Bills to expand criminal record expungement pass Michigan House

The Michigan House of Representatives on Tuesday approved legislation that would expand who's eligible for criminal record expungement and create a system to automate the process for certain offenses. 

The seven bills passed with wide bipartisan support, ranging from 97-10 to 102-6. All the no votes on the bills came from Republican lawmakers. 

Next, the legislation will go to the Senate.  

State Rep. Eric Leutheuser, R-Hillsdale, was the primary sponsor of the main bill in the package, which would make Michigan the fourth state to adopt a law creating an automated system to wipe clean certain convictions. The "Clean Slate" legislation would follow the lead of Pennsylvania, Utah, and most recently, California.

“I sincerely hope this package will become a national model. … To make our process for re-entering society match our common goals of rehabilitation and redemption,” he said. “We need to remove barriers and see these folks as employees and taxpayers.”

More:Michigan bills would make more ex-offenders eligible to have criminal records expunged

More:How to get your criminal record sealed in Michigan

Advocates for reform say the current process to seal a criminal conviction is too costly, cumbersome and unduly narrow. The law allows for people to apply to have one felony or two misdemeanors set aside five years after their monitoring by the justice system ends. 

Only 6.5% of people who qualify for expungement in Michigan have their records cleared within five years of becoming eligible, according to a 2019 study out of the University of Michigan Law School. 

Lawmakers said they expect the legislation to open doors to employment and housing for hundreds of thousands of Michigan residents with criminal records. 

But state Rep. Beau LaFave, R-Iron Mountain, said he couldn’t support the bills because they didn’t open expungement to people convicted of drunken driving or first time, unintentional firearms convictions.

“What about the 22-year-old who had three beers at a bar and we don’t give them a second chance?” he said, noting that drunken driving is the No. 1 impediment to employment for people in his Upper Peninsula district. “For all the talk of second chances, why did we leave them out?"

A coalition of advocacy groups that pushed for expungement reform said they are pleased to see the bills pass the House, but they urged the Senate to make changes, such as undoing limits on the number of convictions that can be automatically set aside. 

"This unprecedented expansion should ... be applauded. Yet, at the same time, we remain troubled by the arbitrary limits and deep carve outs that are in direct conflict with the bill package’s stated intent to ensure fair chances," the Detroit Justice Center, JustLeadershipUSA, NationOutside, and Michigan Faith in Action said in a statement. 

The bills would make the following changes:

• Automatic expungement of certain felonies after 10 years and misdemeanors after seven years, with a cap of two felonies and four misdemeanors. Assaultive crimes would not be eligible. 
• Allow for expungement of marijuana offenses if the offense would not have been a crime if committed after the use of recreational marijuana by adults became legal in the state. 
• Treat multiple felonies or misdemeanors arising from the same 24-hour period as one conviction for the purposes of expungement. None of the offenses could be assaultive, involve the use or possession of a weapon, or carry a maximum penalty of 10 or more years in prison.
• Allow for the expungement of most traffic offenses, except for the following: convictions for operating while intoxicated, an offense committed by someone with a commercial drivers license while operating a commercial motor vehicle, and any offense causing injury or death. 
• Expand the number of convictions eligible for expungement to allow for up to three felonies and an unlimited number of misdemeanors, with these conditions: no more than two assaultive crimes, and not more than one felony conviction for the same offense if the offense is punishable by more than 10 years imprisonment.
• Revise the waiting period after which someone can apply for expungement, to between three and seven years, depending on the type and number of convictions. The law currently requires a five-year waiting period.

Angie Jackson covers the challenges of formerly incarcerated citizens as a corps member with Report for America, an initiative of The GroundTruth Project. Click here to support her work. Contact Angie: ajackson@freepress.com; 313-222-1850. Follow her on Twitter: @AngieJackson23