Penn Live: Pennsylvania on its way to becoming first state to give criminal offenders a 'clean slate'

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The legislation, sponsored by Reps. Sheryl Delozier, R-Cumberland County, and Jordan Harris, D-Philadelphia, were among those who participated in a news conference earlier this week organized by the U.S. Justice Action Network. That organization commissioned a poll in 2017 that found 81 percent of Pennsylvanians generally support the bipartisan-backed "Clean Slate" proposal.

Delozier said this bill allows people who "made a mistake when they are young" and have gone on to live a life free of arrest for 10 years to get a second chance. She called it a good bill for individuals with records trying to find jobs as well as employers who are provided some protections for damages suffered as a result of criminal or unlawful conduct related to an employee's sealed criminal history information. It also will help individuals who now live on the right side of the law to be able to get apartments, which they sometimes now are precluded from doing, she said.

Harris has called it the next step to a law put on the books in 2016 that allowed a person to petition the court to have their record sealed for certain non-violent misdemeanors. This legislation would eliminate that step to having a criminal record sealed.

https://www.pennlive.com/politics/2018/06/pennsylvania_on_its_way_to_bec.html