On the face it looks pretty balanced. If you don't recidivate within 4 years you get your record sealed with the following [quite necessary exceptions]: "People convicted of serious and violent felonies, as well as those requiring sex offender registration, won’t have their records cleared under the law. And criminal histories would still be disclosed in background checks when people apply to work in education, law enforcement or public office."
That said, there are likely some unintended consequences and hopefully those would get addressed over time.
Progress. Yesterday I read that from 1547 Britain used human branding (thumbs, chests, faces). Abolished in 1829 (except for deserters, til 1879).
A public criminal record may be more humane than a physical brand, but for someone who's "paid their debt to society", public records are still a brand. Good to see some demonstrated reformed behavior being rewarded, even if it took 2 centuries, and requires an extra 4 years of 'paying'.
In Britain we've had something similar to this California legislation for at least fifty years.
Roughly speaking there's a sliding scale from non-custodial sentence to 4+ years in custody which governs how long you have to disclose (or the government will disclose) your convictions, from a year after completing the sentence to forever.
We have a wider range of excepted jobs though: healthcare, children, vulnerable adults, law, legal professionals, justice, some financial professionals, gambling, firearms, taxi drivers,
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[ 2.0 ms ] story [ 44.7 ms ] threadThat said, there are likely some unintended consequences and hopefully those would get addressed over time.
"We noticed that your records were cleared and will not be moving forward with your application."
Usually that fact is sealed with your record
So this doesn't seem like it will actually do very much.
In order to be effective, this law would have to not only seal the records, but make it illegal for companies to disclose sealed criminal histories.
A public criminal record may be more humane than a physical brand, but for someone who's "paid their debt to society", public records are still a brand. Good to see some demonstrated reformed behavior being rewarded, even if it took 2 centuries, and requires an extra 4 years of 'paying'.
Roughly speaking there's a sliding scale from non-custodial sentence to 4+ years in custody which governs how long you have to disclose (or the government will disclose) your convictions, from a year after completing the sentence to forever.
We have a wider range of excepted jobs though: healthcare, children, vulnerable adults, law, legal professionals, justice, some financial professionals, gambling, firearms, taxi drivers,