Tuesday, October 17, 2006
"EXPUNGED CRIMINAL RECORDS LIVE TO TELL TALES"
In today's New York Times is an article that discusses both the practical difficulties of expunging criminal records in the electronic age and the often devasting consequences of failed attempts at expungement.
As Adam Lipchak reports. "In 41 states, people accused or convicted of crimes have the legal right to rewrite history. They can have their criminal records expunged, and in theory that means that all traces of their encounters with the justice system will disappear. But enormous commercial databases are fast undoing the societal bargain of expungement, one that used to give people who had committed minor crimes a clean slate and a fresh start....But real expungement is becoming significantly harder to accomplish in the electronic age. Records once held only in paper form by law enforcement agencies, courts and corrections departments are now routinely digitized and sold in bulk to the private sector. Some commercial databases now contain more than 100 million criminal records. They are updated only fitfully, and expunged records now often turn up in criminal background checks ordered by employers and landlords."
As a result of failed expungements, people have been known to lose jobs, to be refused loans, and to be denied rental opportunities. This strikes us as another argument for the need to reform the law of Civil Contempt so that innocent people are not unfairly saddled with an arrest and conviction record.
In today's New York Times is an article that discusses both the practical difficulties of expunging criminal records in the electronic age and the often devasting consequences of failed attempts at expungement.
As Adam Lipchak reports. "In 41 states, people accused or convicted of crimes have the legal right to rewrite history. They can have their criminal records expunged, and in theory that means that all traces of their encounters with the justice system will disappear. But enormous commercial databases are fast undoing the societal bargain of expungement, one that used to give people who had committed minor crimes a clean slate and a fresh start....But real expungement is becoming significantly harder to accomplish in the electronic age. Records once held only in paper form by law enforcement agencies, courts and corrections departments are now routinely digitized and sold in bulk to the private sector. Some commercial databases now contain more than 100 million criminal records. They are updated only fitfully, and expunged records now often turn up in criminal background checks ordered by employers and landlords."
As a result of failed expungements, people have been known to lose jobs, to be refused loans, and to be denied rental opportunities. This strikes us as another argument for the need to reform the law of Civil Contempt so that innocent people are not unfairly saddled with an arrest and conviction record.
Labels: Civil Contempt, Expungment
