NYAPRS Note: We continue to amplify our advocacy efforts for the passage of the Clean Slate Act as this year’s session nears its end and legislators continue to negotiate the terms of the bill. Yesterday, a wide range of supporters, including NYAPRS staff and members, held a press conference at the Capitol and met with representatives to increase support and push the legislature to bring the bill up for a vote. We must keep up the pressure to get this bill passed this year! You can join our efforts by sending emails, tweeting, and calling your legislators to request their support for this critical bill through this link. NYAPRS will continue to support the Clean Slate Coalition’s efforts in Albany and will inform you of other ways to get involved, including any demonstrations, as we approach the end of session. See below for more details on the fight to pass this legislation and coverage of yesterday’s event.
Karen DeWitt/New York State Public Radio
Push for Clean Slate Intensifies during Negotiations
By Kate Lisa | Spectrum News 1 | May 31, 2023
Advocates pushing for years to seal New Yorkers’ criminal records after they complete their prison sentences could get their wish.
Legislative leaders met with Gov. Kathy Hochul this week and agreed to focus on getting the Clean Slate Act over the finish line before session ends next week.
As it stands, the bill would automatically seal the criminal records of about 2.3 million New Yorkers three years after sentencing for misdemeanors and after seven years for felonies. It does not apply to sex crimes.
“Now we’re at a point where I can’t find any excuse not to get this done this year,” Assembly sponsor Catalina Cruz said Wednesday. “I feel like the sun is shining and we’re going to be able to help so many families save their lives.”
Of several criminal justice measures floated this session, legislative leaders and Hochul on Wednesday made it clear they have their sights set on finishing one of them — the Clean Slate Act. It’s one of the only significant pieces of legislation leaders agree must be finished before session ends June 8.
Hochul, who has supported sealing criminal records and mentioned it as a top priority in her State of the State address in January, said Wednesday she expects the legislation will be passed before lawmakers leave Albany for the year. She included a version of the Clean Slate Act in her 2022 executive budget.
“We’re just down to the technical changes that we’re having conversations about, so, we don’t have the final version yet, but it is something conceptually I do support,” the governor said to reporters. “I think it addresses a serious shortage of workers that we have here in the state of
New York, which is why there’s such strong support from the business community for this.”
Legislative leaders and their top aides continue to negotiate the amount of time that should pass before records become sealed, if the clock starts after a person finishes their prison sentence versus when they complete probation and when the law would take effect.
“I feel very confident that we will be able to reach an agreement,” Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said. “We are still negotiating, but I do believe that we are pretty set on the times now. If you have repaid your debt to society you should not have something hanging over you for a lifetime. I think it’s something everybody agrees on.”
Labor unions and state business leaders have thrown support behind the measure intended to help formerly incarcerated people secure employment and housing.
But Republican lawmakers won’t back down without a fight, citing public safety concerns.
Assembly Leader Will Barclay is open to sealing some criminal records and provisions of Clean Slate, but says violent and more serious offenses, like murder, should be exempt. The current proposal is too lenient, he added.
“Does that not ever become relevant to an employer or your neighbor? I certainly would want to know if my neighbor had killed somebody in their past,” Barclay said. “Whether that was 10 years ago or 15 years ago, it seems kind of arbitrary to guess that date.”
Republicans are expected to engage bill sponsors in a lengthy debate in both chambers if the measure is brought to the floor for a vote next week.
“We have a crime crisis here in NYS,” Barclay said. “To me, it seems like a very relevant issue when it comes to particularly felons, that is problematic.”
Legislative leaders continue to keep the details of their discussions private as they weigh increasing the waiting period before records are no longer public. The wait time to seal records would also increase several months or years, if it does not begin until a person completes probation, depending on the case.
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie refused to answer questions Wednesday about how leaders are looking to alter the number of years before records are sealed, but he is optimistic about reaching an agreement and passing the bill.
Lawmakers amended Clean Slate earlier this year to allow law enforcement, judges and the state Education Department to have access to a person’s sealed criminal records.
Sponsor Sen. Zellnor Myrie says this is the closest the Legislature has been on reaching a deal on Clean Slate.
“My goal from the outset until we pass this is to get this bill into law,” Myrie said. “That’s my primary concern. However we get there is immaterial to me. We need to pass this and this needs to be signed for the millions of New Yorkers who need it.”
Push for Clean Slate intensifies during negotiations (spectrumlocalnews.com)
Gov. Hochul, NY Lawmakers Near Deal on Sealing Convictions, but Details Remain Elusive
By Jon Campbell | Gothamist | June 1, 2023
Gov. Kathy Hochul and state legislative leaders all agree: They’re nearing a deal on a landmark bill that would automatically seal criminal convictions in an effort to help people find work after they’ve paid their debt to society.
Just don’t ask them what the sticking points are.
The so-called Clean Slate Act is the most significant piece of legislation Hochul is negotiating with Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie ahead of the final scheduled date for the 2023 legislative session in Albany on June 8.
The measure — which is supported by a broad swath of criminal-justice reform advocates, labor unions and business organizations — would seal most misdemeanor and felony records after a person has completed their incarceration and following a multiyear waiting period, making them unavailable to prospective employers and the general public, in most cases.
Speaking separately to reporters on Wednesday, Hochul, Heastie and Stewart-Cousins all said they’re optimistic that they can strike a deal and get it approved before the legislative session winds down. But none were willing to get into detail about their remaining disagreements, or provide specifics about the timelines for implementing the record sealing process.
“We’re just down to the technical changes that we’re having conversations about,” Hochul told reporters after an unrelated event in New York City.
Criminal-justice reformers have made the Clean Slate Act a priority at the Capitol for three years, arguing it’s a measure that will help reintegrate formerly incarcerated people back into society by removing barriers for them to find employment.
Republicans, such as Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt, label the measure “pro-criminal” and are likely to vigorously debate the measure should it come to the floor for a vote.
Under a version of the bill sponsored by state Sen. Zellnor Myrie of Brooklyn and Assemblymember Catalina Cruz of Queens, a misdemeanor conviction would be sealed three years after a person completes their prison sentence. For felonies, it would be seven years following their time served.
The measure would not apply to people with sex convictions, which would not be sealed. And the record sealing would be contingent on a person not facing additional charges once they’ve been released from prison.
The bill also includes a number of exceptions where certain institutions can still access a person’s sealed criminal records, such as when a person is applying for a firearm, or trying to work for law enforcement, or if the DMV has to check on a person’s traffic convictions.
It’s not the first time the measure has come close to passing.
Last year, the Senate approved the measure but the Assembly didn’t, despite some late-session maneuvering that suggested a vote was imminent.
Hochul, a Democrat, included a different version of the Clean Slate Act — one that wouldn’t have started the automatic-sealing timeline until a person’s maximum possible sentence was finished — in her budget proposal last year, though it fell out of the final spending plan.
Stewart-Cousins, a Yonkers Democrat, told reporters on Wednesday that the issue of the timeline for implementation has been pretty much settled, though she declined to get specific.
“I don’t want to put something out because we are still negotiating,” she said. “But I do believe that we are pretty set on the times.”
A few dozen supporters of the measure gathered at the Capitol on Wednesday, where they rallied on the ornate Million Dollar Staircase and called on the Legislature to bring the bill to a vote.
Among the organizations who sent representatives to speak were the Partnership for New York City, the influential business group, and a number of labor unions.
Cruz, who has sponsored the bill since its introduction in 2021, said it’s just a matter of time before the measure comes to the Assembly floor for a vote.
Speaking at the rally, Cruz told supporters she “can’t find any excuse not to get this done this year.”
“We’ve created the kind of bill that will provide work, that will provide housing, that will provide opportunities for the people who’ve paid their dues to society and have demonstrated over and over and over again their willingness, their need to be part of our community, but there’s a dark shadow over their head that doesn’t let them,” she said.
Stewart-Cousins said she expects the legislative session to end as scheduled next week, though she acknowledged it could bleed into Friday, June 9.
Gov. Hochul, NY lawmakers near deal on sealing convictions, but details remain elusive – Gothamist