On March 5, state legislators and community advocates gathered at the Rhode Island State House to celebrate the introduction of the Rhode Island Clean Slate Act, which would automate the expungement of eligible criminal records. The bills — filed in both the House and Senate in February — would help 77,000 Rhode Islanders seal their arrest or conviction records.
Under current R.I. law, a person with an expungement-eligible conviction record must file a motion with the court to have the record expunged. The court then holds a hearing on the motion to certify that the record is eligible. If the motion is approved, all records related to the conviction are removed from public access.
The R.I. Clean Slate Act would automate this process by adding a section to Rhode Island’s expungement statute that bypasses the requirement to file a petition and instead instructs the court to identify and expunge eligible records on its own.
The bill launch featured speakers from several nonprofit and advocacy organizations, as well as several state representatives and senators.
Many Rhode Islanders have “lingering” criminal records “simply because they lack the means or the knowledge to clear these charges,” State Sen. Andrew Dimitri (D-Johnston), the bill’s lead sponsor in the Senate, said at the launch.
If the bills are passed, Rhode Island would join 13 states that have passed similar initiatives, according to The Clean Slate Initiative, a bipartisan group that advocates for expungement-related legislation across the nation.
At the launch, CSI CEO Sheena Meade cited research from Michigan, which showed that while an expungement of records led to a 22% increase in wages on average within one year, only 6.5% of eligible individuals “successfully navigated the petition process within five years.”
“The relief works, but the system doesn’t,” Meade said.
According to the non-profit Code for America, a tech group that partners with governments around the country, fewer than 10% of eligible individuals in the U.S. are successful in sealing their records through petition-based systems.
But the bill would not expand eligibility for expungement, said State Rep. Julie Casimiro (D-North Kingstown, Exeter), the bill’s lead sponsor in the House.
“We’re not trying to circumvent any rules that are already in place,” Casimiro explained in an interview with The Herald. There are “a lot of barriers to expungement. This is just going to make it easier.”
Current R.I. law dictates that only non-violent offenses are eligible for expungement. First-time felonies may be expunged, as may an individual’s first five misdemeanors, with certain exceptions. Motions for expungement must be filed at least five years after the completion of an individual’s sentence for a misdemeanor or 10 years after the completion of a felony sentence.
Once a record is expunged, an individual may state that they have never been convicted of that crime if asked, with exceptions for teaching certificates and applications to law enforcement agencies, among others.
At the launch, Dina Bruce, the deputy director of OpenDoors — a social services program focused on supporting individuals who have been in prison — argued for the importance of expungement.
“Previous mistakes should not define someone for the rest of their life,” Bruce said, especially “not after they’ve turned their lives around.”
Melonie Perez, a staff organizer at the non-profit organization Direct Action For Rights and Equality and an individual with a criminal record, said at the bill launch that she had realized her record was preventing her from attaining a job in the medical field. Now that her record has been expunged, she is enrolled in school.
Casimiro noted that expungement can have secondary benefits. When individuals can access employment, housing and education, they are “significantly less likely to reoffend, strengthening safety for all of us,” she said at the bill launch.
But the bill’s bypassing of judicial hearings has led some to raise concerns. The current law calls for a judge to confirm that the eligibility criteria have been met and tasks the judge with assessing the petitioner’s character, whether their rehabilitation has been “attained to the court’s satisfaction” and that expungement is “consistent with the public interest.”
House Minority Leader Michael Chippendale (R-Coventry, Foster, Glocester) noted his concern over the “loss of judicial discretion that exists in the current process” in a statement sent to The Herald.
He wrote that holding a hearing “allows the court to look beyond the statute number and understand the broader context of a person’s conduct.” He expressed particular concern about nonviolent cases in which there was “serious fraud” or “abuse-of-trust.” An automated process “cannot weigh those nuances,” he wrote.
Casimiro said that she is not concerned about judicial discretion in the expungement process. “If you’re eligible for expungement, you’ll get it,” she said. “If you’re not eligible, you won’t get it.”
Others raised concerns about the court’s administrative capacity to manage the automated process. In a statement sent to The Herald, Senate Minority Leader Jessica de la Cruz (R-North Smithfield, Burrillville, Glocester) wrote that she intends “to listen carefully to all the testimony” surrounding the bill, but is concerned that it may “create an unfunded mandate on the court side.”
The bill instructs the R.I. Administrative Office of State Courts to conduct monthly reviews of new and old dispositions to identify newly eligible records. Then, the bill directs the AOSC to transmit the list of eligible records to various court clerks, who facilitate the expungement orders and send confirmation to the AOSC. The Department of the Attorney General will then “remove from public inspection” all records corresponding to the expunged court records.
A spokesperson for R.I. Attorney General Peter Neronha P’19 P’22 wrote in an email to The Herald that the office has not yet reviewed the legislation.
Alexandra Kriss, the director of community outreach and public relations at the R.I. Supreme Court, wrote in an email to The Herald that the judiciary is aware of the bill and “is currently reviewing all judiciary-related legislation.”
The bill faces a long path before it may become law.
Brandon Robinson, the director of justice strategy at OpenDoors, said in an interview with The Herald that around 15 individuals — some of whom were at the launch — will present the bill before the House and Senate judiciary committees.
Casimiro added that the group will have to do “a lot of education” with the Judiciary Committee. “People just have to understand we’re not circumventing any requirements around expungement, just taking the barriers away,” she told The Herald.
Later, the bill’s supporters will have a “lobby day,” where “everybody would go to the floor and talk to the legislators” about the bill, Robinson said.
State Senate Majority Leader Frank Ciccone III (D-Providence, Johnston) wrote in a statement to The Herald that he is grateful for the “important reform” the bill addresses. While he anticipates that the legislation will undergo “an extensive and public review process,” he supports “the intent of the bill.”
State House Speaker Joseph Shekarchi (D-Warwick) wrote in a statement to The Herald that he is “keeping an open mind on the legislation and will evaluate the merits of it” during the process.
Lev Kotler-Berkowitz is a senior staff writer covering city and state politics. He is from the Boston area and is a junior concentrating in Political Science and Economics. In his free time, Lev can be found playing baseball or running around with his dog.
