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
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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
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