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| Raising age of crime forgiveness |
| By dailycardinal.com |
| Published: 04/29/2009 |
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Last week, the Legislative Finance Committee passed a provision that would enable courts to clear the criminal records of offenders ages 25 and younger. Aside from increasing the age from 21 to 25, expungement would also extend beyond just first-offense misdemeanors to include nonviolent class H and class I felonies. We do not wholly disagree with the intention of the provision. Employment is a key factor in determining whether an ex-offender will relapse and end up back in prison, and despite the illegality of employers discriminating based on criminal records, the fact that it’s an open record makes it a difficult violation to enforce. As a result, many ex-convicts cannot secure legitimate employment, which leads them to commit more crimes and end up back in prison again. It’s a troubling problem, given the Department of Corrections budget has exploded to $1.2 billion from $700 million in 1999, largely due to an increase in prison population, according to the Council of State Governments Justice Center. However, we cannot support sneaking this into the budget, thereby bypassing valuable debate and public discourse. This is not simply a spending decision, since the public’s right to information and the criminal justice system are also affected. Legislators should immediately remove this from the budget and rightfully discuss it in full legislature at the appropriate time. Read more. If link has expired, check the website of the article's original news source. |
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