NYAPRS Note: The NYS Legislature has reportedly reached a deal for the Clean Slate Act! While we are not at the finish line just yet, things look promising. The legislature negotiated some minor changes to the bill, including extending the waiting time for felony convictions from 7 years to 8, and reintroduced it Monday night. Now is the time to keep up the pressure as we enter the final days of session. Continue to call, email, and tweet your lawmakers to ask for their support by using this link. We will continue to monitor the bill’s progress. See below for more information about the changes made to the bill.
Source: New York Lawmakers Reach Pending Deal to Seal Many Criminal Records, but Hochul Hedges
By Nick Reisman | State of Politics | June 6, 2023
New York state lawmakers have reached a deal to seal many criminal records, a long-sought measure for criminal justice advocates for a proposal known as the Clean Slate Act, a state Senate source familiar with the discussions said on Tuesday morning.
But later in the day, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office in a statement stopped short of announcing she was on board with the legislation.
“Governor Hochul has been working with the Legislature to strengthen the Clean Slate Act, we are reviewing their most recent draft bill,” her office said.
State Sen. Zellnor Myrie in an interview said he was “cautiously optimistic” an agreement had been reached with the new version of the measure.
Lawmakers introduced a revised version of the proposal on Monday night after weeks of negotiations between members of the Legislature and Hochul. State lawmakers are now in their final week of the legislative session and the new bill could be voted on prior to gaveling out for the year.
The bill would seal felony criminal records for misdemeanor convictions three years after sentencing or release from incarceration and 8 years for felonies post incarceration.
The pending agreement does not cover sex crime convictions or class A felonies like murder.
Sensitive employers would still have access to records as would law enforcement agencies, district attorneys and judges.
A state Senate source familiar with the discussions said the new bill represented a legislative agreement on the measure.
The new bill comes as criminal justice policy has been under scrutiny in Albany. Lawmakers and Hochul last month in the state budget agreed to narrow the scope of New York’s law that limits cash bail for many criminal charges amid a debate over public safety.
Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie after the $229 billion budget was approved signaled the bill to seal criminal records would be considered by his chamber, where it had yet to pass in prior legislative sessions.
Lawmakers and Hochul had been hopeful they would be able to reach an agreement. Hochul had included a previous version of the measure in her budget last year. That largely meant all but the specifics woud have to be worked out before lawmakers left Albany for the remainder of the year.
Supporters have contended the measure is necessary to aid people who have not been convicted of crime after their sentencing and punishment was complete to find employment or housing. Opponents have raised safety concerns.
“If you have repaid your debt to society you should not have something hanging over you for a lifetime,” Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said last month. “I think it’s something everybody agrees on.”
But law enforcement organizations and Republicans have not been in favor of previous iterations of the measure. In May, the organization that represents district attorneys in New York state opposed the initial version of the measure and urged lawmakers to reject it.
The group pointed to the logistical challenges of automatically sealing records.
“Automatically sealing massive volumes of criminal records across many different technology systems requires a considerable investment of money for technology, staff and training,” the group wrote. “Automated systems and the processes of automatically deleting or setting aside information inherently has risks that should be considered before such legislation is enacted. Inevitably mistakes will be made and records that should be sealed will not and records that should not be sealed will be sealed. Some human oversight is necessary.”
New York lawmakers reach deal to seal criminal records (nystateofpolitics.com)
With New Bill, Clean Slate Looks Closer than Ever to Becoming Law
By Rebecca C. Lewis | City & State | June 6, 2023
State leaders say they’ve reached a three-way deal on sealing people’s criminal records after a multi-year period.
State leaders said they would come to an agreement to approve the Clean Slate Act before the end of the scheduled session this year, and they appear poised to keep that promise.
Lawmakers introduced a new bill that represents a three-way deal between legislative leaders and Gov. Kathy Hochul late Monday night to seal the records of most people convicted of a crime after a certain number of years have passed. Met with broad support among not only criminal justice advocates, but unions, big employers and business groups, the legislation is meant to make it easier for someone with a criminal record who has stayed out of trouble since their conviction to get jobs and housing.
The new version of the proposal has two substantive changes compared to past versions, but otherwise remains largely similar. Under the new language, someone convicted of a felony would need to wait eight years after their release from incarceration before their record automatically seals. Before, it was seven years. The latest version also excludes sex crimes and most Class A felonies, whereas earlier versions only excluded sex crimes. Class A felonies related to possession or sale of a controlled substance would still get sealed. Misdemeanors would get sealed three years after release, which remained unchanged compared to the previous version.
A sticking point during last year’s budget negotiations, when the governor and both houses included Clean Slate in their spending plan pitches, had been what constituted the end of time served for a conviction. Lawmakers proposed that it ended once a person gets released, and the waiting period for sealing would begin immediately upon release, regardless of parole. That remains true in the new version. But the governor had proposed that the full length of the original sentence plus the entire parole period needed to pass before the clock actually started ticking down to get the conviction sealed. That meant that if a judge sentenced a person to 10 years in prison plus five years probation, that person would need to wait 15 years after their conviction before the clock would start counting down for sealing even if they got out of prison early.
Up until now, the specifics on disagreements that leaders needed to work out remained murky. State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins had described them as “technical” issues, but wouldn’t elaborate. Hochul offered similar language in recent weeks when asked about the legislation, declining to provide details on what she wanted in the bill compared to what lawmakers had already introduced.
Assembly Member Catalina Cruz, the sponsor of the bill, told City & State that the new version represents a three-way deal between legislative leaders and the governor, rather than a two-way deal among just the two chambers of the Legislature. But she didn’t offer any more information, saying she would not do any press until after it passed. A spokesperson for state Sen. Zellnor Myrie, the sponsor in the upper chamber, did not return a request for comment, but a Senate source confirmed that the new bill is the final result of three-way talks. A spokesperson for Hochul said she “has been working with the Legislature to strengthen the Clean Slate Act, and we are reviewing their most recent bill draft.”
Criminal justice advocates denounced the changes made in the most recent update as the result of “pressure from the governor” that would bar “thousands” from accessing the benefits of the legislation. But they still supported the new bill. “While we commit ourselves to the on-going struggle to end perpetual punishment for all people, millions of New Yorkers will benefit from the Clean Slate Act, and we call for its immediate passage,” the Clean Slate Coalition said in a statement.
The legislation has faced opposition from the District Attorneys Association of the State of New York, which pointed to the logistical challenges of automatically sealing criminal records and asserted the existing law for sealing records – which requires proactive action from those with convictions – suffices. But Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg recently backed the legislation, making the case for the bill in a Daily News op-ed Tuesday morning.
Despite the amount of support the Clean Slate Act has received, it has failed to cross the finish line the past several years even as advocates and lawmakers made strong pushes for the legislation. The state Senate approved it for the first time last June, but it failed in the Assembly. At the beginning of the year, lawmakers introduced an amended bill that addressed some lingering concerns among members that gave law enforcement and the state Department of Education access to sealed records.