When we first meet people at our community expungement clinics it is typically years after their last contact with the criminal justice system and yet they are still dealing with the consequences. They are mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, grandparents, coaches, students, caretakers and mentors. They have degrees, certificates, professional licenses, letters of support and hours of volunteer experience. However, those holding the keys to opportunity, such as employers, landlords and banks, never discover this because their personal history—who they are and what they have to offer—is replaced by a criminal history record.

Criminal history records carry a tremendous amount of stigma. In Pennsylvania, they are publicly available and include information pertaining to any charges that have been brought against a person in the commonwealth. This includes charges for which they were never convicted. Employers, landlords, institutions of higher education, community organizations, and even elected official’s offices use this information to assess risk. However, a criminal record by itself is a poor risk-assessment tool because it reveals nothing more than the official actions that our criminal justice system chose to take against an individual. They provide minimal insight about the event that precipitated those proceedings and no information about the person behind the record.

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