The Path Forward After Juvenile Sealing

[jeremylang]

Goal

Decide where is best to place Clean Slate's resources going forward. Currently the decision is between continuing on with the expungement app or pivoting to sealing adult records.

Background

After talking with Pauline (5/18/20) we learned that expunging records is more difficult in practice than anticipated:

• can be more complicated because it requires in person court filing which is difficult right now due to the pandemic
• courts are not always the best at responding to mail or sending out things through the mail
• there are judges in the system who don't like the idea of expunging both from a moral standpoint and that it takes more work than sealing (such as physically destroying records)

From there Pauline mentioned that sealing adult marjiuana records could be a valuable thing to work on. She also indicated that this could be accomplished the same time as the juvenile sealing (didn't capture if that was always the case or not)

[jeremylang]

Michelle and Sana touched based on the topic:

• Sana was also discouraged to hear the challenges (need to print, go into court, etc)
• Courts don’t really do it if you send it by mail - how is that going to work if everything is by mail now?
• CFFJ serves people who are under 18, but also people into the mid/late 20s. Would be well served sealing adult records
• Sana seemed more favorable to adult sealing than expungement at this time

While discussing the team made good arguments to stay on course with expungement:

• We already have good progress
• There might be an opportunity right now given the pandemic to push the system to be more open to remote methods (such as mailing)

No one on the team felt certain about the path to go. Wanted to discuss further.

[jeremylang]

• Seemed like adding adult sealing form would be a small effort

• Looking at the form, we realize that we'll need to talk with Pauline to better understand the requirements

• Getting certified docket sheets during the quarantine will be very difficult and is a decent reason to prioritize sealing over expungement (not to say stopping expungement)

• Seems like updating the workflow diagram will follow gaining an understanding from Pauline

• [ ] Schedule meeting with Pauline to discuss adult sealing

• [ ] Follow up with Sana to better understand expungement hurdles

[jeremylang]

After first contact with Pauline about adult sealing, we realized that there was more we could be doing to finalize the sealing app and move it production before moving on to adult sealing.

[jeremylang]

I've reached out to GBLS to get their thoughts on what's next for the app team

[jeremylang]

Adult sealing seems to be the direction we are headed. Pausing this effort for the moment while we work through promoting the sealing app.

[jeremylang]

Two decisions:

1. We will not start this effort until after the election
2. Neha will join future conversations about adult sealing workflows