEE and EMILY STILLMAN
Managing Copy Editors copydesk@michigandaily.com

Senior Copy Editors: Sadia Jiban, Olivia Sedlacek, Reece Meyhoefer 

CASEY TIN and HASSAAN ALI WATTOO
Managing Online Editors 
 webteam@michigandaily.com

Senior Web Developers: Jonathon Liu, Abha Panda, Ryan Siu, David Talbot, 
Samantha Cohen

ELI SIDER
Managing Video Editor video@michigandaily.com

NA’KIA CHANNEY and CARLY RYAN
Michigan in Color Editors michiganincolor@michigandaily.com

Senior Michigan in Color Editors: Lorna Brown, Samuel So, Ana Maria 
Sanchez-Castillo, Efe Osagie, Danyel Tharakan
Assistant Michigan in Color Editors: Harnoor Singh, Nada Eldawy, Maya 
Mokh 

MADALASA CHAUDHARI and HANNAH MESKIN 
Managing Social Media Editors

Editorial Staff

Business Staff

RYAN KELLY
Sales Manager

ROBERT WAGMAN
Marketing Consulting Manager

ZELJKO KOSPIC
Special Projects Manager

ANITA MICHAUD
Brand Manager

Senior Photo Editors: Alexandria Pompei, Natalie Stephens, Alice Liu, Allison 
Engkvist, Danyel Tharakan
Assistant Photo Editors: Miles Macklin, Keemya Esmael, Madeline Hinkley, 
Ryan McLoughlin

Senior Sports Editors: Anna Marcus, Aria Gerson, Ben Katz, Mark Calcagno, 
Theo Mackie, Tien Le
Assistant Sports Editors: Bailey Johnson, Bennett Bramson, Connor Brennan, 
Jacob Kopnick, Jorge Cazares, Rian Ratnavale 

MOLLY WU
Creative Director

CATHERINE NOUHAN
Managing Podcast Editor

DESIGN BY KATHRYN HALVERSON

